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Alex Dehnert
May 17, 2026, 1:48:44 AMMay 17
to dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com
I spent a little time poking at Discourse as an option for DSNC mailing
lists. We now have https://dsnc.discourse.group/, which currently has
"categories" (roughly akin to mailing lists) for Test, Outreach, and
Bylaws (basically all unused). Those correspond to sending email to
te...@dsnc.discourse.group etc. (this needs to be configured for each
category[1]). If folks want to poke around, feel free.
I am not entirely clear on what if anything people need to do to
actually get emails for each new topic (thread) or post (message) in a
category (list).
I believe logging in requires a Discourse account, but it supports using
e.g. Google to authenticate, so at least we're not asking people to come
up with a new password.
The free plan[2] comes with 2 "staff" seats -- I'm not entirely clear
what exactly needs a staff seat. This presumably means a shared admin
account for all but one person. That's probably fine if we don't need to
do much moderating (assuming that needs "staff") or configuration, but
will be annoying if we do. I think ideally for continuity reasons
~everyone on the board plus some moderators would have staff accounts,
but that's not going to work on the free plan. Pro ($100/mo) raises that
to 5 seats (not as much as I'd like, but at least we can do a few mods
plus an shared owner) and business to ($500/mo) to 15 seats (probably
fine). Even $100/mo strikes me as a bit high for us. There's a 50%
non-profit discount, but that might require being a 501c3 (501c4 might
work? I guess we *are* tax-exempt, it's just that donations aren't
deductible).
Another "free" plan limit is 10 categories (roughly, ten mailing lists).
This feels moderately likely to be annoying. The next plan up, Starter
($20/mo) has no limit. It's not obvious to me that any of the other paid
features are important to us (API&webhook access are Pro, custom domain
is pro, reactions are starter).
It is possible to self-host Discourse (it's open source software) -- if
several people want to volunteer to sharing admin duties, that might be
appealing, but otherwise I doubt that's a direction we want to go down.
(I'm probably willing and qualified to help deal with that, but I don't
want to be a single point of failure.)
I did chat with somebody else about Discourse experience and they said
(among other things) "All that said, Discourse is a great option."
Is there anything else people would want to know to think about using
Discourse for our communication?
~~Alex
[1] Settings -> "Custom incoming email address", the constraints on
which seem somewhat unclear. I'm not sure what domains are usable; I
think .group is a somewhat confusing TLD, but I'm not sure that there
are other options with hosted Discourse. There's a setting that controls
whether whether users without an account ("anonymous users") can post by
email -- with it off, they get a confusing email when rejected, but
nothing seems to show up for mods. With it on, my post-by-email seems to
have vanished entirely, so not sure what happened there.
[2] https://discourse.org/pricing -- interestingly, just in the last
couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-emphasizing their lower-tier
plans, judging by
https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/https://discourse.org/pricing,
https://web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/https://discourse.org/pricing,
and https://web.archive.org/web/20260515122217/https://discourse.org/pricing
lists. We now have https://dsnc.discourse.group/, which currently has
"categories" (roughly akin to mailing lists) for Test, Outreach, and
Bylaws (basically all unused). Those correspond to sending email to
te...@dsnc.discourse.group etc. (this needs to be configured for each
category[1]). If folks want to poke around, feel free.
I am not entirely clear on what if anything people need to do to
actually get emails for each new topic (thread) or post (message) in a
category (list).
I believe logging in requires a Discourse account, but it supports using
e.g. Google to authenticate, so at least we're not asking people to come
up with a new password.
The free plan[2] comes with 2 "staff" seats -- I'm not entirely clear
what exactly needs a staff seat. This presumably means a shared admin
account for all but one person. That's probably fine if we don't need to
do much moderating (assuming that needs "staff") or configuration, but
will be annoying if we do. I think ideally for continuity reasons
~everyone on the board plus some moderators would have staff accounts,
but that's not going to work on the free plan. Pro ($100/mo) raises that
to 5 seats (not as much as I'd like, but at least we can do a few mods
plus an shared owner) and business to ($500/mo) to 15 seats (probably
fine). Even $100/mo strikes me as a bit high for us. There's a 50%
non-profit discount, but that might require being a 501c3 (501c4 might
work? I guess we *are* tax-exempt, it's just that donations aren't
deductible).
Another "free" plan limit is 10 categories (roughly, ten mailing lists).
This feels moderately likely to be annoying. The next plan up, Starter
($20/mo) has no limit. It's not obvious to me that any of the other paid
features are important to us (API&webhook access are Pro, custom domain
is pro, reactions are starter).
