Year in review: 12,500 RM paid, 64 bounties, zero ghost jobs
our 2025 numbers, in full. what worked, what didn't, and what we are changing in 2026.
2025 is done. here are the numbers, in full.
what worked
- 1,751 active builders at UTHM (up from 412 in Jan).
- RM 12,500 paid in bounties (up from RM 1,800).
- 64 bounties closed with a public PR, mean time-to-merge 4 days.
- 12 active circles (up from 3 in Jan).
- 9 townhalls, average 62 attendees.
- 0 ghost jobs in the job board. every closed role was closed within 24h of being filled.
what did not work
- the newsletter. we sent 6 issues. open rate is 18%, which is fine, but click rate is 1.2%, which is not. we are killing the newsletter in 2026 and replacing it with a single weekly changelog email.
- the /about page. it was 400 words of marketing speak that did not say what we actually do. we rewrote it (see the current version) and got 3x more signups.
- the discord moderation. we let it drift for 3 months and ended up with a #general channel that was 40% off-topic. the new mod squad is in.
what we are changing in 2026
- Quarterly seasons for the leaderboard, with prizes.
- Public roadmap on the changelog page, voted on by circle leads.
- Faculty chapters: physical monthly meetups anchored at FSKTM, FKMP, FKE, FPTV. the first one is in February.
- Bounty bank: a way for UTHM units + companies to commit RM 10k+ upfront as a pre-funded bounty pool, distributed across the year.
thank you
to the 1,751 builders who shipped, reviewed, posted, and turned up. the 64 bounties were not a marketing campaign. they were 64 real things that you made and other people use. that is the only metric that matters.
see you in 2026.