For the main project I’m a maintainer on we do have forums too but they’re pretty dead, we mostly just use Discord because that’s what everyone else seems to be using.
Comment on FLOSS communities right now
janAkali@lemmy.one 9 months ago
I would accept discord over mailing list. But nothing beats a proper forum website. And no, subreddit is not a proper forum.
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
technom@programming.dev 9 months ago
Discord is absolute trash if you’re a user searching for solutions. It simply doesn’t turn up in web searches. Why would you want your users to ask the same questions again and again?
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
It just so happens to be where all our users end up anyway so for us it’s been okay for the most part. Having moderator commands for frequently asked questions, and automating frequently asked questions tends to help even more. Discord also seems to work well for projects far larger than ours, ones like RPCS3 etc.
technom@programming.dev 9 months ago
After reading the comments on several communities including Lemmy, reddit, YouTube and several others, I don’t get the feeling that FOSS users are as enthusiastic about discord as you portray. Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps it’s a restriction that you impose on your users?
Besides, all the bells and whistles of Discord don’t solve the biggest gripe that I have with it - the searchability and discoverability of questions and answers. Despite the history recording in Discord, it acts essentially as an information black hole. People’s efforts in solving problems are just lost because they can’t be found again.
And finally, there’s one thing that corporate social media has proven time and again. Eventually all of them pivot for some reason or another. Perhaps they want to monetize the platform on unacceptable terms (like reddit recently). That will happen to discord too some day. They are holding the community content hostage. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that they won’t ever try to make money off it, cutting the community from it.
uis@lemmy.world 9 months ago
over mailing list.
LKML
RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
Everything beats a proper forum because most proper forums are basically dead since small projects won’t have many users and only a small number will sign up for a specific forum.
Forums used to be great since there was not much else, they still are good for large communities, but other than that, nope.
janAkali@lemmy.one 9 months ago
only a small number will sign up for a specific forum
Most people don’t have to sign-up, 90% of cases should resolve on just searching the problem. Good chances it was already asked and answered. Most of the time, forums with few users aren’t dead, they’re just really slow, whenever you post a question - expect at least 12-hour delay. I’ve never seen a message on Discord answered 12 hours later - you either get somewhat instant response or it’s ghosted forever. Also good luck asking questions if there’s heated/rapid discussion in the room, or you have a little time and other responsibilities other than checking discord every couple minutes.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 9 months ago
That’s because when you ask a question on discord it’s only visible for a few seconds
HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 9 months ago
So let people SSO into your forum with Github?
RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
Sure, give it a try and let me know. I would expect that will fail too in these days.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
at least subreddits show up in google results, that’s the only good thing about them.
janAkali@lemmy.one 9 months ago
yet
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
gotta love the modern internet…
yay.