10.4 Platform #

Platform decisions are marriage decisions. Easy to start. Painful to end.

Choosing your platform is like choosing a business partner.

Opening a new space means monthly overhead. Setup costs. Lock-in decisions. User behavior you can't easily change.

Even if you can export the data, the member habits stay behind. They've built muscle memory. You've built integrations. Leaving is hard.

Free platforms are tempting. But if you're building on someone else's land, you're subject to their rules and risks.

Before choosing a platform, ask two questions.

First, how do your members naturally communicate? Teenagers with video habits won't thrive in forums. Writers need version control and long-form tools. Creators want visual-first environments. Pros want organized, searchable threads.

Second, how do you deliver value? Events need calendars and live tools. Courses need modular content. Support needs good threading and tagging. Culture needs easy onboarding and retention tools.

The worst platform is the one that gets in the way.

Always test first. Invite 5 to 20 members to a trial space. Watch how they actually use it.

And always build redundancy. Store your own member data. Automate exports to your tools. Design processes that live outside your platform.

Every move costs you members. Every migration hurts.

Choose wisely. Your platform shapes your future.