Starting a community

Go to Communities and select Create community.

What you choose at creation

• Name — 3 to 60 characters.
• Address (slug) — the /c/your-community part of the URL. This cannot be changed later, because every link ever shared to the community depends on it. Choose carefully.
• Description — what belongs here and what does not. This is what people read when deciding whether to join.
• Category — which subject area it sits under, so it appears in the right place when people browse.
• Public or private — private means invite-only, and its posts are hidden from non-members.

Before you invite anyone

1. Write the rules. You can add up to 20. Specific beats exhaustive — three rules people read are worth more than fifteen they skip.
2. Add a welcome message. New members see it when they join.
3. Post something. An empty community gives a visitor no reason to join. Seed it with a few real posts first.
4. Appoint a moderator once there is enough activity that you cannot read everything yourself.

Running it

You start as the community's admin. Community Insights shows you how it is growing — members, posts, and activity over time.

Before creating a new community, check whether one already exists for the subject. Two half-active communities on the same topic serve people worse than one busy one.