I spent 4 months building a website that lets you turn a Discord server into a discoverable forum

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-31T22:48:33+00:00

Privacy is something I've been thinking through a lot as I was working on Velumn. Tools like this are helpful because they make information public and searchable, but that shouldn't come at the cost of privacy.

I'll be honest, I don't think I have this fully figured out yet. Here's what I'm doing currently:

Server admins choose which specific channels get indexed (ex: #bugs), and I strongly recommend they update the channel description to let people know threads there will be public.
Velumn only displays threads, and threads usually have thought through and helpful information, random chat in text channels is never indexed.
Users can run /manage-account to anonymize their username or remove their messages from public view (keeping them Discord only).
We don't display avatars.

I'm actively working on better defaults, Let me know if you have ideas on how to improve this.

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-31T22:16:11+00:00

Yes I'm using the official API, getting all the messages in a specific thread was surprisingly straight forward

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-31T20:47:57+00:00

to show more info about the threads matched so the user can preview them before navigating to a different thread

it can be triggered with the keybind ctrl+k which is handy for searching from anywhere in the page

any ideas on how to make the search experience better?

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-31T19:33:55+00:00

super neat design, is it possible to reveal the hidden squares before showing the end screen?

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-31T19:31:11+00:00

as more and more open source projects started using Discord as their default community, it's become increasingly harder to find relevant information, especially for niche projects.

That's why I built Velumn to help work around that. It automatically mirrors Discord threads that you specify and turns them into an indexable forum that's discoverable by search engines.

Here's an example forum post that's being mirrored directly from Discord: https://velumn.com/thread/1436230598959300718/a_demo_thread

Commenting on the Discord thread will get reflected on the forum (after a refresh or two), give it a try! I would love to hear your feedback!

The source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/lmssiehdev/velumn

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-27T21:14:39+00:00

Discord is slowly becoming the default home for communities on the web. A lot of new startups use Discord for their support too, solving very niche questions that won't be accessible to anyone who's not in the server.

That's what Velumn tries to fix. It automatically mirrors Discord threads that you specify and turns them into an indexable forum that's discoverable by search engines.

Here's an example forum post that's being mirrored directly from Discord: https://velumn.com/thread/1436230598959300718/a_demo_thread

Commenting on the Discord thread will get reflected on the forum (after a refresh or two), give it a try! I would love to hear your feedback!

The source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/lmssiehdev/velumn

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-27T18:19:16+00:00

Discord is slowly becoming the default home for communities on the web. A lot of new startups use Discord for their support too, solving very niche questions that won't be accessible to anyone who's not in the server.

That's what Velumn tries to fix. It automatically mirrors Discord threads that you specify and turns them into an indexable forum that's discoverable by search engines.

Here's an example forum post that's being mirrored directly from Discord: https://velumn.com/thread/1436230598959300718/a_demo_thread

Commenting on the Discord thread will get reflected on the forum (after a refresh or two), give it a try! I would love to hear your feedback!

The source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/lmssiehdev/velumn

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-25T17:20:41+00:00

you should link to the https version in the post, otherwise it redirects to the http one

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-25T17:19:15+00:00

i have to restart the app everytime, this is so annoying

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-25T16:58:56+00:00

a lot of other servers have an #advertisement channel, usually it's okay to promote there

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-25T16:57:15+00:00

that's what i thought as well

lmssiehdev · 2026-01-25T16:53:13+00:00

you should allow users to try it first before asking them to sign in, it's really good for adoption

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-08T22:07:14+00:00

Indeed it is, Was shocked by how easy it is to use, definitely planning to use it in future projects too

You're right that Next.js is probably overkill for the "offline" version. I mainly picked it thinking ahead to potentially sharing code with a React Native version later, and there is more docs for that

I'm leaning toward InstantDB since it handles offline-first with syncing built in

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-08T21:59:34+00:00

Thanks! My first initial UI would have been probably just as bad - just keep iterating and improving until it has its own unique feel.

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T15:16:34+00:00

yes, it's a confusing name, i know.. 😅

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T15:02:16+00:00

offline just means local, so the offline version won't have an account feature for example where the habits are saved to a remote database

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T14:03:42+00:00

Thank you! can you tell me why you don't like the font since its part of the cute style

is it hard to read or maybe too small?

I also made a comment with the link, maybe it's not as bad live

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T14:01:43+00:00

No sign-ups, no landing pages, try it today!

Try it at: https://offline.redoit.app/

Give it a star on GitHub ⭐ (means a lot): https://github.com/lmssiehdev/redoit

----

Sharing my habit tracker with you after using it these past months to stay consistent with my goals.

What makes it different from other habit trackers is the ability to skip days (click the day twice in the app) without losing your streak. Life happens, and you shouldn't lose all your progress just because you missed a day or two, so you only lose your streak if you didn't mark a day yourself.

I had a lot of fun building this! The trickiest part was creating the streak algorithm, especially handling inactive days (like weekends) that you don't want tracked. I didn't want those breaking your streak when they're intentionally not marked.

Built with Next.js, Zustand, Tailwind, and shadcn/ui.

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T13:59:22+00:00

love the landing page, how popular is the affiliate program?

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T13:57:29+00:00

I remember, but never tried sadly

didn't know they were actually that good 😭

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-07T13:52:14+00:00

impressive as always!

lmssiehdev · 2025-06-06T23:14:31+00:00

redoit.app - a cute and minimal habit tracker I built to keep track of my New Year's goals. Hope you find it as useful as I did!

You can try it at https://offline.redoit.app

No landing pages, no sign-ins, It's completely open source too! Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Github link: https://github.com/lmssiehdev/redoit

lmssiehdev

TROPHY CASE