3 things to do in your first 48 hours

Your first 48 hours, mapped out.

Product: Discourse
Sent from: discourse.org
Sent: 2 September 2026
Notes: Notes on this email ↓

No dark-mode styles — this email renders the same in a dark client.

Your first 48 hours, mapped out.

Welcome to Discourse! If you're wondering what to actually do now, it's a fair question.

Every community starts with the same blank page. But after helping 20,000 communities grow, we've found 3 things matter most in your first 48 hours.

1. Make it yours

In your admin settings, add your logo, brand colors, and a line describing what the community is for. 5 minutes later, it looks like something you can show your team. You'll find these under the Appearance section of your admin dashboard.

2. Seed 5 discussion topics

Write 5 posts based on the questions your users already ask in support tickets, GitHub issues, or on Slack. Move those conversations here. Now visitors have something to reply to instead of an empty room, and your team has something to react to. Start a new topic straight from your community's front page.

3. Get your teammates in

Before you invite anyone from outside, bring in 2 or 3 people from your own team, maybe a product manager, an engineer, or someone from support. Have them look around and post a reply. Get that internal buy-in before you go wider, so the first outside visitors land on a site that already has some life in it. You can send invitations by clicking the Invite link in the sidebar.

If you’re ready to build and grow a thriving platform, check out The Complete Guide to Building Your Online Community (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5daZ_eSVGGA&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=142632445&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Etr4KXZk5Hujx4aW64NoggOsYCIEm5i_UMtnBFfRztMNVTtsy9GoxN-gteiDcAaK3OvygaBhQIzJVTqWRdjSJxO_F6Ox0Ly31amxu_a7WRjQFmpnbKuM7pfMGXjtf0HLb6FsW&_hsmi=142632445 ) to learn everything you need to know to get started with Discourse!

The Complete Guide to Building Your Online Community (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5daZ_eSVGGA&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=142632445&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Etr4KXZk5Hujx4aW64NoggOsYCIEm5i_UMtnBFfRztMNVTtsy9GoxN-gteiDcAaK3OvygaBhQIzJVTqWRdjSJxO_F6Ox0Ly31amxu_a7WRjQFmpnbKuM7pfMGXjtf0HLb6FsW&_hsmi=142632445 )

Remember: You don't need a content strategy yet, just a few colleagues who've seen the site and a few posts worth reading.

The Discourse Team

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Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc., 8 The Green, Suite #8383, Dover, DE 19901

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Accession: nse/discourse/2026-09-02/361
From: Discourse · team@discourse.org
Sent: 2 September 2026 · 21:00 UTC

This email by the numbers

Counted from the email itself. Medians are across the whole archive.

Length: 339 words; median 167 words across the archive
Links: 6; median 8 links across the archive
Images: 7; 18 KB · 7 with alt text
Width: 600 px; with mobile styles
Arrived: same day; median day 14 across the archive

Notes on this email

The email body has 339 words, far exceeding the archive median of 170.

What works

Copy
The average sentence is 10 words, above the archive median of 8.1.
Call to action
The email includes 6 links, fewer than the archive median of 13.
Design & layout
The email uses 7 images, below the archive median of 8.
Design & layout
The total image weight is 18 KB, much lower than the archive median of 137 KB.

Where it is weaker

Subject & preheader
The subject line is 37 characters, longer than the archive median of 35.
Copy
The email body contains 339 words, more than the archive median of 170.
Copy
The reading grade is 6, higher than the archive median of 5.8.

Trim the copy to around the archive median of 170 words for a more typical length.

Drafted from counted facts by a language model, for Berna Partal, who is responsible for it. Written 2 September 2026. It describes only what this archive counted, and has no access to how the email performed.

Something wrong with these notes?