In this Topic I’m keeping an ongoing list of interesting features and changes.
The intention here is that if anyone wants to get notified of these sorts of changes, they can set their notification level on this Topic (at the bottom of the timeline controls, at right.)
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No more public content; Members-only
Mostly. Our regular Campfires are still posted about publicly, and the Podtalk show still has public topic for its episodes.
The big change recently, obviously, is my shift to having almost no public content here anymore. Announced first to the already-paying members, and then announced to everyone with a login.
Discourse now has a “Reader Mode”
On Topics, there’s now a new icon that appears over by the Timeline. It’s a little person-reading-a-book icon.
Clicking that toggles the display to reduce the visibility of a whole bunch of things making for a much quieter reading experience.
Help for notifications
I’ve updated the Controlling notifications topic
Going back to lots of ‘free’
Back in May I decided to make [most of] this community be just for the paying members. There was still a lot that was readable by anyone, but mostly engagement required paying (becoming a Supporting member with a paying subscription.)
As you’d expect, this really took the wind out of our sails. I think it was too drastic of a change. So we’re going back to have a lot more interaction available for everyone.
There are still significant benefits to becoming a Supporting member.
Stealth launching the Ideas space
Most people will notice (via platform notifications) the new Ideas category when I begin posting topics there. This is a new area exclusively visible to our Supporting members.
As indie podcasters we face a lot of challenges. The Ideas category is a space where I’ll dig deeper into specific things… so you don’t have to figure everything out alone.
I’ll kick things off, and everyone can ask questions and take each idea further. Or, you can simply read along to keep those pesky unknown-unknowns at bay.
My posts in the Workbench category
I regularly post interesting things and questions in the Workbench category. I’ll continue posting such smaller/lighter topics there. (And everything else about this community also continues.) The Ideas category is for new, deeper dives ideas that I’m beginning as we head into 2025.
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New “Our Process” category
A new private space (only logged-in, Supporting members can even see it) to share what you’re working on, how you’re working, and what you’re figuring out. Posts here don’t need to be polished—they just need to be real. Share your drafts, workflows, missteps, or half-baked ideas. This is where we can show Our Process .
Workbench now permitted for Discourse’s “trust level 1”
The big point of the Workbench category is that a new topic there immediately notifies everyone—hundreds of people, everyone here. That’s always beea privilege for the Supporting Members (and it continues to be their privilege.)
But I realized there’s a pile of people who have been here forever, and who aren’t really deeply engaged in understanding how everything here works. They come by and try to ask a question— and it really would be better for everyone if they could post on the Workbench. If you really care, you can go to the site named “Meta” and dig up the Discourse “math” for how you earn “trust level 1”. But there’s really no way to “cheat” your way to that level of trust. It’s all about posts and replies and likes and times you’ve been here… etc.
The Ideas category didn’t pan out.
Bye-bye. I simply didn’t have the time to put into writing deeply considered topics. On the other hand, I don’t think anyone noticed it existed, so no one will notice it’s gone. 
