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Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

discord.com

151–160 of 234 posts

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#151

I regret ever supporting Discord with Nitro subscription. At the time it seemed user-funded model would make them less dependent on external money. That simply didn't turn out to be the the case. They are obviously yet another wannabe big tech company based in California. Their privacy policy (and practices) is awful. They routinely suspend inconvenient servers without giving it a second thought. They've used gaming…

I was talking with some friends about how the gaming community of today has no idea what Teamspeak, Ventrilo or Mumble are. What does Discord do that these others never did well?

Screen share, video conference, filesharing (TS had a primitive fileserver), and rich text/emoji, persistent chat, and a better UI for moving from server to server.

The mumble client already supports using certs for identity. I think if Mumble could make multi-server browsing easier and have screenshare/videoshare, that would be enough for many people to swing back to a decentralized tool.

After screenshare and server browsing, having "Mumble as a Service" to spin up a new server instantly ala Discord would be the killer migration feature to compete.

I wonder if any Mumble developers think about pivoting to a more direct competition with Discord? Or if any people with videoconference software dev experience would know where to start on Mumble?

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#152
post #14
post #3

Are they searchable and indexable? What made PHPBB and all that cool was that it'd turn up in search queries. As a hobbyist, this was an incredible wealth of information for me that has mostly dried up with the advent of walled gardens like slack, discord, etc. Some might point at BBS and IRC and say that those were the same, but I'd argue that they had lower volume, and less rich media, and I'd go one further to say…

There is talk about allowing public/discoverable servers to be indexed. I don't know when those plans might materialize, but it is very much top of mind for us that there is ever growing knowledge on Discord that isn't accessible via search indexes.

I'm already coming across more and more communities who say "For more information/to download the example files/to see our FAQ just join our Discord!", which is an immediate turnoff. I'm not going to "join a discord" just to see an FAQ or download some prerelease build or something else.

Now even entire communities are going to move onto Discord and become completely unreachable for people like me who don't want to "join the community" just to read one post that one person wrote one time.

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#153
post #14
post #3

Are they searchable and indexable? What made PHPBB and all that cool was that it'd turn up in search queries. As a hobbyist, this was an incredible wealth of information for me that has mostly dried up with the advent of walled gardens like slack, discord, etc. Some might point at BBS and IRC and say that those were the same, but I'd argue that they had lower volume, and less rich media, and I'd go one further to say…

There is talk about allowing public/discoverable servers to be indexed. I don't know when those plans might materialize, but it is very much top of mind for us that there is ever growing knowledge on Discord that isn't accessible via search indexes.

I'm hugely relieved that you see the black box as a situation to be addressed. For me, that circumstance alone turns Discord from a neat and useful tool into a tragedy that I'm forced to live with, and I'd love to see it move into the former category

Hopefully distinct from mere searchability: how about integrating a wiki service for big/boosted servers?

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#154

I regret ever supporting Discord with Nitro subscription. At the time it seemed user-funded model would make them less dependent on external money. That simply didn't turn out to be the the case. They are obviously yet another wannabe big tech company based in California. Their privacy policy (and practices) is awful. They routinely suspend inconvenient servers without giving it a second thought. They've used gaming…

What I hate more is more ppl are using discord as default support. IT moves to quick, and repeat questions and answers needs bot. It's easier for people to piss in the well because chat is so fleeting, can easily take conversations out of context with screenshots. I really miss the old school PHPBB forums which were "slower" and that was good for support from the vendor's point of view. Very few cases require real ti…

I don't think many people miss the dauys of PHBB in practice. Having to sign up for the hundred forum account, often needing admin approval before posting, etc.

