# How did you decide to make Discourse this way?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-did-you-decide-to-make-discourse-this-way/75153
**Category:** Site feedback
**Created:** [1. Dezember 2017 um 09:01 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-did-you-decide-to-make-discourse-this-way/75153 "2017-12-01T09:01:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![oiclid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/oiclid/32/82392_2.png) [@oiclid](https://meta.discourse.org/u/oiclid)
#### Post date: [1. Dezember 2017 um 09:01 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-did-you-decide-to-make-discourse-this-way/75153/1 "2017-12-01T09:01:34Z")

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When designing and building Discourse, how did you guys decide on what features to add or not add? Did you read any studies about online communities? Did you just add/not add features based on what you liked? Essentially, was it some sort of scientific process, or did you decide to build something you wanted for the world?

Non-related question: Do they teach Internet Anthropology in schools? 🤔

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [1. Dezember 2017 um 09:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-did-you-decide-to-make-discourse-this-way/75153/2 "2017-12-01T09:02:52Z")

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There is a topic about this in #releases

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### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [1. Dezember 2017 um 10:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-did-you-decide-to-make-discourse-this-way/75153/3 "2017-12-01T10:41:59Z")

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> [@How do we decide what goes into each release of Discourse?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-we-decide-what-goes-into-each-release-of-discourse/20870):
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> How do we decide what goes into each release of Discourse? Generally speaking, this is the model: That is amortized across: How many different Discourse instances are complaining / asking about this? How many of these Discourse instances are paying customers, either ours or someone else’s? What is the community composition of those Discourse instances? Large, small, specialist, generalist, cranky (we dislike change), progressive (we love change)? How active is the instance? Is it a …