Stop Using Discord • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop Using Discord

#51

Post by chrisjj » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:32 PM UTC

NeutralForest wrote: post #37

I feel like we have this discussion every month, one way or another. People use Discord because it's useful and they like the experience. Discourse is nice for purely written communication but if you want to setup a call, direct message and, more importantly, write bots (presentation, topic organization, news, modding, now even AI Q&A); people will fall back to Discord. Pointing at Discourse when it doesn't have the…

> People use Discord because it's useful and they like the experience.

Let's fix that.

Discord-using people use Discord because it's useful to them and they like the experience.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#52

Post by outime » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:32 PM UTC

It will be as useful as other HN campaigns: stop using WhatsApp and use Signal, stop using Chrome and use Firefox, stop using Twitter and use this OSS alternative with 0.1% of the users, stop using Reddit, stop using Kubernetes, etc.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#53

Post by Arch-TK » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:32 PM UTC

Yes, please stop using discord. But also maybe stop using discourse.

Nothing is more off-putting about an open source project than seeing that discord is the main support forum.

I am in the fortunate position of being able to just solve my own problems by myself most of the time, but sometimes it genuinely is helpful to talk to someone about it.

If you're an open source project, please use IRC, or matrix if you absolutely must.

If you need a forum, well, discourse is not the worst option, but honestly no idea why forums need a tonne of javascript, a re-implementation of basic browser functionality like scrolling, and to override your keybindings. A mailing list is the ideal option. If you really must have something web based, I don't have any recommendations other than "please don't use discord, at least not unless you feel actually satisfied with its search functionality". You can self host a forum on a cheap VM and require some kind of user signup to try to mitigate the inevitable spam.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#54

Post by Springtime » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:32 PM UTC

Ultimately someone has to pay for things. Many communities have apparently decided they don't want to use even modern forum software and become a webmaster, along with avoiding the costs and time associated, or use someone else's existing forum (which may or may not suit their needs).

The quite liberal free file attachment limits (25MB each), ease of communication and ironically the fact Discord is closed off in nature means it's quite attractive for people to more easily share things that would require a separate file host normally (it's an almost universal experience that forums usually have meager attachment caps).

I'd be quite interested in an article that understands Discord's benefits and use cases and then approaches a critique and alternative solutions to address it in a more open web friendly way.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#55

Post by Vvector » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:33 PM UTC

mikl wrote: post #10

Insalgo wrote: post #4

Any recommendations for a free engineering community forum?

https://www.discourse.org is great, best forum software I ever saw. You have probably used it already somewhere. They have a paid hosting offer, but you can also self-host it for free. And it’s open source.

$50/month for the basic hosted option. Self-hosting requires skills and resources not available to everyone. It's very easy (and free) to start on Discord. Then if it takes off, there is too much friction to move to Discourse.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#56

Post by chrisjj » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:33 PM UTC

NemoNobody wrote: post #36

Ok... does Mastodon always take that long too load? That's not really viable considering the page I ended up on had essentially only textual content - like an old website from way back. Then I read a Geocities suggestion - something from my elementary days Discord is actually pretty cool - a walled garden but no different than the rest of the internet. Google won't send anyone to forums or blogs/personal sites anyway…

> Google won't send anyone to forums or blogs/personal sites anyways

Oh? It does here.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#57

Post by barkerja » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:33 PM UTC

I use Discord quite a bit in the Elixir community and find it quite useful. Messages are persisted. There's a wonderful forum feature now built into the platform; and it's all searchable with a pretty robust filtering mechanism.

And with an active server, there's typically always someone around to help you chat through a problem almost immediately.

I understand the sentiment, but it does seem misinformed.

Slack, on the other hand. Absolutely! Stay away for anything related to knowledge-base.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#58

Post by morjom » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:34 PM UTC

Use a matrix bridge to discord instead.

Jokes aside the discord ux is good enough for the average user, it already has chokehold on its users and there is no equivalent.

I would also prefer things to be easily searchable, archivable etc but consumers consume.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#59

Post by kwanbix » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:34 PM UTC

NeutralForest wrote: post #37

I feel like we have this discussion every month, one way or another. People use Discord because it's useful and they like the experience. Discourse is nice for purely written communication but if you want to setup a call, direct message and, more importantly, write bots (presentation, topic organization, news, modding, now even AI Q&A); people will fall back to Discord. Pointing at Discourse when it doesn't have the…

I have been using computers for 40 years and I cannot see a single feature of discord that I cannot have on a forum or even reddit. In fact, the UX of Discord is abismal.

Re: Stop Using Discord

#60

Post by chrisjj » Fri, May 31, 2024, 12:34 PM UTC

mikl wrote: post #10

Insalgo wrote: post #4

Any recommendations for a free engineering community forum?

https://www.discourse.org is great, best forum software I ever saw. You have probably used it already somewhere. They have a paid hosting offer, but you can also self-host it for free. And it’s open source.

Discourse seems great until it isn't. E.g. sticks on a unremovable banner obscuring your content.