[codinghorror]

In my opinion, it is a truism in software that it takes three years to build the thing you originally set out to build. This was true of Stack Overflow, and it's also true of Discourse.

We're supposed to be building software with the users, while observing them, while participating alongside. This takes a few years to get right.

No plan survives contact with users, and that's as it should be.

[debacle]

It's also likely a truism that the things that add value and the things that make money converge into a Venn diagram, not always for the best.