I completely agree that we need new metrics, that reframe is genuinely useful. My concern is that changing the dashboard alone doesn’t necessarily solve the underlying problem.
If AI increasingly satisfies users without them ever visiting the source, then “reach” and “community growth” begin to diverge. We may successfully build the world’s best library while finding fewer and fewer people ever walk into the coffee shop.
Measuring the library differently is useful. The harder question is how we reconnect the library to the coffee shop.
One thing I’ve realized is that the “Coffee Shop” isn’t only valuable for retaining experienced members. It also acts as a vital onboarding space.
Many new users are intimidated by highly technical discussions because they’re afraid of asking “stupid” questions in front of experts. Our off-topic category has always been the place where they could simply interact as people first. Once they realized that the most knowledgeable members were approachable and friendly, participating in technical discussions became much less intimidating. In that sense, the coffee shop doesn’t just retain the core community, it actively creates it.
That idea has also shaped how I’ve been building my own forum.
Rather than trying to fight AI, I’ve been experimenting with making the “Library” as AI-friendly as possible while preserving the unique value of the human experience.
One practical experiment has been building a plugin that trims topic content for anonymous visitors, while verified search engines and AI crawlers still receive the complete content for indexing and citation. The goal isn’t to hide information from AI or search engines. It’s to keep the Library fully discoverable while making the Coffee Shop itself something you only truly experience once you walk through the door.
What I’m really hoping for is an ecosystem where AI doesn’t just answer questions, but also recognizes when the real value lies in the human conversation and naturally points people toward it.
The mission of communities hasn’t changed. We still need to build great coffee shops inside our libraries. What has changed is the path people take to get there. Search engines naturally led people through the library before they reached the coffee shop. AI often satisfies them before they ever arrive.
If AI becomes the world’s librarian, our challenge isn’t to reinvent the coffee shop. It’s to make sure the librarian still points people toward the door.