Using forums vs. Discord: why not both | Hacker News Reader

Using forums vs. Discord: why not both

channelsync.chat

2 pointsadileo6 comments

I've seen a trending post on HN about the disavantages of using Discord vs a Forum. Coincidentally I've been working on a solution for that in the past weeks that allows you to create a mirrored version of your Discord server as an online forum.

Original thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29154216

I certainly get having some kind of searchable log of a Discord server, but turning that into an actual forum with separate discussion threads and everything strikes me as something that probably doesn't work all that well. The forms of communication used in chats and in forums are pretty different. How have you handled this?

How about the other direction as well, forum-first discussions going into chat?

That's a very good point, the idea is to allow the moderators to pick the best content through the help of a Discord bot. Of course I recognize the content shared won't be on par with the one you can find on a Forum but that depends a lot on how the community is using threads. I'm working also on a way to filter out meaningless content or at least help moderators in repurposing only the best content they have on Discord. The other way around seems also a very good idea, I'll think about it for sure

I wouldn’t use that headline.

I worked at a startup that had 10 or 12 groupware tools when I started. Every two weeks or so the problem that people couldn’t find anything would come up in an all-hands and they’d suggest we add another tool and management would say yes and then we would have 11 or 13 groupware tools.

We don’t need another place to have discussions, we need ‘one ring to rule them all’ that brings them together, curated them, makes them findable.

That’s the direction where you are going. It is immensely valuable but it is also going against the flow.

I understand, I've been in the same situation before, not recommending it to anyone. Having more than 2 or 3 tools is like having no tool at all or worst. This idea was born more for Open Source communities or hobbyst, etc. rather than companies. So yeah I agree the headline here is a little bit misleading in that sense.

Usually these kind of communities probably need that their content should be indexable by Google or other search engines in order to be discovered by new users. So in my mind it shouldn't dilute the attention of the community members. Of course it's still a proof of concept and every feedback is super welcomed to understand better the environment

I think you’re on the right track.

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