# Why Your Community Needs a Home, Not Just a Group Chat

**URL:** <https://tzm.one/t/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/53828>\
**Category:** Articles\
**Tags:** discourse, open-source\
**Created:** [September 30, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://tzm.one/t/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/53828 "2025-09-30T14:27:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Louie](https://tzm.one/user_avatar/tzm.one/louie/32/50_2.png) [@Louie](https://tzm.one/u/Louie)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://tzm.one/t/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/53828/1 "2025-09-30T14:27:45Z")

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We all crave connection. And when we want to bring people together, the easiest option is to spin up a group chat. It feels natural — everyone’s already on their phones, and the barrier to entry is basically zero. But if you’ve ever tried turning a Slack, Discord, or WhatsApp group into a real community, you’ve seen the trade-off — speed and convenience come at a cost.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://blog.discourse.org/2025/09/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/](https://blog.discourse.org/2025/09/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/)

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**Author:** ![Kees](https://tzm.one/user_avatar/tzm.one/kees/32/8442_2.png) [@Kees](https://tzm.one/u/Kees)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://tzm.one/t/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/53828/2 "2025-09-30T14:29:46Z")

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Perfectly sums up my frustrations with Discord as well ✅

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**Author:** ![Kees](https://tzm.one/user_avatar/tzm.one/kees/32/8442_2.png) [@Kees](https://tzm.one/u/Kees)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 10:45am UTC](https://tzm.one/t/why-your-community-needs-a-home-not-just-a-group-chat/53828/3 "2025-10-13T10:45:42Z")

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This also kind of happened to TZM in general, maybe because of the use of in-the-moment tooling for collaboration?

- **Phase 1: Excitement** - Every new group chat starts with an enthusiasm boost. Messages fly, intros are made, and it feels like the community is buzzing with possibility.
- **Phase 2: Chaos** - Then, the floodgates open. Important updates get buried, conversations overlap, and the pace becomes impossible to follow.
- **Phase 3: Fragmentation** - Side conversations break off into smaller groups. Some people stay active, others disengage, and the unified “everything” chat starts to splinter.
- **Phase 4: Decay** - Participation drops. Either the group goes silent, or the noise becomes so overwhelming that most people mute notifications.
- **Phase 5: Abandonment** - Eventually, the search for a “better” solution begins. The group chat is either left behind or left to stagnate.