Mighty Networks

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Build me a community platform that replaces Mighty Networks — and read the obstacle first.

**Branded mobile applications in the app stores** are what the higher tiers sell, and they mean developer accounts, review queues and a release every time you change something. That is the barrier. The other one is worse: **members do not migrate.** A community is the single asset in this catalogue that cannot be exported — you can move the posts, not the habit. Plan a move as a campaign, not a data import, or do not move at all.

STACK
- Node 20+ with Fastify, server-rendered HTML with a little vanilla JS
- SQLite through better-sqlite3, WAL mode, with FTS5
- An installable PWA rather than native applications — read the trade below
- Caddy in front

THE APP QUESTION
- A PWA installs to the home screen, runs full screen, works offline and can use the camera. It needs no store account and no review
- What it may not have, depending on platform: reliable push notifications, background sync, and a store listing
- Push is the one that matters here, because notifications are how members come back. Check what your members' devices actually support and write the answer in the README before promising anything
- If push turns out to be essential and unavailable, email digests carry the load — build those properly either way

THE DATA MODEL
- spaces: id, name, slug, kind, visibility, post_permission, position — discussion, course, events, chat
- posts, comments, reactions, mentions, subscriptions
- members: id, user_id, joined_at, role, tier_id, last_seen_at, trust_level, post_count
- tiers and subscriptions, with the payment provider's reference
- courses, lessons, progress — a course is a space whose posts are ordered lessons with completion tracked
- events: id, space_id, title, starts_at_utc, timezone, join_url, capacity; rsvps
- notifications, digests, and unread state per member per space

GETTING PEOPLE BACK, WHICH IS THE PRODUCT
- Email digests: what happened in the spaces a member follows, at a frequency they choose, and it stops when it stops being opened
- Mentions and replies immediately, everything else batched
- Unread state per space, correct, because a community that shows everything as unread is one people stop opening
- A weekly summary from the owner, which is the highest-performing message any community sends and costs nothing to support

MEMBERSHIP AND COURSES
- Hosted checkout, no card data here, access derived from an active subscription and never a stored flag
- Access checked on the server for every space, post and lesson. Gating in the browser is not gating
- Drip: release a lesson a week after enrolment, computed from the enrolment date
- Completion tracked per lesson with a resume position, which is what brings somebody back to lesson four

DISCUSSION THAT STAYS READABLE
- Threaded comments to a shallow depth, reactions, pinning
- Trust levels earned by reading and participating, distributing moderation. Build the counters from day one; they cannot be reconstructed
- Moderation queue, reports with reasons, block and mute, every action logged and reversible
- Spam defences: honeypot, rate limits per address hash, and review of a new member's first post

EVENTS
- With a time zone, an ICS download, reminders and a capacity
- Live streaming is not something to build — embed an existing service and post the recording afterwards

OPERATIONS
- .env: DATABASE_PATH, STORAGE_PATH, BASE_URL, SESSION_SECRET, SMTP_URL, PROVIDER_KEY, PROVIDER_WEBHOOK_SECRET, VAPID keys
- Migrations on boot, each once; nightly backup off the machine, restore script
- Export everything — members, posts, subscriptions — in one command, and say so publicly
- Health endpoint

WHAT MATTERS MOST
Digests and unread state. Everything else here is a forum with a paywall, and those two are the only reason anybody comes back.