It is possible to self-host Discourse (it's open source software) -- if
several people want to volunteer to sharing admin duties, that might be
appealing, but otherwise I doubt that's a direction we want to go down.
(I'm probably willing and qualified to help deal with that, but I don't
want to be a single point of failure.)
I did chat with somebody else about Discourse experience and they said
(among other things) "All that said, Discourse is a great option."
Is there anything else people would want to know to think about using
Discourse for our communication?
~~Alex
[1] Settings -> "Custom incoming email address", the constraints on
which seem somewhat unclear. I'm not sure what domains are usable; I
think .group is a somewhat confusing TLD, but I'm not sure that there
are other options with hosted Discourse. There's a setting that controls
whether whether users without an account ("anonymous users") can post by
email -- with it off, they get a confusing email when rejected, but
nothing seems to show up for mods. With it on, my post-by-email seems to
have vanished entirely, so not sure what happened there.
[2] https://discourse.org/pricing -- interestingly, just in the last
couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-emphasizing their lower-tier
plans, judging by
https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/https://discourse.org/pricing,
https://web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/https://discourse.org/pricing,
and https://web.archive.org/web/20260515122217/https://discourse.org/pricing
Alex Dehnert
May 18, 2026, 1:18:51 AMMay 18
to dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
(+board)
We've been talking about splitting the DSNC mailing list into announce
and discuss lists (which I definitely think we should do some flavor of
-- not sure what the status is there), and there was some discontent (I
think at the Outreach meeting, but maybe elsewhere too) with Google
Groups not really doing anything to connect our various lists together.
One option is use Discourse, which is a forum/mailing list hybrid, for
at least some of our communications. We could encourage people to join
our Discourse, and use it both for general discussion and also for some
of our committee lists -- Discourse has "categories" that behave similar
to mailing lists (with the ability to watch specific categories), so we
could use them as discoverable committee lists or to organize our
general discussion.
I sent Outreach a longer list of observations on it, below.
We've been talking about splitting the DSNC mailing list into announce
and discuss lists (which I definitely think we should do some flavor of
-- not sure what the status is there), and there was some discontent (I
think at the Outreach meeting, but maybe elsewhere too) with Google
Groups not really doing anything to connect our various lists together.
One option is use Discourse, which is a forum/mailing list hybrid, for
at least some of our communications. We could encourage people to join
our Discourse, and use it both for general discussion and also for some
of our committee lists -- Discourse has "categories" that behave similar
to mailing lists (with the ability to watch specific categories), so we
could use them as discoverable committee lists or to organize our
general discussion.
I sent Outreach a longer list of observations on it, below.
Michael Chiu
May 18, 2026, 11:43:58 AMMay 18
to Alex Dehnert, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
Thanks Alex,
I'm not familiar with Discourse, but I agree that we need to do something to better manage communication. I've spoken with many members (typcially on the older end of the spectrum) who are frustrated with the volume of mail they receive. They are less interested in the discussion but also want to know if/when there is a major decision pending. Also, this group will likely not use a non-email tool (I think Discourse is email-based); my own experience is that I am also in groups that use Slack, Teams and Discord and it is tough to keep up with the flow of information. I think that this is what you/Outreach are working to resolve.
My sense is that we need a top-level 'DSNC-announcement' channel that has restricted posting privileges (i.e. no reply allowed) tha the organization can use for official communication to members (meeting announcements, votes, decisions, etc...). We can have lots of additional channels for 'unofficial' or sub-committee discussion that anyone can opt in/out of.
I suspect that this is the approach being considered. However, for this to work, the Board also needs to have a policy that these sub-committees/optional discussions can't make offical decisions - only recommendations to the full group/board, otherwise people will feel compelled to subscribe out of fear that a decision will be made without their knowledge.
Again, I suspect that you/Outreach probably share this perspective. I just want to say this aloud and encourage us to make this as explicit as possible. I think that there is strong interest in the work of DSNC, but we will lose members/engagement if we ask the members to sift through multiple, detailed emails every day. They need to trust that they will be kept up to date have a chance to provide input (i.e. vote) when appropriate.
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David Booth
May 18, 2026, 1:14:07 PMMay 18
to dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com
On 5/18/26 10:10, Michael Chiu wrote:
> . . . the Board also needs to have a policy that these sub-
Committees already do not have any authority to make binding decisions.
They can only make recommendations to the membership or board.
