Discourse says forum value should not be measured by page views alone
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Reddit announced that starting October 29 it will shift to a login-first experience, rolling it out first in a few markets outside the US, citing AI scraping, a decline of more than 1 million in weekly search referrals, and richer ad profiles for logged-in users. Discourse takes a different view: the value of a forum should not be measured by page views alone. Discourse argues that when developers find Discourse posts through AI assistants and solve their problems, even without clicking a link, it is still a win in support efficiency for the software company operating the forum. The two platforms thus diverge on metrics in the AI search era: Reddit responds to declining referrals with login and ad profiles, while Discourse argues that problem-solving enabled by AI retrieval should count toward value.
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- Hacker News AIDiscourse (forums) sees itself well positioned for the AI search era (vs Reddit)
Discourse argues that Reddit's move toward a logged-in experience, driven by scraping concerns, falling search referrals and ad targeting, reflects an ad-based business model that its own forum customers don't share. It contends that for support forums and knowledge communities, an AI answer that resolves a user's problem without a click can still be a win, provided sources stay attributed and live links let people reach the full thread. Discourse says community operators, not a central platform, should control data boundaries, and that openness to AI retrieval is distinct from allowing bulk pre-training scrapes.
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