> The main problem with Discord, to me, is that in any popular project, you have about 15 seconds for the right person to read your message before emojis push it off the screen.
It's like... this defines the issue.
I don't see why this point isn't always mentioned front and center when it comes to discussion of Discord as a help vector. It's transient. It's ephemeral.
Forum posts persist, they're asynchronous. People visit forums and catch up, it's considered acceptable to reply to a post that's a couple of weeks old. Yes, you shouldn't necro a thread from a year ago but forums are designed for casual access which is always going to be the majority of a userbase. You can drop in and help as and when it suits you. If you get abused or a toxic reply, there's a good chance you might not even see it because the admin will clean it up before you log in again.
They're searchable and open.
Compared to that, everything about discord appears, to me, to make it completely unsuitable as a support platform. I've tried a few times to use some subreddit discords and they're just bizarrely fast-moving with multiple channels, memes and stuff popping up all over the place - I fail to see how you can get any real value out of that. It's hugely interactive and feels like - to use a very old metaphor - having a boxing match with your computer in which you're constantly ducking stuff being thrown at you. It's a bit exhausting.
It seems... discord, like tiktok, is something you do - it's a two-way street. You use discord, you install the app, the app pings you up when _it_ wants to and you respond to the app, which is a really unhealthy way to interact with technology, having an app endlessly jerking your chain.
Forums, on the other hand are a passive place _you_ visit when _you_ want to - which is a much more human-centric way to interact with technology.
IRC has the same ephemerality attribute. But people were aware of it and set up additional communication channel, like wiki for documentation and guides, forum for support, tracker for discussions, and blog for announcements. IRC was always a place to hangout. Now people expect Discord to be everything above.
It's like... this defines the issue.
I don't see why this point isn't always mentioned front and center when it comes to discussion of Discord as a help vector. It's transient. It's ephemeral.
Forum posts persist, they're asynchronous. People visit forums and catch up, it's considered acceptable to reply to a post that's a couple of weeks old. Yes, you shouldn't necro a thread from a year ago but forums are designed for casual access which is always going to be the majority of a userbase. You can drop in and help as and when it suits you. If you get abused or a toxic reply, there's a good chance you might not even see it because the admin will clean it up before you log in again.
They're searchable and open.
Compared to that, everything about discord appears, to me, to make it completely unsuitable as a support platform. I've tried a few times to use some subreddit discords and they're just bizarrely fast-moving with multiple channels, memes and stuff popping up all over the place - I fail to see how you can get any real value out of that. It's hugely interactive and feels like - to use a very old metaphor - having a boxing match with your computer in which you're constantly ducking stuff being thrown at you. It's a bit exhausting.
It seems... discord, like tiktok, is something you do - it's a two-way street. You use discord, you install the app, the app pings you up when _it_ wants to and you respond to the app, which is a really unhealthy way to interact with technology, having an app endlessly jerking your chain.
Forums, on the other hand are a passive place _you_ visit when _you_ want to - which is a much more human-centric way to interact with technology.