Thanks,
David Booth
> . . . the Board also needs to have a policy that these sub-
> committees/optional discussions can't make offical decisions - only
> recommendations to the full group/board, . . . .
Committees already do not have any authority to make binding decisions.
They can only make recommendations to the membership or board.
Thanks,
David Booth
Alex Dehnert
May 18, 2026, 10:57:00 PMMay 18
to Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
On 5/18/26 10:10, Michael Chiu wrote:
> Thanks Alex,
>
> I'm not familiar with Discourse, but I agree that we need to do
> something to better manage communication. I've spoken with many members
> (typcially on the older end of the spectrum) who are frustrated with the
> volume of mail they receive. They are less interested in the discussion
> but also want to know if/when there is a major decision pending.
Yeah, I think everyone agrees that we need an announce list that just
>
> I'm not familiar with Discourse, but I agree that we need to do
> something to better manage communication. I've spoken with many members
> (typcially on the older end of the spectrum) who are frustrated with the
> volume of mail they receive. They are less interested in the discussion
> but also want to know if/when there is a major decision pending.
gets meeting notices and similar, we're just figuring out what
technology to use (and not necessarily even for the announce or general
discuss lists).
> Also, this group will likely not use a non-email tool (I think
> Discourse is email-based);
website for a few minutes when signing up and otherwise interact
entirely via email. I'm not entirely clear whether Discourse quite meets
that threshold, but it at least comes kinda close (and one of the things
I want to learn through experimenting with it is how close it comes).
> my own experience is that I am also in groups that use Slack, Teams
> and Discord and it is tough to keep up with the flow of information.
somebody who is a big fan of having a Discord for other groups I'm in.)
The Somerville discord exists for people who want that, and I want the
DSNC forums to be more focused on longer-form, more thoughtful posts,
where conversations can sit for a couple days.
> I think that this is what you/ Outreach are working to resolve.
> My sense is that we need a top-level 'DSNC-announcement' channel that
> has restricted posting privileges (i.e. no reply allowed) tha the
> organization can use for official communication to members (meeting
> announcements, votes, decisions, etc...).
~~Alex
> dsnc.discourse.group/>, which currently has
> -- interestingly, just in the last
> > couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-emphasizing their
> lower-tier
> > plans, judging by https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/
> https:// <https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/https://>
> > couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-emphasizing their
> lower-tier
> > plans, judging by https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/
> > discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>, https://
> web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/ <https://web.archive.org/
> web/20260504144018/>
> > https://discourse.org/pricing <https://discourse.org/pricing>,
> and https://web.archive.org/ <https://web.archive.org/>
> > web/20260515122217/https://discourse.org/pricing <https://
> discourse.org/pricing>
> >
>
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Zachary Yaro
May 18, 2026, 11:10:12 PMMay 18
to Alex Dehnert, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com
I also started poking around Discourse after it came up at the outreach meeting. (I grabbed https://DavisSquareNC.discourse.group; sorry if you were confused why you couldn't use that URL; happy to give you control of it!) It does seem as though it would achieve our goal of being able to make multiple mailing lists for different committees. Like you, I am a bit worried about the cost for having more than 2 “staff” users—I agree ideally the entire Board + some number of moderators would have “staff” accounts. Additionally, I am a bit worried the interface may be overly complicated for something we only want to use as a mailing list, but I am poking around the settings to see what we can turn off.
Zachary Yaro
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Alex Dehnert
May 18, 2026, 11:10:17 PMMay 18
to Zachary Yaro, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com
On 5/18/26 18:34, Zachary Yaro wrote:
> I also started poking around Discourse after it came up at the outreach
> meeting. (I grabbed https://DavisSquareNC.discourse.group <https://
> I also started poking around Discourse after it came up at the outreach
> DavisSquareNC.discourse.group>; sorry if you were confused why you
> couldn't use that URL; happy to give you control of it!)
My first choice was DSNC, because it's the prefix we seem to use for
most of our current mailing lists. Happy to go with DavisSquareNC if
folks think that's a better name / it's better to match the website instead.
> It does seem as though it would achieve our goal of being able to
> make multiple mailing lists for different committees. Like you, I
> am a bit worried about the cost for having more than 2 “staff” users—
> I agree ideally the entire Board + some number of moderators would
> have “staff” accounts. Additionally, I am a bit worried the
> interface may be overly complicated for something we only want to
> use as a mailing list, but I am poking around the settings to see
> what we can turn off.
was hoping we could just explain well enough, but if we can make this
really straightforward (or find a way to administratively "subscribe"
people to "lists") that'd be helpful. (Speaking of being able to
explain, apparently e.g.
https://davissquarenc.discourse.group/my/preferences/tracking works for
direct linking to a settings page regardless of the username, which may
be helpful.)
