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Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

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Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#251

Post by inetknght »

trvz wrote: post #202
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #167

I recently found a repo for an Xbox wireless controller kernel driver where the GitHub issues page was turned off and instead they used discord. I asked why they don’t have GitHub issues turned on and they said they “didn’t want it to become a support forum”. I couldn’t believe it. If there is a common issue, one person will ask about it on the issues page and then everyone else can benefit from that discussion. On d…

> If there is a common issue, one person will ask about it on the issues page and then everyone else can benefit from that discussion. Have you ever seen the GitHub issues of a halfway popular repo? Once a project is big enough to attract all the low quality users, the same question/problem will be asked/reported over and over again. The maintainers will have to deal with a mess either way. They might as well choose…

> Once a project is big enough to attract all the low quality users, the same question/problem will be asked/reported over and over again.

That's true for Discord too though.

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#252

Post by [deleted] »

cgriswald wrote: post #112
csnover wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right or wrong, it can be a really difficult thing to do when the problem behaviour is not due to malice. You’re taking away a community from someone, and in my experience, usually it’s someone who doesn’t have many other social outlets. It does not feel good to get pleading emails from these sorts of folks, knowing that you have to stand firm and say ‘no’ for the health of the wider community.

Sometimes these people need a hard truth. I’d say most times. They usually won’t “get it” in the moment, but the only way they can ever get it is if someone respects them enough to say it. These sorts of bans aren’t just good for the community. They’re also good for the recipient. (I’d only say that in the short term, depending on the person, there could be a danger of self harm and people should always be kind and c…

[deleted]

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#253

Post by azangru »

throw0101b wrote: post #224
trvz wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there is a common issue, one person will ask about it on the issues page and then everyone else can benefit from that discussion. Have you ever seen the GitHub issues of a halfway popular repo? Once a project is big enough to attract all the low quality users, the same question/problem will be asked/reported over and over again. The maintainers will have to deal with a mess either way. They might as well choose…

> Once a project is big enough to attract all the low quality users, the same question/problem will be asked/reported over and over again. Then set up a mailing list (Google Group?) which will be searchable, and send out a regular FAQ message to it (like in the Usenet days). Making things easier to find via search is one way to deal with what you describe, and Discord/Slack/IRC does not allow for that.

> Discord/Slack/IRC does not allow for that

Sorry for a stupid question; but does not Discord have full-text search?

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#254

Post by buzzy_hacker »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #167

I recently found a repo for an Xbox wireless controller kernel driver where the GitHub issues page was turned off and instead they used discord. I asked why they don’t have GitHub issues turned on and they said they “didn’t want it to become a support forum”. I couldn’t believe it. If there is a common issue, one person will ask about it on the issues page and then everyone else can benefit from that discussion. On d…

Totally off topic, but I just got two Xbox Series Controllers working over Bluetooth flawlessly, connected to a Raspberry Pi, using xpadneo driver. Can highly recommend that driver.

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#255

Post by pc86 »

inetknght wrote: post #251
trvz wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there is a common issue, one person will ask about it on the issues page and then everyone else can benefit from that discussion. Have you ever seen the GitHub issues of a halfway popular repo? Once a project is big enough to attract all the low quality users, the same question/problem will be asked/reported over and over again. The maintainers will have to deal with a mess either way. They might as well choose…

> Once a project is big enough to attract all the low quality users, the same question/problem will be asked/reported over and over again. That's true for Discord too though.

> > They might as well choose the platform they themselves prefer.

Nobody said Discord solved that problem, only that GitHub hasn't either.

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#256

Post by lsaferite »

tanepiper wrote: post #118

Sorry but if you think large-scale companies are going to use a platform designed for gaming as their main support channel - no. We've had one "Enterprise" supplier move from Slack to Discord. Their community manager in this case did not understand my argument of why this is a bad thing and kept pushing it. For example when I said there is no SSO, they said there is (of course not realising WE have to pick up the bil…

Last I checked there was zero security on embedded images/docs. If you had the URL, you could view the content. That was a big no-no for our team and why discord lasted all of one month for us.

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#257

Post by washadjeffmad »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #167

I recently found a repo for an Xbox wireless controller kernel driver where the GitHub issues page was turned off and instead they used discord. I asked why they don’t have GitHub issues turned on and they said they “didn’t want it to become a support forum”. I couldn’t believe it. If there is a common issue, one person will ask about it on the issues page and then everyone else can benefit from that discussion. On d…

I guess what I'm wondering is, what are people trying to prevent or protect by moving to Discord?

On one hand, I don't see Discords as any different to web forums, except with no personal control and the knowledge barriers removed. In that way, they're not really different from the defunct AOL communities or Yahoo Groups of yesteryear, outside of their inability to be conveniently scraped or archived. Can you port your Discord channel to a different platform or self host?

On the other, it seems like the people who like it /really/ like it. But then again, people have always liked being gatekeepers, even if they don't really hold the keys and it's not their castle. But that surely isn't all of the appeal?

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#258

Post by GhostWhisperer »

Operyl wrote: post #18

I don't know, a lot of the people that interact with my projects _want_ discord. They don't want a forum, they don't want Matrix. It's a matter of knowing your audience. I've been working on ways to better archive support/question threads, and the discord search isn't that terrible.

survivorship_bias.BMP

if all you have is discord that's what you'll see

if you have a forum/gh-issues there are a lot of visitors who won't bother you but will get their answer

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#259

Post by xethos »

denton-scratch wrote: post #242
csnover wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right or wrong, it can be a really difficult thing to do when the problem behaviour is not due to malice. You’re taking away a community from someone, and in my experience, usually it’s someone who doesn’t have many other social outlets. It does not feel good to get pleading emails from these sorts of folks, knowing that you have to stand firm and say ‘no’ for the health of the wider community.

> usually it’s someone who doesn’t have many other social outlets A support forum is not a "social outlet".

Depends how few people you interact with on a day-to-day basis

Re: Don't use Discord as your Q&A forum

#260

Post by Pannoniae »

cgriswald wrote: post #112
csnover wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right or wrong, it can be a really difficult thing to do when the problem behaviour is not due to malice. You’re taking away a community from someone, and in my experience, usually it’s someone who doesn’t have many other social outlets. It does not feel good to get pleading emails from these sorts of folks, knowing that you have to stand firm and say ‘no’ for the health of the wider community.

Sometimes these people need a hard truth. I’d say most times. They usually won’t “get it” in the moment, but the only way they can ever get it is if someone respects them enough to say it. These sorts of bans aren’t just good for the community. They’re also good for the recipient. (I’d only say that in the short term, depending on the person, there could be a danger of self harm and people should always be kind and c…

"someone respects them enough to say it." "They’re also good for the recipient."

I've never seen anyone learning anything from being permabanned from anywhere. This is just post-facto justification to make yourself feel better for removing those people - but don't believe it even for a second that you've helped them in any way. Helping the community? Could be. Helping the banned person? Hell no.

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