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#155
post #59
post #3

Are they searchable and indexable? What made PHPBB and all that cool was that it'd turn up in search queries. As a hobbyist, this was an incredible wealth of information for me that has mostly dried up with the advent of walled gardens like slack, discord, etc. Some might point at BBS and IRC and say that those were the same, but I'd argue that they had lower volume, and less rich media, and I'd go one further to say…

On the modern internet, I don't know that being searchable and indexed is always a benefit. I like the idea of a semi-private space. I don't want people on the internet to be able to drudge up out of context statements I made 10 years ago by googling "site:discord.com ". I can tell a lot of people are the same way just by their behavior; the discussion that happens on Discord is a lot different than anything on, say,…

(1) Most forums are pseudo anonymous. You happen to be on one right now.

> People are a lot more open when they're not worried about being watched.

(2) This is a very "techie" take. Facebook has proven most people don't care about their privacy. Note - not saying privacy ISN'T an issue per se, I'm just saying that we've already proven the general population really doesn't care.

(3) AVS Forums, Tesla Forums, Malibu boat owners, etc. are all forums I regularly use and have great indexed content that would easily get lost in a Discord server. Also, no one knows who I am there. So as long as YOU want to stay pseudo anonymous while still contributing...you most certainly can.

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems reasonable enough technically, but I doubt it would work out that way in practice. Most users would probably treat all Discord channels alike. Those who don't understand the setup would carry on as they always had, many of those who do would find it easier to treat all alike (if for no other reason than that the setting could always change).

I'm fine with only privacy-conscious people getting privacy.

Privacy should be the default so that people who go for privacy don't stick out.

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#157

I regret ever supporting Discord with Nitro subscription. At the time it seemed user-funded model would make them less dependent on external money. That simply didn't turn out to be the the case. They are obviously yet another wannabe big tech company based in California. Their privacy policy (and practices) is awful. They routinely suspend inconvenient servers without giving it a second thought. They've used gaming…

> Their privacy policy (and practices) is awful. Like?

I am curious about this as well. We take privacy very seriously at Discord. Earlier this year, we entirely re-wrote our privacy policy as well to be more plain English and less legalese. I think that it's actually one of the more well written privacy policies out there.

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with only privacy-conscious people getting privacy.

Privacy should be the default so that people who go for privacy don't stick out.

Sorry, my comment was overly brief and flippant. I see this change as a net positive for privacy, and the fact that it's of only limited benefit for people who are less scrupulous about privacy is unfortunate but I am still pleased on the balance.

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#159
post #80
post #3

Are they searchable and indexable? What made PHPBB and all that cool was that it'd turn up in search queries. As a hobbyist, this was an incredible wealth of information for me that has mostly dried up with the advent of walled gardens like slack, discord, etc. Some might point at BBS and IRC and say that those were the same, but I'd argue that they had lower volume, and less rich media, and I'd go one further to say…

PHPBB:Reddit::AIM:Discord The name of the app is Discord for crying out loud. Have you seen the kinds of things people are using it for? Discord is *wildly* hackable chat, not forum software. There's tons of crap being slung around on Discord that doesn't deserve to be archived because that's not the purpose. Is IRC indexable or searchable? No. Usenet served that purpose. People hacked in query bots to IRC. At least…

>If you want a forum, go use forum software.

Boy have I got some news for you about what Discord just announced. You should check out the link on the post you're commenting on!

Re: Forum Channels: A space for organized conversations

#160
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I hate more is more ppl are using discord as default support. IT moves to quick, and repeat questions and answers needs bot. It's easier for people to piss in the well because chat is so fleeting, can easily take conversations out of context with screenshots. I really miss the old school PHPBB forums which were "slower" and that was good for support from the vendor's point of view. Very few cases require real ti…

I don't think many people miss the dauys of PHBB in practice. Having to sign up for the hundred forum account, often needing admin approval before posting, etc.

actually many communities still using phpbb like nsxprime, ferrarichat

i found that discussions were more civil, trolls were quickly purged and it was difficult for them to rejoin due to this admin wall.

it created a nice garden effect against shill/ratioing where there is little to no barrier to creating mass number of accounts to impact opinions.

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