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‎docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-27-community-channels-design.md‎

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# Modern Python — Community & Channels
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**Date:** 2026-06-27
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**Status:** Approved design, ready for planning
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**Owner:** modern-python maintainers
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**Scope:** Which channels the `modern-python` org uses to reach, support, and
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retain users — and how they fit together. Extends the
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[promotion strategy](2026-06-24-promotion-strategy-design.md); **amends its Phase 5
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deferral of Discord/Telegram.**
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## Why this doc exists
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The promotion strategy and launch playbook already specify the **broadcast**
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channels (Show HN, r/Python, Lobsters, awesome-lists, the org-story post,
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X/Mastodon/Bluesky one-liners). What they do *not* cover is **ongoing community
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channels** and the broader channel landscape. The strategy deliberately deferred
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real-time chat:
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> Phase 5 — *"Deferred decision: Discord / Telegram only if Discussions demand
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> justifies it — start GitHub-native."*
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> Out of scope — *"Standing up Discord/Telegram up front."*
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This doc revisits that decision on purpose, with a concrete plan and a stated
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justification, and fills in the missing channel map.
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## The mental model: three kinds of channel
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The three categories have completely different cost/payoff profiles, and conflating
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them is what leads to wasted effort.
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1. **Broadcast (one-shot spikes).** HN, Reddit, Lobsters, awesome-lists, the
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org-story post. High impact, low ongoing cost, effectively single-use per
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project. **Already fully specified** in the launch playbook — out of scope here.
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2. **Owned community (ongoing rooms we run).** GitHub Discussions, Telegram,
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Discord. High ongoing cost (presence + moderation); only pays off at critical
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mass.
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3. **Borrowed audience (show up where users already are).** Existing Python chat
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communities, newsletters, podcasts, cross-post platforms, Q&A sites. Highest ROI
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for a small project, and **not yet in the strategy.**
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**Strategic principle:** a 57★ project's scarcest resource is the attention needed
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to seed a room. So **borrow audiences before building our own**, and make the one
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*owned async* asset (GitHub Discussions) the durable, search-indexed backbone.
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## Owned community channels
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### GitHub Discussions — the backbone (start now)
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Discussions is the primary support and feedback surface. It is searchable,
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Google-indexed, async (a good fit for a solo maintainer in one timezone), and needs
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no infrastructure. Every chat answer is ephemeral; every Discussion answer
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compounds — it helps everyone who later searches the same error.
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This elevates Discussions from the strategy's "seed it" framing to **primary support
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surface**. Concrete actions (already partly in Phase 5): enable org-wide, seed Q&A /
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Ideas categories, pin a "what should we build next?" roadmap thread, and route
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launch-comment feedback here.
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### Telegram + Discord — open at launch week, not before
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We will run **both**, justified by a **language/geo split** — the only rationale
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that keeps two rooms coherent rather than fragmenting a small community:
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- **Telegram** — Russian-speaking Python community.
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- **Discord** — English / global audience.
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**Timing: open them during launch week, not earlier.** An empty room opened months
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ahead actively hurts: during the highest-traffic moment (the Show HN spike), every
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visitor sees "3 members, last message 2 weeks ago" — a worse signal than a clean
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Discussions tab. Launch week is the one moment of concentrated attention; people who
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arrive via HN/Reddit are the most likely to join, so that is when to seed the rooms
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past the empty-room threshold. Opening cold afterward rarely catches up.
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**Routing rule:** link both rooms from every README, docs site, and the org profile,
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but push *answerable* questions to Discussions ("ask in Discussions so the next
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person finds it; chat for everything else"). This keeps the durable, indexed record
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growing and keeps chat low-stakes.
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### Why both, and the cost we are accepting
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Running two rooms doubles moderation/presence burden and is normally a trap for a
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small project. We accept it **only** because the two rooms serve distinct
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language communities that would not share one room anyway. If, in practice, one room
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stays inactive, fold it back into Discussions rather than keeping a dead room linked.
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## Borrowed-audience channels (the highest-ROI gap)
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Ranked by ROI for a young Python OSS project. None of these require running a room.
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1. **Existing Python chat communities.** Participate (tastefully, not drive-by
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self-promo) in the official **Python Discord** and the FastAPI / Litestar /
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FastStream community channels. Thousands of exact-fit users, zero maintenance.
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2. **Newsletters — submit.** **PyCoder's Weekly** and **Python Weekly** both accept
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submissions; a single inclusion can out-perform a Show HN, and they suit the
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honest "when *not* to use this" framing already written for launch.
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3. **Podcasts — pitch once docs are polished.** **Talk Python to Me** and
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**Python Bytes** cover new libraries; the "one DI wiring across FastAPI /
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FastStream / Typer" story is a natural fit.
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4. **Cross-post platforms.** Republish the org-story post to **dev.to** / **Hashnode**
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with a canonical link back to the source, for a second SEO-friendly audience.
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5. **Q&A sites.** Answer real DI / outbox questions on **Stack Overflow** and
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reference the docs where genuinely relevant.
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6. **Conference lightning talks / PyCon.** Highest effort, optional, later.
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## Low-grind upkeep model (solo maintainer)
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To keep the owned rooms from becoming the "ongoing grind" the strategy warns
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against:
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- **One org-wide server each**, not per-repo: a single Discord with per-project
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channels, one Telegram group. The whole stack shares one community.
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- **Spam control via a single mod bot** on Discord; an anti-spam bot on Telegram.
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Pinned **rules** + a pinned **"read first"** message on Discord.
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- **A standing redirect reflex:** an answerable question → "let's move this to
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Discussions," so the durable record gets built and chat stays low-stakes.
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- **Honest status pin:** these are young, actively-developed projects — matching the
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calibrated launch voice.
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## How this fits the existing strategy
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| Strategy phase | This doc's effect |
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|---|---|
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| Phase 4 — Coordinated launch | Telegram + Discord open in the **launch window**, seeded by launch traffic; rooms linked from launch assets. |
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| Phase 5 — Sustain + feedback | **Amends** the Discord/Telegram deferral: both rooms ship (geo-split justified). Discussions elevated from "seed" to **primary support surface**. Adds the borrowed-audience channel program as ongoing work. |
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## Success metrics
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- **Discussions:** thread volume, answered-question rate, Ideas submissions.
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- **Chat rooms:** members joined in launch week, weekly active posters, ratio of
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answerable questions redirected to Discussions. A room that stays inactive 30 days
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post-launch is a candidate to retire.
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- **Borrowed audiences:** newsletter inclusions landed, podcast appearances, referral
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traffic from cross-posts / existing communities.
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## Out of scope
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- The broadcast channels and their copy — owned by the launch playbook.
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- Per-repo chat servers (one org-wide server each instead).
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- Paid promotion / ads.
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- Standing up the rooms *before* launch week.
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## Open questions (resolve during planning)
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- Exact launch-week sequencing of room creation vs. the Show HN spike (maintainer's
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call on the window).
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- Which mod/anti-spam bots to use for Discord and Telegram.
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- Whether to retire one room if it stays inactive, and the threshold for that call.

‎pyproject.toml‎

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[project]
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name = "modern-python-org"
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version = "0.1.0"
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version = "0"
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description = "modern-python.org organization homepage"
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requires-python = ">=3.11"
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dependencies = [

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