I am tentatively going to encourage bylaws-interested folks to sign up
for (one of) the Discourse(s) ~tomorrow and see how that goes.
If anybody has a preference about which Discourse, or if you have
setting suggestions I should try applying, LMK.
~~Alex
>
> Zachary Yaro
>
>
> On Sun, 17 May 2026 at 01:48, Alex Dehnert <al...@dehnerts.com
> <mailto:al...@dehnerts.com>> wrote:
>
> I spent a little time poking at Discourse as an option for DSNC mailing
> lists. We now have https://dsnc.discourse.group/ <https://
> dsnc.discourse.group/>, which currently has
> interestingly, just in the last
> couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-emphasizing their lower-tier
> plans, judging by
> https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/https://discourse.org/
> pricing <https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/https://
> couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-emphasizing their lower-tier
> plans, judging by
> https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/https://discourse.org/
> discourse.org/pricing>,
> https://web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/https://discourse.org/
> pricing <https://web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/https://
> discourse.org/pricing>,
> and https://web.archive.org/web/20260515122217/https://
> discourse.org/pricing <https://web.archive.org/web/20260515122217/
> https://discourse.org/pricing>
>
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Alex Dehnert
May 19, 2026, 2:16:48 PMMay 19
to Zachary Yaro, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
I suppose if part of the goal is to replace the dsnc-* lists, matching the
naming to the things that will stick around probably makes sense.
I was going to set up Bylaws to use discourse -- if you think
DavisSquareNC is reasonable to use for that (e.g., not too many weird
experimental settings), could you make me an admin and I'll tell people to
sign up for that?
(Also happy to add you as an admin of dsnc.discourse.group if you want a
Discourse to keep experimenting with, or I can use that one for bylaws.)
~~Alex
On Tue, 19 May 2026, Zachary Yaro wrote:
> > Happy to go with DavisSquareNC if
> folks think that's a better name / it's better to match the website instead.
> I think that would be better since that matches the website, main Google Group, and all social media.
>
> Zachary Yaro
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> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-board/CANFzyv%2BxdCCOentQzCswP-211upw93f7jFODopbTauZXTO7ahw%40mail.gmail.com.
>
>
naming to the things that will stick around probably makes sense.
I was going to set up Bylaws to use discourse -- if you think
DavisSquareNC is reasonable to use for that (e.g., not too many weird
experimental settings), could you make me an admin and I'll tell people to
sign up for that?
(Also happy to add you as an admin of dsnc.discourse.group if you want a
Discourse to keep experimenting with, or I can use that one for bylaws.)
~~Alex
On Tue, 19 May 2026, Zachary Yaro wrote:
> > Happy to go with DavisSquareNC if
> folks think that's a better name / it's better to match the website instead.
>
> > The Somerville discord exists for people who want that
> My thoughts exactly. We could even ask for a dedicated section there like SASS has if a reason to do that arises, but I think it is fine to just chat with our neighbors in the #davis-square channel.
> > The Somerville discord exists for people who want that
>
> Zachary Yaro
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/da4a7e01-4ac2-4f33-a136-d19dee33faf8%40dehnerts.com.
>
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>
>
David Booth
May 19, 2026, 4:15:06 PMMay 19
to Alex Dehnert, Zachary Yaro, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
I'm worried that using a different messaging platform (such as discord)
might alienate potential committee members. Personally, although I've
used discord (and slack and others) in the past, I would rather not have
to use yet another platform for DSNC messages. But I wasn't aware of
discord having an email-only option, so maybe my concern is moot.
By the way, another option for addressing the overwhelming volume of
messages -- instead of adding an announce-only list -- would be to adopt
an "ANN:" subject line prefix for official announcements, so that
readers can filter on that if they don't want to read all messages.
Thanks,
David
might alienate potential committee members. Personally, although I've
used discord (and slack and others) in the past, I would rather not have
to use yet another platform for DSNC messages. But I wasn't aware of
discord having an email-only option, so maybe my concern is moot.
By the way, another option for addressing the overwhelming volume of
messages -- instead of adding an announce-only list -- would be to adopt
an "ANN:" subject line prefix for official announcements, so that
readers can filter on that if they don't want to read all messages.
