I know what you mean on the former point. I am concerned about retention too. But I'd say we have achieved a minimum bar of success at this point! If there is a sudden scattering from reddit, we have proven that our community is absolutely capable of setting up shop here. Posters, readers, regulars, everyone.

So we have built the boat! Before reddit there were lots of cosy forums across the internet. In the worst case, we can be one of them. We won't lose the group we've created together.

Re: Direction: I don't have one clear answer yet, but here is my thinking so far:

• There is very strong evidence that Malaysians want a national forum all to themselves – lowyat.net.
• I have long felt r/my has limits which prevent it from fully serving in this role. Malaysia has such diverse languages, cultures, religions, activities, everything. It's hard to fit this into a single subreddit (e.g. we can't have Chinese discussion)
• But while lowyat.net is very impressive, it's run on a structure / codebase / ideas which are 20 years old (phpbb). The community is shaped and limited by this fact, e.g. they can't have deeply threaded discussions.
• Perhaps this is an opportunity to create a thing which serves a similar role to lowyat, but is much more thoughtful about its impact and role in the Malaysian online ecosystem?
• The r/my team seems to have figured out how to create a warm and cosy community, that also serves as a force for good.
  • Like mediating racism and controversy instead of steering into it, and signal-boosting stuff that benefits the IRL Malaysian community.
  • E.g. if you do a quick Fermi estimate via our pageview counts, I suspect @a_HerculePoirot_fan@monyet.cc may literally be the most impactful teacher in Malaysia right now, via her SPM support. Consider the effect of slightly better career and university decisions across each student's entire lifespan. (And similarly, u/snel may be the most impactful counselor)

Sorry for the wall of text! This was a good exercise to get some thinking on paper. What do you think as well?