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Use forums rather than Slack/Discord to support developer community

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

#301

Post by kelnos »

tshaddox wrote: post #254
jraph wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely see an issue with this. Fortunately, at least GitHub is readable without running non-free code and is searchable. I guess you can also participate with one of those alternative clients. You are still not in control of your community, and I'd like this monopoly to vanish.

Discord is readable from a web browser just like GitHub is.

Not really. GitHub is also "readable" through a search engine, and can be used (read-only) without signing in. GitHub also allows you to use automated tools to read and manipulate the data stored there. Discord does not allow you to do any of those things.

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

#302

Post by codinghorror »

agumonkey wrote: post #185
dreyfan wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to see a forum software that works as well as vBulletin and the clones of that did in the early to mid 2000s. Everything today is this weird "conversation" view and comments/threads constantly move around based on the whims of a voting audience.

I'm extremely surprised by this weird dichotomy. vbulletin era was "low" on tech yet there were a lot of nice chill places.. there was almost nothing special, no ease, few rules, convos were mostly humans and fun. Now there's kilotons of resources (brain and money) trying to make all this go to mars and yet it only creates frailty. Super odd.

The software didn't change; the people did. Starting in 2014, everyone went online.

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

#303

Post by aledalgrande »

gkop wrote: post #168
aledalgrande wrote: post #71

Discord, Slack, Gitter all gate messages so much, they are not well indexed but search engines (if indexed at all) and very chaotic when a lot of people are posting. Please use something like Github discussions.

Isn’t Gitter the one that is fairly well indexed? I wouldn’t lump it in with the others.

It is indexed but it is impossible to follow a conversation in a busy channel, like the others

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

#304

Post by jiggunjer »

gsich wrote: post #232
jedberg wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SIM has its own phone number, so when they put it in a phone they can do "phone" things like make calls. In their laptop it's just for data.

Or SMS. Calls may also work, depending on the modem.

For calls and sms you'd need a client configured for that modem. I think this is what callcenters use?

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

#305

Post by codinghorror »

int_19h wrote: post #247
Gigachad wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It needs to so that it can search on the backend and show you all instances of that search rather than just what the currently loaded DOM elements contain.

On pretty much any other web page, Ctrl+F will search whatever is on the page; why should Discourse be any different? I don't mind them having a server-side search function that actually searches the entire thread. I do mind having a heavily-used shortcut hijacked to behave in a non-standard way.

Try pressing CTRL+F twice and see what happens

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

#306

Post by musicale »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #151
errantspark wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yep, the latest example was my credit card company rejecting my GV number. They easily have the means to see that I've been using it for 10+ years and it's definitely me. Luckily they wanted my business more than they cared about that policy; a CS droid was able to "force" the system to allow it. Requiring cell phone numbers isn't about anti-spam or 2FA or anything else these services and sites claim. It's about link…

Asking for information for one purpose and using it for another is amazingly user-hostile and abusive, and it's an almost universal practice for technology companies.

I first noticed phone number abuse with facebook, which asks for a phone number for "security" but then uses it to match you with advertisers.

It's the same scam that sites have been running for years where you have to use an email address as a user login, and that address is instantly added to spam lists.

"Sign in with Apple" is hilariously useless since privacy-violating apps can just require a phone number for "security" or "verification" purposes.

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

#307

Post by codinghorror »

formerly_proven wrote: post #196
jcelerier wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah discourse feels like such a regression when compared to the phpbb and vBulletin of yore

Does vBulletin have a way yet to jump to the first new reply in a thread?

Well, in Discourse press the pound key to jump to any date or specific post. Press ? to see the full set of keyboard shortcuts.

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

#308

Post by codinghorror »

Gigachad wrote: post #206
mjrbrennan wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious why Discourse feels almost as ephemeral as chat to you?

It's probably the UI/design of it. Discourse supports infinite scroll and live updates so it kind of looks like an IM thread with a lot more padding.

It's not though; all topics are permanent and searchable. So it's the best of both worlds. Have you ever tried searching chatrooms and 100+ channels? Excruciating.

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

#310

Post by megous »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #212
errantspark wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tha…

It's especially nice when traveling. I was once asked by a client to do something while I was in other country about 5k km from regular location. Couldn't login to the apps account for this reason (no backup email or phone set). So I didn't do the work.

I suspect it's some work-life balance enhancing thing. :D

I don't really mind, since it also helps me bash Google services in front of my clients who still use them, without being aware of these failure modes.

Personally speaking, it's absolutely a no go service. I can probably handle service loss at home quite fine, but if I relied on google or other services with these "anti-abuse" features while traveling that would be very stressful. I usually print out everything important before departing so I don't rely on any electronics, anyway, because none of it is as reliable and as quickly accessible as a piece of paper or a bunch of cash.

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