Thanks,
David
Alex Dehnert
May 19, 2026, 4:26:10 PMMay 19
to David Booth, Zachary Yaro, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
Again, we're not proposing using Disco*rd*, we're proposing using
Disco*urse*, which, despite the similar name, is an unrelated tool.
Discord is a real-time chat tool, like Slack.
Discourse is a hybrid mailing list/forum tool. My hope is that it's
usable as basically an alternative management UI to Google Groups, with
some administrative and discoverability features that will be advantages
for some users, while allowing people to engage with it (except for list
signup) exclusively through email.
~~Alex
Disco*urse*, which, despite the similar name, is an unrelated tool.
Discord is a real-time chat tool, like Slack.
Discourse is a hybrid mailing list/forum tool. My hope is that it's
usable as basically an alternative management UI to Google Groups, with
some administrative and discoverability features that will be advantages
for some users, while allowing people to engage with it (except for list
signup) exclusively through email.
~~Alex
Alex Dehnert
May 20, 2026, 2:34:29 AMMay 20
to David Booth, Zachary Yaro, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
I went to set up a Bylaws category on DavisSquareNC, and it appears that
emailing in to Discourse is now a paid feature. Oddly, I can't find any
evidence of this as a change on their blog, What's New? area, meta forum,
pricing page, etc.. I reached out on their support forum, so maybe I'll
have a better understanding of what's happening soon.
It appears that email in is still in the starter plan ($20/mo; possibly
half off available as a non-profit?). $240/year or $120/year doesn't
necessarily seem like a crazy amount to spend, but given the messy rollout
and the apparent pricing flux[0] I don't really trust them enough right
now to spend time and money setting up a new community.
Anyway I guess I'll see if I get a promising reply to my support post in
the next day or so, but my current inclination is I'm giving up on my
Discourse experiment for now and will make a Google Group for bylaws.
~~Alex
[0] It sounds like the free plan is new as of Feb[1], but just in the last
couple weeks they deemphasized it and the starter plan on the pricing page
[1] https://meta.discourse.org/t/youre-invited-to-try-the-discourse-free-plan-beta/395632
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/122d3185-9a3d-4018-b1ee-17b95c82109f%40dehnerts.com.
>
emailing in to Discourse is now a paid feature. Oddly, I can't find any
evidence of this as a change on their blog, What's New? area, meta forum,
pricing page, etc.. I reached out on their support forum, so maybe I'll
have a better understanding of what's happening soon.
It appears that email in is still in the starter plan ($20/mo; possibly
half off available as a non-profit?). $240/year or $120/year doesn't
necessarily seem like a crazy amount to spend, but given the messy rollout
and the apparent pricing flux[0] I don't really trust them enough right
now to spend time and money setting up a new community.
Anyway I guess I'll see if I get a promising reply to my support post in
the next day or so, but my current inclination is I'm giving up on my
Discourse experiment for now and will make a Google Group for bylaws.
~~Alex
[0] It sounds like the free plan is new as of Feb[1], but just in the last
couple weeks they deemphasized it and the starter plan on the pricing page
[1] https://meta.discourse.org/t/youre-invited-to-try-the-discourse-free-plan-beta/395632
>
Alex Dehnert
May 20, 2026, 11:33:51 AMMay 20
to Zachary Yaro, Alex Dehnert, David Booth, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
I think given our userbase, we want something that has a big emphasis on
email, with nice web support being a bonus. At a cursory look, Simple
Machines Forum looks like it's really web-focused and maybe doesn't
support inbound emails at all. (I'm also not sure that there's a hosted
provider that's really doing SMF as SaaS rather than IaaS that's usable
for SMF.)
Unfortunately, Discourse, Google Groups, and groups.io are basically the
only hosted email list providers I'm familiar with (self-hosted, I also
see Mailman). groups.io is only free up to 100 members; more costs at
least $20/mo ("Premium"), though they charge $.04/member[1], so we might
be looking at a little more. The Premium plan *does* have subgroups[2].
[1] https://groups.io/static/pricing
[2] https://groups.io/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/1039
If we're willing to look at non-second-party hosting, Communiteq[3] has
plans as low as $20/mo, and all plans come with unlimited staff members
(which solves one of the earlier problems with Discord). (I did briefly
look at the partners list[4] and Communiteq is the only one that seems
to do managed hosting.)
Discourse is also FOSS (and seems pretty serious about it[5]), so we
*could* still host ourselves. Somerville YIMBY self-hosts and it doesn't
seem terrible. (If we're going to host *something* for communication,
Discourse is certainly my current top choice, unless maybe we decide
Mailman is enough simpler for email users.)
