JA Westenberg - Discourse

I’m tracking down the world’s best community builders. Here’s what I’ve learned so far...

I’ve spent this year talking to some of the people at the coalface of community in 2026: here's what’s working, what’s not, and where "community" is going...

community management

The Death of Community Memory

I recently spent forty minutes searching through Slack trying to find a technical decision — made eight months ago — about an app that 60% of my creative life depends on. I knew the conversation had happened. I remembered participating in it. I could picture the rough time frame and vaguely recall

On Building Communities in Public: Why I Chose Discourse Over Discord

When I first started thinking about building a community around my writing, I did what any reasonable person would do: I looked at what everyone else was doing. Discord servers everywhere. Slack workspaces for the more “Serious Minded.” The occasional subreddit. Everyone seemed to have figured out the formula, and