case study Elfsight: How a Wishlist Category Shaped 700 Feature Releases How Elfsight turned their Discourse community into a structured product feedback engine - and shipped over 700 features that started as a customer request.
discover Discover Roundup: Mac Software Communities This month's Discover Roundup highlights Discourse communities built around beloved indie Apple apps - NetNewsWire, Bear, and Infuse - where developers engage directly with users and peer support becomes searchable knowledge.
community management Before You "Build a Community," Decide: Library or Coffee Shop? We analysed traffic across thousands of Discourse communities and found something intriguing: the internet has been using the word “community” to describe two very different things.
community management 2025: Our Year in Review As 2025 winds down, we reflect on a year of product evolution and change. From launching AI-powered spam detection and the Horizon theme to returning to a profit-first operating model, read about how we’re building a sustainable community future.
discover Discourse Discover: Linux Communities Welcome to our December Discover Roundup, where we highlight communities doing creative and inspiring work with Discourse. This month's theme: Linux (and the tools that make it work!) Framework Framework makes laptops you can actually repair and upgrade yourself. Their laptops work beautifully with Linux, and they'
community management How to Communicate the Value of Your Community Every community manager eventually faces the same question from stakeholders: Do we really need a community? It’s a fair question, and one you should be ready to answer. Communities don’t survive on goodwill alone; they depend on continued support from the organizations that fund them. Also, knowing how
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
community management The Community Lifecycle: From Launch to Legacy Every time someone emails Discourse support asking to extend the free trial on one of our hosting plans because “14 days isn’t long enough for the community to take off”, a tiny part of me dies. A decade ago, community builders recognised that 6 months probably wasn’t long
community management Community Acquisition Channels: Beyond "Build It and They Will Come" Too many communities are launched with the “if you build it, they will come” mindset, only to find empty discussion boards and disengaged members. Successful community growth doesn’t happen by accident. You need a deliberate acquisition strategy that goes beyond vanity numbers and focuses on attracting the right people.
community management The Cost of Ephemeral Communication Modern communication is built for the scroll. Think: Slack and Discord chats, disappearing messages, DMs, and social feeds where the stream moves too quickly to be reliably referenced later. The goal is speed and informality. Over the last decade, many communities and companies have followed the trend, moving from long-form
community management Community Fragmentation: When Growth Becomes Your Obstacle Only the most privileged of community practitioners will make it to retirement without experiencing the stress of chasing growth targets at least once in their career. The majority of us have had a close relationship with engagement statistics at some point, and what a fickle friend they can be. During
community management Why Your Community Needs a Home, Not Just a Group Chat We all crave connection. And when we want to bring people together, the easiest option is to spin up a group chat. It feels natural — everyone’s already on their phones, and the barrier to entry is basically zero. But if you’ve ever tried turning a Slack, Discord, or
community management The Hawk Origin Story (A Community Builder’s Privacy Paradox) The Paradox Defined The privacy paradox is the delta that exists between our attitude towards protecting our personal privacy and reality of the way we behave online. Had I known about this incongruity when I first encountered the internet, I might have done things differently. My story started innocently enough
community management How to Optimize Community Content for AI Discovery AI has turned search into answers. People ask a question, get one synthesized response, and see a small handful of cited sources. If your community is one of those sources, you win trust, traffic, and pipeline. But how do you get there? How do you become a trusted destination for
community management Building Communities That Think Social media and instant messaging fundamentally changed how we talk to each other. The paragraph has ceded power to fast moving and ephemeral chat that inevitably leans toward the shallow and reactive. Easy and immediate access to information, has replaced depth with speed in both digital and offline conversations. We
community management Avoid 6 common pitfalls when measuring the ROI of your community Sometimes, knowing what not to do is a good way to get better at something. We’ve put together a list of the common missteps that community managers make when attempting to measure the ROI of their community. Avoiding the usual pitfalls of calculating the ROI of your community early
community management Strategies for keeping children safe in your online community We are at a point in the evolution of online behaviour where privacy and safety are finally getting the attention they deserve. Around the world, new laws and standards are changing how online spaces operate, especially when it comes to protecting children and other vulnerable users. Community managers and site
community management How to prepare your community for a Discourse migration A community rarely changes their platform lightly. The motivation is often to improve the experience, enhance functionality, and ensure the platform evolves alongside the community. Still, change is hard. When you announce to your online community that you’re moving to a new platform, you can almost feel the collective
success stories How to Launch an Enterprise Community in 30 Days with Discourse Building an enterprise community from scratch in just 30 days might sound impossible. It’s not. In fact, Jordan Violet, the Vice President of Community and Engagement at Netwrix, has done it. In this post, we’re walking through the steps Jordan took to launch a brand new community for
community management 20 Community Metrics Explained Understanding the language of community metrics gives you a leg up when communicating your community’s value to stakeholders. It also helps you identify what’s working, where to improve, and how to make data-driven decisions that strengthen your strategy. That starts with knowing the right metrics—what they measure,
community management A guide to selecting the right metrics for your community How do you know if your community is having a positive effect on the broader organization it represents? Where do you turn when you have to defend the existence of your community? Metrics. They tell the story of your community’s impact. If you are unsure where to begin, identifying
community management The importance of data ownership for community leaders A community’s data is more than just numbers and names; it reflects the community’s pulse—what members care about, discuss, and engage with. This data includes all of the knowledge generated through those discussions which should be a lasting resource, always accessible to your community. However, many platforms
community management Online Community Engagement: Understanding Lurkers In a time where connection and belonging have never been more essential, online communities have the potential to offer members the remarkable gift of being seen and heard. These virtual spaces, with their vast reach and diverse participants, offer a platform where individuals can share, learn, and engage like never
community management Dealing with Toxicity in Online Communities Online communities are places where people should be able to come together to share ideas and learn from each other in an environment that is safe and enjoyable to participate in. In healthy communities, members follow established guidelines and norms to create a culture of collaboration and mutual support. Occasionally
community management Enough With the Water Bottles and T-shirts… Everyone loves good swag, but the key to motivating the behaviours you want to see in your community is focusing on intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic motivation is based on internal incentive such as pleasure or interest, so the key to rewarding appropriately is to support those behaviours. Humans