~~Alex
[3] https://www.communiteq.com/discoursehosting/pricing/
[4] https://www.discourse.org/partners
[5] https://blog.discourse.org/2026/04/discourse-is-not-going-closed-source/
On 5/20/26 10:17, Zachary Yaro wrote:
> Are there any other web forum platforms we can try? Unfortunately,
> Simple Machines Forum is the only one I have experience working on, and
> it might also be overly cumbersome to use and maintain for our
> purposes. But this is a widespread enough use case I have to think
> there are more options?
>
> Zachary Yaro
> free-plan-beta/395632 <https://meta.discourse.org/t/youre-invited-
> to-try-the-discourse-free-plan-beta/395632>
> >>>> > <mailto:al...@dehnerts.com <mailto:al...@dehnerts.com>>>
> dsnc.discourse.group/ <https://dsnc.discourse.group/> <https://
> discourse.org/pricing> <https://
> >>>> discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>>
> pricing> <http://discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>>,
> >>>> https://
> >>>> > web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/ <http://
> web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/> <https://
> >>>> web.archive.org/ <http://web.archive.org/>
> >>>> > web/20260504144018/>
> >>>> > > https://discourse.org/pricing <https://
> discourse.org/pricing> <https://discourse.org/ <https://discourse.org/>
> web.archive.org/> <https://web.archive.org/ <https://web.archive.org/>>
> >>>> > > web/20260515122217/https://discourse.org/
> pricing <https://discourse.org/pricing> <https://
> >>>> > discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>>
> board%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> >>>> > <mailto:dsnc-board%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:dsnc-board%252Buns...@googlegroups.com>>.
> >>>> msgid/
> >>>> > dsnc-board/b983e649-0260-4bbf-
> >>>> a004-3f6e4056f256%40dehnerts.com <http://40dehnerts.com>
> >>>> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-board/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-board/>
> >>>> b983e649-0260-4bbf-
> >>>> > a004-3f6e4056f256%40dehnerts.com
> <http://40dehnerts.com>>.
> >>>> <mailto:dsnc- <mailto:dsnc->
> >>>> > outreach+u...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:outreach%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
> >>>> msgid/dsnc-
> >>>> > outreach/
> >>>> >
> >>>>
> CAKhjUPdXP92U9FYOJjsbCsdx4cbrCVaLOJ1D%2BVD%2B576%2B1pVH5Q%40mail.gmail.com <http://40mail.gmail.com>
> >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/>
> >>>>
> CAKhjUPdXP92U9FYOJjsbCsdx4cbrCVaLOJ1D%2BVD%2B576%2B1pVH5Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <http://40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
> >>>> dsnc-outreach/da4a7e01-4ac2-4f33-a136-
> d19dee33faf8%40dehnerts.com <http://40dehnerts.com>.
> >>>> board/
> >>>>
> CANFzyv%2BxdCCOentQzCswP-211upw93f7jFODopbTauZXTO7ahw%40mail.gmail.com <http://40mail.gmail.com>.
> outreach/122d3185-9a3d-4018-b1ee-17b95c82109f%40dehnerts.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/122d3185-9a3d-4018-
> b1ee-17b95c82109f%40dehnerts.com>.
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/
> alpine.DEB.2.21.2605200216050.4385%40novgorod.mit.edu>.
>
email, with nice web support being a bonus. At a cursory look, Simple
Machines Forum looks like it's really web-focused and maybe doesn't
support inbound emails at all. (I'm also not sure that there's a hosted
provider that's really doing SMF as SaaS rather than IaaS that's usable
for SMF.)
Unfortunately, Discourse, Google Groups, and groups.io are basically the
only hosted email list providers I'm familiar with (self-hosted, I also
see Mailman). groups.io is only free up to 100 members; more costs at
least $20/mo ("Premium"), though they charge $.04/member[1], so we might
be looking at a little more. The Premium plan *does* have subgroups[2].
[1] https://groups.io/static/pricing
[2] https://groups.io/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/1039
If we're willing to look at non-second-party hosting, Communiteq[3] has
plans as low as $20/mo, and all plans come with unlimited staff members
(which solves one of the earlier problems with Discord). (I did briefly
look at the partners list[4] and Communiteq is the only one that seems
to do managed hosting.)
