Building Micro Communities: Seven Years of discuss.kakoune.com

IRC was the Kakoune editor’s primary community space. Ephemeral. Sync-only. No searchable history. Technical discussions disappeared when people logged off. New users asked the same questions repeatedly because answers weren’t preserved.

Reddit existed but wasn’t ideal for deep technical discussions. GitHub Issues worked for bugs, not community building. The community needed permanent, searchable, async-first space.

Created discuss.kakoune.com in September 2018. Discourse forum. Mailing list mode for email participation. Searchable archive. Reorganizable threads. Still active daily seven years later.

Why Discourse#

Mailing list mode:

Core reason for picking Discourse. Users participate via email without visiting the website. Receives posts as emails. Replies via email. Posts appear on forum. Bridges traditional (email) and modern (web) communication.

Traditional forum users want web interface. Old-school Unix developers want email. Discourse serves both from the same backend.

Permanent searchable history:

IRC discussions vanish. Discourse discussions persist. Someone asks “How do I configure syntax highlighting?” in 2025. Search finds the answer from 2019. No repeated questions. Knowledge compounds.

Content quality:

Long messages. Code highlighting. Links. Tags. Images. Formatting. IRC strips all of this. Discourse preserves it.

Reorganization:

Topics can be moved, split, merged, recategorized. As the community evolves, organization evolves with it. IRC is chronological only.

Async-first:

No pressure to respond immediately. Read when convenient. Reply when ready. Time zones don’t matter.

Building Trust Through Hands-Off Management#

Run the community quietly. Don’t make it about yourself. Let community create its own norms.

Trust through longevity:

Permanent archive proves commitment. Not a temporary power grab. Not abandoned after initial excitement. Seven years of continuous operation shows this is infrastructure for the community, not personal platform.

Trust through transparency:

Public discussions. Public moderation logs. Public statistics. No behind-the-scenes control. What you see is what exists.

Trust through minimal intervention:

Community self-moderates. Users flag spam. Discussions organize naturally. Moderator role is removing obvious spam and adjusting categories when requested, not controlling discourse.

Heavy-handed moderation kills communities. Light-touch moderation lets them thrive.

Trust through accessibility:

Multiple participation methods (web, email, RSS). Accommodate preferences. Don’t force one way.

What Happened Since 2018#

Sustained engagement:

Activity from September 2018 through December 2025. Topics with double-digit replies. Hundreds to thousands of views. Small but consistent daily usage.

Technical depth:

Discussions about Kakoune internals, plugin development, configuration patterns. The kind of deep technical conversation that needs permanent archive.

Plugin ecosystem:

Shared plugins, discussed patterns, collaborative debugging. Easier to share and iterate when discussions persist.

Newcomer resource:

Search finds answers. FAQ documents common issues. Resources section collects tutorials. New users get productive faster.

The Micro Community Philosophy#

No one gets rich from a microsite. Revenue isn’t the point. Community value is the point.

Provide infrastructure:

Reliable platform. Good search. Clean interface. Email integration.

Stay out of the way:

Let community decide what matters. Don’t impose structure. Don’t control topics. Don’t promote yourself.

Long-term commitment:

Keep it running. Pay hosting costs. Update platform when needed. Don’t abandon.

Measure success differently:

Not by growth metrics or engagement numbers. By: does the community find it useful? Do discussions happen? Do people get help? Does knowledge persist?

Seven years of daily activity suggests: yes.

Why Not Reddit/Discord/Slack#

Reddit:

Good for announcements and casual discussion. Poor for deep technical threads. Comments nest deeply, hard to follow. Can’t reorganize. Search is weak.

Discord:

Real-time focused. History exists but hard to search. No email mode. Requires app or constant web presence. Too chat-like for technical documentation.

Slack:

Same issues as Discord. Plus: free tier archives disappear. Not suitable for permanent community knowledge.

IRC:

Ephemeral. No history for newcomers. Sync-only. No rich formatting.

GitHub Discussions:

Tied to specific repository. Community is broader than single repo. Also relatively new (launched 2020).

Mailing list:

Email-only. No web interface. Hard to search. No threading. Poor discoverability for newcomers.

Discourse combines strengths: email mode for traditionalists, web interface for modern users, permanent searchable archive, rich content support.

Technical Setup#

Discourse installation:

• Hosted on cloud server
• PostgreSQL backend
• Redis for caching
• Email integration via SMTP
• SSL certificate via Let’s Encrypt
• Regular backups
• Automated updates

Cost: ~$20/month for hosting. Time: occasional updates and spam removal. Benefit: permanent community space.

The Community Building Pattern#

1. Identify gap:

Community needs permanent async-first discussion space. Existing options don’t fit.

2. Pick appropriate technology:

Discourse: email mode, searchable, reorganizable, permanent.

3. Provide infrastructure:

Set it up. Keep it running. Stay out of the way.

4. Let community self-organize:

Don’t impose structure. Let norms emerge. Trust develops when community controls itself.

5. Long-term commitment:

Keep it operational. Seven years proves it’s not temporary.

Lessons from Seven Years#

Micro communities work:

Small daily usage over years compounds. Not every community needs millions of users.

Permanence matters:

Searchable history has value. Answers from 2019 help users in 2025.

Email integration matters:

Mailing list mode keeps traditional users engaged. They never visit web interface. Still participate fully.

Hands-off management works:

Community self-moderates. Heavy moderation would have killed organic growth.

Pick sustainable technology:

Discourse updates cleanly. PostgreSQL is reliable. Hosting is cheap. Seven years with minimal maintenance.

The Anti-Pattern#

Building community for personal brand:

Promote yourself in every discussion. Control the narrative. Maximize your visibility. Community leaves when it feels exploited.

Chasing growth metrics:

Optimize for user count instead of community value. Add features nobody asked for. Break what works in pursuit of growth. Community fragments.

Abandoning after initial excitement:

Launch with enthusiasm. Lose interest after six months. Platform stagnates. Community leaves.

Over-moderating:

Control every discussion. Remove off-topic posts aggressively. Enforce strict rules. Community feels stifled.

The Working Pattern#

Provide infrastructure. Minimal intervention. Long-term commitment. Let community create value.

Seven years later: discuss.kakoune.com still serves its purpose. Small but active. Permanent and searchable. Community-owned in practice.

No one gets rich from a microsite. But communities benefit from permanent, well-run spaces. That’s the value.