Love this company
Love this company. Loved the REIGN product. They were there the entire time helping me set things up; and when things went wrong? They were quick to take action and help find a solution.
For open source projects
Reign for open source projects. Open source contributor community.
OSS projects use GitHub Issues + Discord + Stack Overflow + a Docusaurus docs site - hard to onboard contributors, no single identity.
Reign + Jetonomy + BuddyNext for a contributor community: getting-started guides, per-version Q&A and a showcase of community projects. Both plugins install free; bbPress is the alternative.
Q&A spaces with accepted answers, contributor profiles and badges, free to install. You buy the Reign theme; Jetonomy, BuddyNext and WB Gamification are ours and install free.
- Jetonomy forums and q&a
- BuddyNext community engine
- WB Gamification points and badges
Three highlights for open source projects.
- 01
Showcase: members post projects built with your library.
- 02
Jetonomy Q&A with accepted answers and per-release topic categories.
- 03
Contributor recognition via WB Gamification badges, free to install (GamiPress if you already run it).
What the site looks like on day one.
You launch with a contributor community, documentation, a support forum and a public roadmap. The forum takes the questions that do not belong in issues, docs live alongside discussion, and contributor recognition is visible rather than buried in a commit log. For a project the site becomes the place non-developers can participate, which is most of your users.
What a member actually does.
A user hits a problem, searches, finds a thread. If they stay they start answering, and the path from user to contributor usually runs through support rather than through code. Recognition matters disproportionately in open source, because contribution is unpaid: badges, ranks and a visible contributor list do real work that a thank-you in a changelog does not.
How this usually makes money.
Most projects run this as infrastructure rather than revenue, funded by sponsorship, donations or the commercial product alongside it. Where money appears it is usually a paid support tier, training, or a certification programme sold to the companies using the project. The community itself is rarely the thing you charge for.
The mistake to avoid.
Building this before the support load justifies it. A small project is better served by issues and a chat room, and an empty forum makes a project look abandoned. The signal to build is answering the same question repeatedly somewhere nobody can search later.
Open source project-specific questions.
Why not GitHub Discussions?
GitHub Discussions is fine for OSS contributors but invisible to non-coders. Reign hosts a wider audience: end users + integrators + contributors all in one community.
How does this fit with GitHub issues?
Alongside them. Issues are for bugs and tracked work; the forum is for questions, usage discussion and the conversations that should not become issues. Keeping support out of the issue tracker is usually a relief for maintainers and clearer for users.
Can I recognise contributors?
Yes, with points, badges and ranks earned from real activity, which in an unpaid community does more than most people expect. Make the contributor list prominent. Visible recognition is a large part of what keeps volunteers involved.
Is this worth it for a small project?
Probably not at first. A small project is better served by issues and a chat room until the support load justifies a searchable archive. The signal to build this is answering the same question repeatedly in places nobody can find later.
Should the forum replace issues?
No. Issues track work; the forum handles questions and usage discussion. Keeping support out of the issue tracker is usually a relief for maintainers and makes the roadmap readable again.
How do we get contributors from users?
Recognition and a clear path. Most contributors start by answering a question, not by writing code. Make helping visible with badges and a contributor list, and document how to take the next step.
Buy the theme. Add the plugins free.
Jetonomy, BuddyNext and WB Gamification cost nothing to install, and each has its own Pro plan for later. Running the third-party stack instead? The BuddyPress Community Bundle kit is the packaged route. Or have the Wbcom team install either one for $699 flat.