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Growth idea action plan

Discourse support category type with solved defaults

Spin up a dedicated support category type so answer workflows, solved states, and support-specific defaults exist before the queue gets noisy.

rare tacticmedium budget

Why this can grow a startup

Support threads decay when the category is really just general discussion with different branding. Discourse's support category type fixes that at setup time. It gives the team a question-and-answer lane with the solved plugin defaults exposed in one place, which means answer marking, filters, and support behavior are not bolted on later after bad thread habits already spread. That lowers cleanup work and makes the archive more useful to both searchers and moderators.

Company example

Discourse announced in March 2026 that admins can create a Support category type that automatically configures the fields and settings needed for support and question-and-answer workflows with the Discourse Solved plugin.

Source and metric

Source: Discourse Meta: Easily create Support categories using the discourse-solved plugin

Discourse says hosted Support categories using Solved are not available on Free or Starter tiers and are configured through a dedicated category type setup flow.

Source discovered: May 30, 2026

CommunitySupportDocumentationsupport architectureanswer retrievalcommunity opsqueue hygiene
GrowthDex operator note

When to use it

Use this when Community, Support, Documentation is relevant to support architecture, answer retrieval, community ops and you can run a bounded test with a medium budget.

When not to use it

Do not use it as a substitute for customer evidence, a clear owner, or a measurable stop condition. Local platform rules and market behavior still need checking.

Founder checklist

  1. Read Discourse Meta: Easily create Support categories using the discourse-solved plugin and identify what is directly supported.
  2. Choose one channel context: Community, Support, Documentation.
  3. Define the test around Discourse says hosted Support categories using Solved are not available on Free or Starter tiers and are configured through a dedicated category type setup flow..
  4. Set an owner, evidence window, and stop condition before launch.

Explore the context

Creator and Community GrowthCommunitySupportDocumentation

Related tactics

Discourse topic template before support post submit

Prefill support categories with the fields you actually need so bug reports and setup questions arrive with enough context to answer on the first pass.

uncommonCommunity, Support, Documentation

Discourse category approval rules by trust group

Require approval only for the risky cohort in a category, instead of forcing every topic and reply through the same moderation gate.

rareCommunity, Support, Operations

Discourse solved tags on mixed discussion categories

Use a solved tag such as `question` so only the threads that need an accepted answer behave like support topics inside an otherwise mixed category.

rareCommunity, Support, Product Feedback

Ideas category type with topic voting defaults

Create a dedicated ideas category that turns feature requests into a ranked backlog instead of a flat complaint list.

rareCommunity, Product Feedback, Support

Discourse solved schema and search priority

Turn solved support threads into a cleaner answer surface by marking accepted solutions, adding solved filters, and letting solved topics rank better in on-site search.

rareCommunity, Support, SEO

GitHub contributing tab before first PR

Write CONTRIBUTING.md early so GitHub surfaces the contribution route before the first issue or PR turns into a custom onboarding thread.

rareGitHub, Community, Support
Advisory bridge

Apply this with an operator

Build creator and community systems around real incentives, trust, and repeat participation.

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