Every platform carries pieces of its past—features that made sense at one point in time, ideas that were shaped by the landscape of the moment, experiments that never fully came together. Street Source is no different. And as part of my ongoing code cleanup and platform modernization, it’s time to officially retire one of those legacy features: Groups.
When I originally built the early version of Groups, the goal was simple—keep up with vBulletin. Back then, social platforms were racing to match each other feature for feature, and groups were a rising trend. They were a lightweight way for people to form connections around shared interests, project types, or regional communities.
But fast-forward to today, and groups—especially across major social networks—have evolved far beyond what that original Street Source implementation was ever designed to handle. They’ve become mini-communities, each with their own culture, moderators, event calendars, for-sale posts, and hyper-niche discussions. And while that’s a great direction in a broader ecosystem, the old Street Source Groups feature just never grew into anything close to that experience.
In fact, it was never fully implemented at all. It sat in the codebase as a half-finished idea—something I always meant to come back to, but never quite did, because the real value of Street Source has always been the trucks, builds, events, and project stories. That’s where the heart of the community lives.
So as part of focusing the platform and clearing out unfinished or unused features, I’ve decided to remove Groups entirely.
This isn’t the end of community spaces on Street Source—far from it. It just means the old version of Groups isn’t coming along for the ride. I’m already thinking about what a modern, purpose-built community feature should look like… something that actually fits how automotive enthusiasts connect today. Maybe that ends up being topic-driven spaces. Maybe it’s location-based meet-up hubs. Maybe it’s build-focused circles where people can follow updates and share progress.
Whatever form it takes, it won’t be a direct copy of what Groups used to be—and that’s a good thing.
Removing the legacy Groups feature helps simplify the code, speed up development, and sharpen the overall vision of the platform. And it clears space for something better in the future.
As always, I’ll share updates as the rebuild continues. Thanks for riding along as Street Source grows into its next chapter.
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