@malcircuit The cheapest @Discourse plan is 50 USD per month https://discourse.org/pricing The alternative is self-hosting, which requires certain skills. Other alternatives include using a managed version of the *BB forums, which means having a visual design from the '00s in 2024.

And on top of all this, a group chat is qualitatively different than a forum. In fact, Discord is a group chat _and_ a forum.

If we don't understand why people make such choices, we can't start working on alternatives.