it took us a while to recognize that ourselves, because we're quite fond of long-form semipermeable-group communication. we grew up on mailing lists and Usenet, neither of which are popular these days, but it's not just nostalgia, those conditions are great for shared pursuit of insight.

we had seen Discourse as the modern equivalent of those things, but it fails in that one key way - it gives all power to whoever controls it, none to anyone else