[rsolva]

Using federated forum solutions would at least partly solve the chiken/egg problem. Forum software like NodeBB and reddit/HN-type variants like Lemmy, opens the possibility of having a topic based communiy, while still being open for interactions from the entirety of the Fediverse.

This already works well for Mastodon and Pixelfed; I follow accounts on mastodon.art from my Pixelfed account.

The reach of folks at the art focused Mastodon instance is not limited to their community. The same is possible for reddit and forum like communities!

Look at it like this; every forum becomes a potential sub-forum in the global network.

[Grumbledour]

It also gives you something hacker news mostly lacks (besides the occasional Ask HN) and that is discussing topics organically vs. just discussing what people elsewhere have said. I think this is also an important distinction older type of forum software have before the newer "link share" type.