There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer to this question, and I think that is why so many people feel unsure about what to choose. Most people are trying to make this decision based on what they think they “should” or are “supposed” to do, instead of what actually makes sense for their niche, their goals, and the type of community they want to build. Including whether they even have a real plan for getting members. 👀 And a big part of the stress around this choice comes from thinking it is final. Like once you pick public or private, you are locked into it forever. That is not actually how I look at it. 🤷‍♀️ You have way more flexibility than you think. You are allowed to test. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to treat this like an experiment and collect real data instead of trying to make the perfect decision upfront. Whatever you choose is going to show you how people actually respond. What they engage with, what they ignore, and what needs to change. Don't forget to track it! ✍️ You have way more flexibility than you think. In fact, you should be testing. You should be changing your mind when you get more information. And if you needed someone to tell you, you are allowed to have more than one community serving different purposes. Especially if one of them is meant to help you get discovered. It does not have to be complicated or add a "massive" amount of work. Because I will tell you one big myth that is still floating around out there.. you know the one.. "If you build it, they will come." No. 😐 That is not how it works. So much good work never gets seen. Not because it is bad. Not because the person is not smart or capable. But because nobody ever sat them down and said the simple truth. You have to get traffic. * hello * Please read that again.. PLEASE! lol This is not me trying to sell you on a traffic package. Yes, I have found people that can help you like @Eric Howell and his upcoming Free community Traffic Lounge and then even @Matthew Burns with his ProveWorth community that is essentially the community Trust Pilot or Yelp. Two people I trust a lot, because I know traffic is needed for you to even get the business help.

On this call, @Matthew Burns shared more on what he's been learning about AI discoverability and got more practical about what this actually means for your Skool community. How ChatGPT and other AI tools are influencing decisions, and what that means for how you structure your Skool content moving forward. Most of the call focused on how to stop guessing what to post and start using actual data. Google Keyword Planner tells you what people are typing. That should influence your About page, your YouTube titles, and your public posts. AI tools pull from content that answers questions directly and repeats positioning consistently. My biggest takeaway was how you should start recommending yourself! What we covered on this call: How AI tools decide what to surface in an answer How to use Google Keyword Planner for real direction How YouTube supports AI visibility Why public posts and comments help with indexing How to build a simple system so you are not creating randomly The point is simple. If AI cannot clearly understand what you do and who it is for, it will not recommend you. 🎥 Watch the replay here: ChatGPT Is The New Search Engine | Position Your Skool Community In 2026 Now 👇 If someone asked ChatGPT about your niche today, would your Skool community be obvious as an option?

I’ve been asked this directly and I’ve also seen a lot of people asking it publicly. Why are the Skoolers community rules vague? Some people are totally fine with it. Others really dislike it. Both reactions are okay. Some people prefer things extremely clear with exact limits. Some are used to platforms where everything is spelled out. Others have been part of large communities before and already understand why vague rules exist in the first place. Here’s the part that matters and why I now strongly recommend vague rules… even for smaller communities. Hard rules create loopholes. Vague rules create better communities. The moment you introduce hard limits, people naturally want to reach those limits. Instead of looking at the intention of a post, it turns into “does this technically fit in the guidelines?” It even takes away from something that makes a community really wonderful. If a community like Skoolers spelled out exactly what a good post is and what a bad post is, we might never see some of the creativity that comes from someone trying something out. From experimenting. From sharing something that wasn’t done before that ends up being genuinely good. Vague rules leave room for that. They also mean that as moderators and admins, we end up having a lot of conversations. We look at patterns. We make decisions based on context instead of black and white rules. Sometimes there is a new person who is just trying to fit in. A post might technically be questionable, but the right response is to welcome them and guide them. Other times someone is new and blatantly self promoting, which clearly is not allowed. In that case, we can redirect and still welcome them without letting the behavior continue. Those situations look similar on paper but they are very different in reality. Vague rules allow for that distinction. They also protect against bad actors. An example that Andrew Kirby shared explains this well. If people were told they would not be prosecuted for stealing things under $50, you would immediately see people stealing things up to $49. The clear rule creates the behavior.

One of the great things about Skool is that Sam Ovens listens when people ask questions or make feature requests inside the Skoolers community. Some questions that came up were: How do I get notified when someone posts in my community? How do I get a notification when a new member requests to join? These were common questions because most owners want to respond quickly and keep engagement moving. Until now there was no way to turn those alerts on. Skool listened and built the solution. You now have them in your notification controls. They are turned off by default. If you want alerts, you can turn them on manually. Here is how to update your notification settings: Click on your profile photo. - Desktop will show you the user menu drop down - Mobile you will have to click the 3 dots in the top right to get to the user menu drop down On the user menu drop down, click Settings. Then click on Notifications. - Desktop it will have tabs on the side and you see "Notifications" there - Mobile you will need to slide it to see "Notifications" Then expand the notification settings for the community you want to change. Click either On or Off for what you want to be notified on. You can turn on notifications for: • Admin announcements • Event reminder email • New customer email • Membership requests • Reported content • New Post This puts you in control of what you stay updated on. Faster approvals. Better responsiveness. A smoother community experience for everyone. Which notification are you turning on first now that the option is finally here?

@Koen Cramer made a really fun quiz to test your knowledge on the Gemmed posts inside Skoolers. If you're waiting for Skool News to start, then it might be fun to go do! Here's the link to the post: https://www.skool.com/skoolers/test-your-knowledge-skool-gem-posts-quiz