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Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

mooreds.com

211–220 of 698 posts

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#211
post #35

Reddit + discord + github. Be active and push real issues and bugs into the github channel and use the content of forum / chat for documentation / faq / guides.

Have you found it easy to start a Reddit community? This isn't something I've explored much.

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#212
post #70

Oh please do. This seems like the perfect time to bring this up: I had a piece of software that used Discord for support. They required that users be verified, which requires you to give you phone number to Discord. I gave them my Google Voice number, which is the only number I have, and they rejected it because they don't support VOIP numbers. I asked them if there was any other way to verify my identity. They told…

I constantly run into this problem, I've used my google voice number for everything for years (yeah it's not a great move but very hard to migrate away from) and a frustrating number of services recently have been rejecting it for verification. I end up having to take the sim out of my laptop and put it in my PinePhone. It's such a hassle. This whole "you're not a human unless you have a phone number" thing sucks. Sa…

Just a couple of days ago, I signed in to a gmail account using the correct username and password.

Gmail intercepted me and claimed to be worried that they couldn't recognize the device I was using. According to the flow, they wanted me to verify my identity in one of three ways: (1) I could verify the backup email address associated with the account; (2) if unable to do that, I could provide the 2FA code sent to that same backup email address (how would I be able to know this without being able to know what the address was?); or (3) I could provide a phone number -- previously unknown to Google -- on the spot, and then provide the 2FA code sent to that brand-new phone number. (How is this supposed to help them verify my identity?)

I went for option (2), the email 2FA code. After providing the code, I was informed that, before signing in to my existing gmail account, I must also provide a phone number and enter the 2FA code sent to my new phone number.

So I went back and went for option (1), typing in my backup email address. Same thing happened. Because Google "couldn't recognize the device I was using", I was not allowed to sign in to an account I obviously controlled without providing a phone number with absolutely zero authentication value.

I did find a workaround. If you attempt to sign in to an account afflicted in this way in an incognito browser window, Google will, for the moment, allow it.

"Don't be evil" is long gone.

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#213
post #182

Please don't ask people to run non-free software to participate in your open source community. Many open source / free software enthusiasts are reluctant to use them, or flat out boycott them. What's more, you are putting your worthy community somewhere out of your control if you do this. Slack and Discord are not cool and do not make your project cool. They make your project unreachable , now and in the future (arch…

>Discord are not cool

In fact, it is.

It is unparalleled in its segment, that's why I moved from all other VoIPs to it.

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#215
post #34

This recurring discussion is very "This is the year for Linux on the desktop" Nobody wants to register on some random weird site, and figure that sites navigation, let alone their privacy/data policies. Discord/Reddit/Slack/etc... are easy to use. People are comfortable using them. They provide a more uniform experience across different servers/subreddits/etc...

I agree and I've been wondering, why doesn't someone make something like a Discord/Discourse hybrid? Guilded has forum channels and yet it misses so many of the bells and whistles for moderation and discoverability that Discourse has. Basically, I want a Discord-type app, with it's UI and one login, and then blended with the Discourse forum power.

Are you imagining that the forum features are separate from the chat? I guess which aspects of discord would you like to merge with the forum concept?

I'm working on a topical chat site where instead of servers/rooms, it's posts w/chatrooms. Curious to hear more in terms of how you envision a hybrid that would have appeal.

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

analysis paralysis. PHPbb works fine, it 's only old if you re ageist.

It’s been over a decade since I ran a forum but I recall phpBB specifically being chock full of security holes, probably more so than even Wordpress. If you didn’t stay on top of keeping it up to date you’d get hit with exploit-wielding bots that would cram your little forum full of spam designed to exploit Google’s ranking algorithms.

What open source program isn't?

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#217
post #34

This recurring discussion is very "This is the year for Linux on the desktop" Nobody wants to register on some random weird site, and figure that sites navigation, let alone their privacy/data policies. Discord/Reddit/Slack/etc... are easy to use. People are comfortable using them. They provide a more uniform experience across different servers/subreddits/etc...

Do you think we should replace HN with discord or slack?

can we get oauth on HN so i can login everywhere with my HN account?

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#218
post #28

As discussed in a recent comment I made [0], I think the problem is that a good modern forum software simply does not exist yet. imo discourse doesn't cut it, feels almost as ephemeral as in slack/discord. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29016033

I suspect you’re right. It just doesn’t exist. Discord and Slack both fulfill interesting niches, but everything else is composed of chewing gum and tape. The closest thing is Reddit, but it’s not great because subreddit names can be taken over and it’s hard to topple moderators that refuse to give up power.

If reddit is open source, can't we use reddit's software as a forum interface? Reddit is a great place for discussion chains which are visible and searchable.

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#219
post #182

Please don't ask people to run non-free software to participate in your open source community. Many open source / free software enthusiasts are reluctant to use them, or flat out boycott them. What's more, you are putting your worthy community somewhere out of your control if you do this. Slack and Discord are not cool and do not make your project cool. They make your project unreachable , now and in the future (arch…

I agree mostly, but I'm going to nitpick: not all open source software is "free" in either sense of the term.

I think slack and discord are _awful_ support forums (I'm saying this as I manage a 30k user slack and a 15k user discord server). The detriments of these platforms as a support portal stands on its own without any sort of philosophical musings.

Re: Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

#220
post #182

Please don't ask people to run non-free software to participate in your open source community. Many open source / free software enthusiasts are reluctant to use them, or flat out boycott them. What's more, you are putting your worthy community somewhere out of your control if you do this. Slack and Discord are not cool and do not make your project cool. They make your project unreachable , now and in the future (arch…

I agree with you. At the same time, people use GitHub and see no issue with it.

Probably because you're nowhere near as "locked-in" to GH. You can move your source code and all of its history to another hosting platform in minutes with git.

If you want to move your Slack/Discord community to another platform, there is no easy way to export the content AFAIK.

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