I built a forum for Kosshi

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I built a forum for Kosshi and started running it in July. It's a place where posts and replies stay together by topic, rather like a message board.

I've been so absorbed in developing Kosshi these past few months that I haven't had much time to write here. In the meantime, the conversations on the forum have become more active, and I've started to feel that this way of talking with people suits me quite well.

From its launch in July through early October, the forum had 56 topics and 250 replies.

Letting other people read the conversation

I wrote before about dropping the contact form and putting up my email address. I still talk with people directly by email.

With email, though, only the two of us can see the exchange. Sometimes I get the same question from more than one person. Other people have no way to know whether something has already been reported, whether I'm working on it, or whether I plan to work on it later.

I considered keeping a separate page with a list of every bug and task. But keeping that list up to date would be another job. I didn't think I could keep it up while also developing Kosshi.

On a forum, if someone reports a bug and I reply, "I'll work on this," other people can read that too. People can see from the conversation whether I'm working on something or planning to work on it. I don't have to keep a separate list up to date. I liked the idea of it working that way.

Sometimes I also want to ask people what they think of an idea. I'm considering a feature like this; how does it sound? I'd like a few people to take a look. Asking everyone separately by email is difficult, and they can't read each other's replies.

With a forum, I can put an idea in one topic and hear from several people. They can read what someone else wrote and add their own thoughts. That was why I built it: I wanted to move some of the one-to-one conversations between me and the people using Kosshi into a more open place.

I'd also had the impression that quite a few people who use outliners and writing apps talk on forums. I haven't looked into it much, but I thought it might be a familiar format for people using Kosshi too.

Replying at my own pace

I could also use something like Discord to talk with users. For me, though, an online indicator makes me imagine someone thinking, "Oh, you're there," and I start feeling that I need to reply quickly. Even when nobody is rushing me, I put that pressure on myself.

I've set up and run a Japanese-language Discord community for another product of mine before. I felt that same pressure to reply quickly then, and it was quite hard to keep up.

A forum doesn't give me much of that feeling. If I reply a day or two later, it doesn't bother me nearly as much. I can read what someone wrote, think about it for a bit, and reply when I'm ready.

In that sense, it's similar to email. We each read and reply in our own time. And other people can see the exchange too. That pace feels about right for me, and I find it less tiring.

Building what I need

There are existing forum platforms, like Discourse, but this time I built my own. It runs on Cloudflare Workers, and the running costs are very low.

I want a place where I can just talk with the people using the app. But keeping a community lively feels like a bit much for me. Putting lots of time into that kind of work isn't something I'm particularly good at either.

I was hoping for something more like an ongoing conversation in text about bugs and ideas. As a result, the UI ended up plain and simple, mostly just text, with very little decoration.

Along with email notifications, I added a way to manage people taking part in the TestFlight beta and notify them when I put out a new beta build. Being able to add the things I need while developing Kosshi, in a way that fits how I work, is one of the good parts of building it myself.

Seeing how things are being handled

Now that I've been running it for a while, we can talk through bug reports and questions about features on the forum. I can also post an idea myself and ask the people using Kosshi what they think.

For example, someone suggested being able to save the arrangement of split views, so I added a feature called Workspaces to the beta. Another person tried it and offered more feedback on naming and which parts of the state should be saved.

Recently, some reviews have also mentioned how I respond to inquiries, and how I listen to ideas and make improvements. It's made me realize that people notice those things too.

When those conversations stay on the forum, other people can see what ideas have come up, what I'm thinking, and how I'm responding. Being able to see that might help people feel more at ease using the app, and trust the person making it.

That's still just my impression, but so far, this feels like a good direction.

Of course, email is still there too. If something is hard to discuss publicly, people can email me. If it's something they'd like other people to see, they can post on the forum. I'd like people to choose whichever feels easier for what they want to talk about.

A place to write in your own language

Kosshi has more users in Japan than in any other country, but few Japanese users participate in the forum. I think the fact that most of the conversation is in English makes it harder to join in. I'm not very good at English either, so I know how that feels.

If I can, I'd like to remove that language barrier. Something like X, where posts are translated automatically: each person writes in the language they normally use, and the reader sees it in their own language. That seems like it could work well. The forum can't do that yet, but it's something I'm considering for a future improvement.

I can reply at my own pace, and other people can read what we talked about. After running it for a while, I'm glad I made it.

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