Post #1307236

2025-11-16 07:55 UTC

@lawik weird assumption that discord is the place where the majority is. The barrier for using a forum is so damn low - especially compared with Discord. AND you can actually index it so that you get less support requests because people FIND the answer for what they were looking for. As I said, Element is not the only alternative. I think it's still a good one as they have put A LOT of effort into it over the last 2 years. But I still prefer a forum for the reasons mentioned.

Replies (1)

@lawik@hachyderm.io 2025-11-16 08:05

@sturmsucht Is it a weird assumption or is it based on my experience of where I've seen present-day projects successfully build active exchange? Tiny sample size but I know it is hard to build an active group anywhere and picking a tool many people already have lowers the barrier. Discord is extremely widely used outside of open source. I can get OSS die-hards on IRC. But I doubt I'd get a newly minted programming student as easily. I don't want to argue for Discord being the right choice. I think the analogy you wrote that I responded to is accurate. But the challenge of the choice of tool is real. I do like forums. They are not the same function for many people as a chat. The Elixir ecosystem which is where I hang out have a forum that is an awesome resource. It is not a good place for most people to socially connect with each other around projects or throwing in the quick questions. Outside of the help/questions the forum format attracts people with a lot of time and desire to argue. The function of Discord could be handled by IRC or Element. But the low barrier to entry and high degree of actually working plays into it a lot in my mind.

Open ##1307237