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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

#311

Post by throw0101b »

azangru wrote: post #253
throw0101b wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

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

So if I grep something in /var/log/foo.log, find an error, I can copy-paste it into a search bar to start seeing what others have said about.

How does that work with Discord? I now have to sign up for the channel(s) of that software… and do that for every piece of software that decides to go with Discord.

Whereas if folks go with publicly accessible web forums, Github tickets, mailing lists (either old school Mailman or Google Groups), all those discussions and threads are universally available to web search.

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

#312

Post by nipperkinfeet »

Use Discord for nothing... Whenever I try Discord, I never return to any of the channels I'm in. It doesn't feel like a community or anything I can refer back to. Normally, rooms are silent, and no one is chatting. The UI as a whole is a jumbled mess that feels bloated. I would take a forum message board any day.

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

#313

Post by OJFord »

DangitBobby wrote: post #282
OJFord wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not GP, but it's miserable. Discord, and to only a slightly lesser extent Reddit, is not built for that use, it doesn't drive engagement.

"It doesn't drive engagement" is overly cynical. Discord was designed for chat, not as a support forum, and the search is surprisingly functional for a chat client.

Yeah fair enough, I did say it wasn't designed for that though, I think I meant more like '[and] it doesn't drive engagement [in what the core product/use-case is] [so that's not a cause for a push to make it work well, history well discoverable etc., either]'. But basically I agree, my intended main point was it's not for that, you're not supposed to be spending much time reading old discussions.

(And I think the engagement cynicism might be at least a bit correct/warranted for Reddit.)

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

#314

Post by paintman252 »

nipperkinfeet wrote: post #312

Use Discord for nothing... Whenever I try Discord, I never return to any of the channels I'm in. It doesn't feel like a community or anything I can refer back to. Normally, rooms are silent, and no one is chatting. The UI as a whole is a jumbled mess that feels bloated. I would take a forum message board any day.

Hard disagree. Discord is great place for non-tehnical-project communities

"Normally, rooms are silent, and no one is chatting"

Yeah, cause you went to unactive servers. It would be like coming to Hackernews, opening first link in newly submitted, and complaining that no one is here.

Just go to active servers. Servers I frequent are very active.

"The UI as a whole is a jumbled mess that feels bloated"

Another hard disagree. UI is one of my favourite things about Discord. It feels very well designed and it even works very well on mobile. I'm quite impressed by this aspect

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

#315

Post by JuanPosadas »

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.

I don't know, this sounds like draining all the water in all the oceans on Earth just because somebody pee'd in your local pool.

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

#316

Post by j5155 »

Pannoniae wrote: post #260
cgriswald wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was banned from a Discord server for reasons like these, and I found it really helpful for knowing for sure that I needed to change my behavior. I think it fundamentally comes down to the person; I have struggled with knowing how to “read the room” and when something is acceptable or not, and it was a very clear “it’s not” after the ban.

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

#317

Post by JohnFen »

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…

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

But their choice will make some people decide not to use their software. If I have an issue that I'm looking for support for, and discover that it doesn't exist outside of something like Discord, I would stop using that software.

It may be that there aren't many like me, or that the devs don't want users like me, but nonetheless, choosing a poor support forum will lose some users.

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

#319

Post by bsder »

Operyl wrote: post #42
bsder wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What people want is a forum that doesn't require another blasted login and yet another inscrutable navigation system. What forum owners want is to not have to deal with idiotic user logins and spam. Both sides think Discord is good enough even though it isn't. The problem is that everything else is so much worse.

I try not to argue against my users for "what is best for them." If they overwhelmingly want Discord, I'll give them Discord. The goal is to be ready to jump ship if need be, and there's a few ways to do that.

Your users don't want Discord, in particular. They want something better.

Unfortunately, "user login" is an expensive cesspit of failure.

Discourse would probably be doing better if they actually ran a login provider rather than outsourcing it all.

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

#320

Post by Operyl »

bsder wrote: post #319
Operyl wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try not to argue against my users for "what is best for them." If they overwhelmingly want Discord, I'll give them Discord. The goal is to be ready to jump ship if need be, and there's a few ways to do that.

Your users don't want Discord , in particular. They want something better. Unfortunately, "user login" is an expensive cesspit of failure. Discourse would probably be doing better if they actually ran a login provider rather than outsourcing it all.

Discourse has either integrated logins and OAuth2 third party login. I implemented both.

Honestly I’m rather enjoying everybody telling me they know my users better than I do. I polled pretty extensively and got a good amount of non power user and power user responses.

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