imho I wouldn’t go overboard unless you are using it as an excuse for learning Discourse extension (which is a completely reasonable goal!).
I had a similar Discourse for several years, covering a HOA community (known as “Leaseholders” in the UK). The Leaseholders all shared Freehold so there was much to discuss. Residents were also invited and we did not split access areas, there seemed to be no need. There were Categories for Directors of the Freehold companies (made up of volunteers within the Leaseholder shareholders), but they didn’t gain traction.
What I found was:
- that several bullies emerged, upset people, forced me to (with good reason!) moderate their language upon which they took the hump and never logged in again, so the community ended up only the nice reasonable ones who could keep their cool and handle disagreement, but then didn’t represent the community as a whole anymore. I imagine most online residents groups have the same problem, whatever the platform.
- Facebook had a group and that was tough competition which again reduced engagement and reduced sign-ups.
It’s very hard getting people off of Facebook, but you should definitely have a go. Perhaps it’s an easier convince now we are over “Peak Facebook” (I personally haven’t been on Facebook in several years).
I appreciate that building bespoke features might help win people over, but then again it was like herding cats.
And now we are well and truly off topic from the original technical request …