How Cursor got its users

Ship the debug artifact before you ask anyone for bug reports. Cursor put a "Report AI Action" entry in the Cmd+Shift+P palette that copies a Request ID, and its docs route bugs to forum.cursor.com with a fixed list: Cursor version, OS, repro steps, expected vs actual, Request ID, console errors. Threads arrive already debuggable, so a staff reply is a fix instead of "what version are you on". Each fixed thread stays up as a permanent search result.

done whenTake your last 10 support threads. How many could you act on without first asking for a version, a log or repro steps? If it is under half, your community is a triage queue, not a room.

Take the mod seat instead of posting as a guest. Cursor's own Show HN in March 2023 (cursor.so) got 9 points and 3 comments, so no launch handed them a room. Today r/cursor is moderated by 25+ people, most of them Cursor employees: a founding engineer, community engineers, a head of community, a VP of Developer Experience. The rules read like a maintainer wrote them: self promotion capped at 10% of a user's activity, bug reports require repro steps and a Request ID.

done whenSearch your product name on Reddit and Discord. Does a room already exist that you do not run? Ask its mods for a seat before you spin up a rival space nobody will join.

Reply in the threads you would rather delete. Cursor staff surface on pricing, billing and payment dispute posts, not on praise. A Cursor dev answered a pricing complaint with the actual math (500 fast premium requests included, then four cents a request after that) and the "Cursor pricing sucks" thread stayed live. Their stated rule: remove vague substance-free complaints, keep specific criticism. Deleting it would not delete the search demand behind it.

done whenOf your last 20 public replies, count how many sit under a complaint rather than a compliment. Under half means you only show up where it feels comfortable.

Run one forum with a category for other people's work, not only yours. forum.cursor.com splits into Announcements, Support, Ideas, Guides and Showcase. The canonical "how to report an AI issue" post, including the tip to turn privacy mode off temporarily, was written by a forum user and not by staff, and the team now points people at it. Staff carry badges, good answers get marked Accepted. A Discord with a #guides channel does this at zero budget.

done whenCount the posts in your space written by someone other than you that you now link to when answering a question. Zero means you have a support inbox wearing a forum skin.

Hand the room to users before you can pay anyone to run it. Cursor Ambassadors get nightly builds, free credits, a special forum badge, funding for meetup costs, merch, and a private Slack with the team. In exchange they moderate the forum and host Cafe Cursor sessions, workshops and hackathons listed on luma.com/cursorcommunity, with Campus Leads doing the same inside universities. With no budget, the tradeable parts are nightly builds, the badge and mod powers.

done whenName three users who already answer other users' questions without being asked. If you cannot name three, this step is premature: keep answering everything yourself.