I have been using discourse for just a little bit and had the amazing @pfaffman help me install a community for my small company. So I am not completely aware of all the ins and outs of this fantastic platform. But I have used Facebook groups for several community support forums and run a few as an admin.
It interesting to note that for many (including me) the only reason I am on Facebook is because of groups. Without groups I would have abandoned it years ago. In fact if the two groups I am in right now left for discourse I would happily leave Facebook. So the connection for many to Facebook is tenuous at best.
A few things I have noted:
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People want a single click join experience to groups. They don’t want to deal with signups/logins/passwords.
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The post and comment composition UI must be seamless and simple. Discourse is super powerful and but cognitively it is too much for many. Have to allow people to post with very little distraction.
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the newsfeed is important yes, but what drives it is the addictive notifications system Facebook employs.
You have to ask yourself maybe we don’t want to replicate the addictive nature of Facebook. Maybe a light federation is what we want to aim at. Make it easier to join discourses with DiscourseHub. Make it easy to get notifications. And see where that gets you in the medium term.