I think the benefits you describe to definitive spaces are real, but one word of caution is about forking discussion too early. A thing I’ve run into a lot is forums splitting into a bunch of sub forums, and then each subforum only has a few people interested in it, and then if you want to make sure people actually see the thing you’re posting you have to post in each subforum, and meanwhile each subforum feels a bit empty and sad.
(This doesn’t mean “don’t fork it”, just, be careful about when you fork it)
I do think there’s probably enough value in a community-specific LW forum that’s less public facing, because there are specific reasons to a) need to discuss that stuff, but b) not have it on the front page. However, at least at this point I wouldn’t want any more subforums than that.
I’m also pretty confident that I want tags regardless of whether we also have subforums (whether or not we try to use them as some kind of subforum-like-thin
Some quick thoughts:
I think the benefits you describe to definitive spaces are real, but one word of caution is about forking discussion too early. A thing I’ve run into a lot is forums splitting into a bunch of sub forums, and then each subforum only has a few people interested in it, and then if you want to make sure people actually see the thing you’re posting you have to post in each subforum, and meanwhile each subforum feels a bit empty and sad.
(This doesn’t mean “don’t fork it”, just, be careful about when you fork it)
I do think there’s probably enough value in a community-specific LW forum that’s less public facing, because there are specific reasons to a) need to discuss that stuff, but b) not have it on the front page. However, at least at this point I wouldn’t want any more subforums than that.
I’m also pretty confident that I want tags regardless of whether we also have subforums (whether or not we try to use them as some kind of subforum-like-thin