Discourse is also FOSS (and seems pretty serious about it[5]), so we
*could* still host ourselves. Somerville YIMBY self-hosts and it doesn't
seem terrible. (If we're going to host *something* for communication,
Discourse is certainly my current top choice, unless maybe we decide
Mailman is enough simpler for email users.)
~~Alex
[3] https://www.communiteq.com/discoursehosting/pricing/
[4] https://www.discourse.org/partners
[5] https://blog.discourse.org/2026/04/discourse-is-not-going-closed-source/
On 5/20/26 10:17, Zachary Yaro wrote:
> Are there any other web forum platforms we can try? Unfortunately,
> Simple Machines Forum is the only one I have experience working on, and
> it might also be overly cumbersome to use and maintain for our
> purposes. But this is a widespread enough use case I have to think
> there are more options?
>
> Zachary Yaro
> to-try-the-discourse-free-plan-beta/395632>
> >>>> discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>>
> >>>> > -- interestingly, just in the last
> >>>> > > couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-
> emphasizing
> >>>> their
> >>>> > lower-tier
> >>>> > > plans, judging by https://web.archive.org/
> <https://web.archive.org/>
> >>>> web/20260426171248/
> >>>> > https:// <https://web.archive.org/
> web/20260426171248/ <https://web.archive.org/web/20260426171248/>
> >>>> > > couple weeks they seem to be gradually de-
> emphasizing
> >>>> their
> >>>> > lower-tier
> >>>> > > plans, judging by https://web.archive.org/
> <https://web.archive.org/>
> >>>> web/20260426171248/
> >>>> > https:// <https://web.archive.org/
> pricing> <http://discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>>,
> >>>> https://
> >>>> > web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/ <http://
> web.archive.org/web/20260504144018/> <https://
> >>>> web.archive.org/ <http://web.archive.org/>
> >>>> > web/20260504144018/>
> >>>> > > https://discourse.org/pricing <https://
> discourse.org/pricing> <https://discourse.org/ <https://discourse.org/>
> web.archive.org/> <https://web.archive.org/ <https://web.archive.org/>>
> >>>> > > web/20260515122217/https://discourse.org/
> pricing <https://discourse.org/pricing> <https://
> >>>> > discourse.org/pricing <http://discourse.org/pricing>>
> >>>> > >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > --
> >>>> > You received this message because you are
> subscribed to the
> >>>> Google
> >>>> > Groups "DSNC Board" group.
> >>>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving
> emails from
> >>>> it,
> >>>> > send an email to dsnc-
> board+un...@googlegroups.com <mailto:dsnc-
> >>>> >
> >>>> > --
> >>>> > You received this message because you are
> subscribed to the
> >>>> > Groups "DSNC Board" group.
> >>>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving
> emails from
> >>>> it,
> >>>> > send an email to dsnc-
> board%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> >>>> > <mailto:dsnc-board%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:dsnc-board%252Buns...@googlegroups.com>>.
> >>>> > To view this discussion visit https://
> groups.google.com/ <https://groups.google.com/> d/
> >>>> msgid/
> >>>> > dsnc-board/b983e649-0260-4bbf-
> >>>> a004-3f6e4056f256%40dehnerts.com <http://40dehnerts.com>
> >>>> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-board/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-board/>
> >>>> b983e649-0260-4bbf-
> >>>> > a004-3f6e4056f256%40dehnerts.com
> <http://40dehnerts.com>>.
> >>>> >
> >>>> > --
> >>>> > You received this message because you are subscribed
> to the
> >>>> Google
> >>>> > Groups "dsnc-outreach" group.
> >>>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving
> emails from it,
> >>>> send
> >>>> > an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:dsnc-outreach%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> >>>> > --
> >>>> > You received this message because you are subscribed
> to the
> >>>> > Groups "dsnc-outreach" group.
> >>>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving
> emails from it,
> >>>> send
> >>>> > an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com
> >>>> <mailto:dsnc- <mailto:dsnc->
> >>>> > outreach+u...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:outreach%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.
> >>>> > To view this discussion visit https://
> groups.google.com/d/ <https://groups.google.com/d/>
> >>>> msgid/dsnc-
> >>>> > outreach/
> >>>> >
> >>>>
> CAKhjUPdXP92U9FYOJjsbCsdx4cbrCVaLOJ1D%2BVD%2B576%2B1pVH5Q%40mail.gmail.com <http://40mail.gmail.com>
> >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/>
> >>>>
> CAKhjUPdXP92U9FYOJjsbCsdx4cbrCVaLOJ1D%2BVD%2B576%2B1pVH5Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <http://40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to
> the Google
> >>>> Groups "dsnc-outreach" group.
