Thanks for starting this discussion.
I’ve been mulling over whether to add my voice here as, as a relative newcomer to the space, I wouldn’t want to suggest things aren’t already working well. I’m particularly mindful that I don’t have the long view of how the forum has historically been run or what common themes it already contains, categories or no categories.
However, I will volunteer that, when I did first join the forum I wasn’t quite sure where to start. It was helpful to see others discussing Joan’s writing and the reflections this has sparked, as that at least seems to be a common entry point here. Grouping such posts under a common category would be helpful.
I think it would also be helpful to see Joan’s writing linked under such a category (one article linked per post, just like the YouTube videos are) so there’s an easily accessible context to the discussions. However, I’m mindful that direct replies to such posts probably aren’t desirable since:
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there may be multiple distinct reflections spurred by a single article that could get lost in the noise
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Joan may not want the overheard of managing notifications for every topic
Instead, perhaps the etiquette could be to use the “reply as linked topic” feature we discovered recently to spin off such discussions. This is merely a suggestion of course.
I like the suggestion of one or more other community categories beyond Joan’s writing. I think all of us, as complex humans, are more than just a single facet. We might have been drawn here by Joan’s work and the thoughts this prompts, but I think providing other ways to engage with this space and share other thoughts will only yield more interesting discussions.
I particularly like the tagline “where builders come to think” as that implies, to me at least, a space for multiple kinds of building - building community, culture, habits, knowledge, services, projects - and multiple kinds of reflections and inspirations that come with that.
I don’t personally feel that Joan has to be an active forum contributor beyond their writing - as nice as it would be to have more interaction - as the discussions with others on the forum are still thoroughly enjoyable and valuable.
In terms of organisation, I’m wary of suggesting explicit categories (and Joan has already said in another thread that they plan to look at this). However, in the other Discourse forums I’m a member of - even those with many, many categories - I find that the following thematically grouped areas is helpful:
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(official) announcements
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topics about the forum itself
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topics about the main subject of interest
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general
That general category can actually contain several discussion topics or itself be several categories, depending on the interests of the community, but it’s separate from the main topic(s) of interest. I don’t feel like having one or more such off-topic categories would take away from the main topic of interest, rather they would open up interesting areas of overlapping ideas.
That said, I personally find it helpful to have this distinction between what is more related to the formal identity and purpose of the forum and other off-topic discussions. I’d suggest that, in this case, unlike other topic-focused forums, the focus on Joan’s writing means there’s also overlap with Joan’s identity, which may make such a distinction preferable (I won’t assume as such though!)
Also, just to highlight that Discourse supports community wiki topics - topics that, beyond a certain trust level, everyone can contribute to - should that be a feature the community finds useful.
Either way, I’m enjoying my time here and I look forward to seeing how the forum develops.