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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

#81

Post by muzani »

codetrotter wrote: post #65
muzani wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could be a bias too. I really dislike Discord. I'm on too many discords. It's just one of those network effect things that I wish wasn't everywhere. I'm happy with searchable public chat support. Unfortunately, discord seems to be the best way to do this. I think I do want a forum, but I probably wouldn't use it because signing in is too much effort. Maybe if forums had shared profiles and better mobile support, they…

> I probably wouldn't use it because signing in is too much effort What if the forum offered the following three options for sign in: - Sign in with GitHub - Sign in with Apple - Sign in with Google

Specifically signing in with a consistent persona. All of these link to an actual "work" identity. Sometimes I want some customer support. Other times, it's a gaming identity, or a writer identity.

Part of the problem is that communities can get really nasty, worst case going as far as writing bad reviews at the place you work at. So it's useful to containerize your identity.

Reddit actually does this very well.

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

#82

Post by hitekker »

spankalee wrote: post #45
PaulHoule wrote: post #27

One trouble w/ things like Discord and IRC for support or community building is that frequently you get somebody with nothing better to do who "leans in" and spends more time (all the time) logged in and ends up being the face of your forum for new users. (Full disclosure, I've been that guy )

This is a real problem. My project dealt with someone who dominated discussions and frequently responded with outright false information. We tried very hard to work with them, but they wouldn't change, and after asking a lot of other maintainers how they would handle it, and giving many warnings, we eventually banned them despite them not really breaking rules per se. What ultimately convinced us banning was appropri…

Most internet community rules seem to spawn from a fear of authority. A mutual fear from the rank-and-file and the rulers. Endlessly debating a million little rules is safer than questioning each other's judgement. Authority resolves both those situations efficiently, but it demands a morality: a fair standard applied across all people.

A lot of rules seem to be trying to create that standard on paper, when that standard does not exist in the heart. If I were to go on a limb, "inclusivity" is the fear of being exclusive, which forms only in a vacuum of authority: the unquestioned power to decide who is in, and who is out.

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

#83

Post by codetrotter »

muzani wrote: post #81
codetrotter wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I probably wouldn't use it because signing in is too much effort What if the forum offered the following three options for sign in: - Sign in with GitHub - Sign in with Apple - Sign in with Google

Specifically signing in with a consistent persona. All of these link to an actual "work" identity. Sometimes I want some customer support. Other times, it's a gaming identity, or a writer identity. Part of the problem is that communities can get really nasty, worst case going as far as writing bad reviews at the place you work at. So it's useful to containerize your identity. Reddit actually does this very well.

Sign in with Apple allows you the opportunity to generate unique email address aliases per service when you use Sign in with Apple to log in to third parties.

Say for example that your “real” iCloud account is muzani at iCloud dot com.

You browse to my hypothetical forum and choose Sign in with Apple. Then Apple lets you choose if you want to use your “real” mail address or if you want to make a new alias specific to this service. You make an alias an it will look something like emperor_virginia.9p at iCloud dot com.

It’s super convenient and easy to use, while at the same time doing a great job of keeping your identities separate between separate services.

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

#84

Post by emodendroket »

ggm wrote: post #48

I think proscriptive statements about what to use or not use are opinions masked to be pretend facts. You should use whatever works for you and your clients/customers. All the channels come with plus and minus issues. It's the support version of CAP theorem: You can be reachable, focussed and structured but probably not all three at once. I also miss email. Mainly because the expectation of "instant" was muted throug…

Then read the title as "here some reasons why Discord is likely not ideal for use as a Q&A forum for you." Less punchy though.

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

#85

Post by nextlevelwizard »

postpawl wrote: post #5
glaucon wrote: post #4

I agree with not using Discord as a forum but suggested alternative number one is Discourse which starts at USD50/month[1]. A bit of an ask for my "failed side projects". [1] https://www.discourse.org/pricing

Discourse is open source: https://github.com/discourse/discourse You could hook it up to a mail provider and can host it yourself for less if you wanted.

Yeah, the solution to using a Discord is host random shit yourself that someone _might_ maybe need. That's a hard pass. The very reason why I am on Discord is that I don't need to host my own shit. Been there, done that, I have better things to do.

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

#86

Post by nextlevelwizard »

pier25 wrote: post #19
glaucon wrote: post #4

I agree with not using Discord as a forum but suggested alternative number one is Discourse which starts at USD50/month[1]. A bit of an ask for my "failed side projects". [1] https://www.discourse.org/pricing

Github Discussions is free

For now. Just remember who owns Github these days and what their track record is with technology.

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

#87

Post by nextlevelwizard »

sysadm1n wrote: post #2

Roll your own, like early and industrious folks in the 2000s did with PhpBB or Invision, or vBulletin if you had the money to fork out for VB.

Yeah, nothing like finding some old dusty phpBB that has been completely over run with bots spamming NSFW stuff. 5/5 much better than Discord. Very industrious.

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

#88

Post by kobstrtr »

Agree on the downsides, although communities are a great way to exchange and discuss a project. Instead, why don‘t we just keep the benefits of discord and build tools around it to manage its knowledge? We can publish it, we can use it for AI assistant, basically anything is possible.

Disclaimer: I‘m the founder of awesomeqa.xyz

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

#89

Post by kobstrtr »

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.

You could get help automating support with tools like awesomeqa or kapa.ai

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

#90

Post by muchwhales »

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.

"Where your audience is, go you must" - Master Yoda, probably
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