> >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails
> from it,
> >>>> send an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:dsnc-outreach%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
> >>>> --
> >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to
> the Google
> >>>> Groups "dsnc-outreach" group.
> >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails
> from it,
> >>>> send an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com
> >>>> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/
> d/ <https://groups.google.com/d/> msgid/
> >>>> dsnc-outreach/da4a7e01-4ac2-4f33-a136-
> d19dee33faf8%40dehnerts.com <http://40dehnerts.com>.
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google Groups
> >>>> --
> >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google Groups
> >>>> "DSNC Board" group.
> >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from
> it, send an
> >>>> email to dsnc-board+...@googlegroups.com <mailto:dsnc-
> board%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
> >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from
> it, send an
> >>>> email to dsnc-board+...@googlegroups.com <mailto:dsnc-
> >>>> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/
> msgid/dsnc- <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc->
> >>>> board/
> >>>>
> CANFzyv%2BxdCCOentQzCswP-211upw93f7jFODopbTauZXTO7ahw%40mail.gmail.com <http://40mail.gmail.com>.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google Groups
> > "dsnc-outreach" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an
> > email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com <mailto:dsnc-
> outreach%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google Groups
> > "dsnc-outreach" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an
> > email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com <mailto:dsnc-
> outreach/122d3185-9a3d-4018-b1ee-17b95c82109f%40dehnerts.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/122d3185-9a3d-4018-
> b1ee-17b95c82109f%40dehnerts.com>.
> >
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "dsnc-outreach" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:dsnc-outreach%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "dsnc-outreach" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> dsnc-outreach/alpine.DEB.2.21.2605200216050.4385%40novgorod.mit.edu
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/
> alpine.DEB.2.21.2605200216050.4385%40novgorod.mit.edu>.
>
Zachary Yaro
May 20, 2026, 1:59:41 PMMay 20
to Alex Dehnert, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
> Happy to go with DavisSquareNC if
folks think that's a better name / it's better to match the website instead.
I think that would be better since that matches the website, main Google Group, and all social media.
> The Somerville discord exists for people who want that
My thoughts exactly. We could even ask for a dedicated section there like SASS has if a reason to do that arises, but I think it is fine to just chat with our neighbors in the #davis-square channel.
Zachary Yaro
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to dsnc-outreac...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/da4a7e01-4ac2-4f33-a136-d19dee33faf8%40dehnerts.com.
Zachary Yaro
May 20, 2026, 1:59:45 PMMay 20
to Alex Dehnert, David Booth, Zachary Yaro, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
Are there any other web forum platforms we can try? Unfortunately, Simple Machines Forum is the only one I have experience working on, and it might also be overly cumbersome to use and maintain for our purposes. But this is a widespread enough use case I have to think there are more options?
Zachary Yaro
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-outreach/alpine.DEB.2.21.2605200216050.4385%40novgorod.mit.edu.
Alex Dehnert
May 21, 2026, 1:16:12 AMMay 21
to Zachary Yaro, Alex Dehnert, David Booth, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
I got a reply from (apparently) the "co-CEO", who says that inbound
email being enabled was an oversight. I think that nixes Discourse as a
free option for us (though if we want to pay it might still be reasonable).
For whatever reason, the ability to change the setting is gone, but the
DSNC Discourse still seems to support inbound email, so if anybody is
interested in experimentation, that's (for the moment) an option, though
if we're going to start using it for production we should probably start
paying so if they realize the mistake things don't suddenly break.
~~Alex
email being enabled was an oversight. I think that nixes Discourse as a
free option for us (though if we want to pay it might still be reasonable).
For whatever reason, the ability to change the setting is gone, but the
DSNC Discourse still seems to support inbound email, so if anybody is
interested in experimentation, that's (for the moment) an option, though
if we're going to start using it for production we should probably start
paying so if they realize the mistake things don't suddenly break.
~~Alex
Elaine Almquist
May 21, 2026, 2:57:55 PMMay 21
to Alex Dehnert, Zachary Yaro, Alex Dehnert, David Booth, Michael Chiu, dsnc-o...@googlegroups.com, dsnc-...@googlegroups.com
Alex,
Sorry I'm late to this, but we actually assessed and disqualified Discourse because of price months ago. Glad we're at the same place now, though.
Best,
Elaine
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to dsnc-board+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsnc-board/41723260-5c18-4d7c-8524-3df73b52f489%40dehnerts.com.
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