Discourse has a long history of including ancillary features in the product, particularly as plugins.
For a long time, that core vs. plugin boundary was the way that we defined the boundary and kept bloat at bay.
In the past couple years, we have integrated many plugins into core, blurring that boundary. But it still exists. Core plugins can be easily toggled on or off, allowing sites to control which of these feature sets to include.
That has laid the foundation for including more features within Discourse in this way.
It is not exclusive with integrating with other independent solutions. Many have their preferred solutions for these adjacent problems, and we support that too. But where people don’t have those preferences, or where they prefer something even more deeply integrated, we’re more prepared to offer that now.
So I think you’re right to point out this is a bit of a change in direction, or perhaps an acceleration in the direction we were already headed.
There are risks to this approach, but we are being very intentional about it, for example, by continuing to define a plugin boundary with toggles. Another risk is dividing our attention as a small team.
But we think we are in a different world now, where we can include more of these features at a level of quality we can be proud of and people will appreciate.
More hints about this mindset shift are in here: Discourse in 2027: Building Together
And this is the kind of thing we’d welcome bringing to the discussion at any of these hangouts as well.