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Is Discord a viable alternative to Slack? If not, why not?

bostonbot 6y ago
For sure. We love discord. Less distractions and great integrations for developers.
juvoni 6y ago
Yes it is, but a key feature discord lacks is threads. Still it is a huge upgrade from Slack in terms of performance and ease of use.
- rexreed 6y ago
  I am a heavy Slack user but I don't use threads. Threads seem like a confusing mess. Am I missing something not using Slack threads?
  - strifey 6y ago
    If everyone is bought-in on using them, they can be a really nice way to keep single topics in one place rather than having interleaved conversations in a single channel. If people don't use it 100% of the time, though, it's honestly worse because now you're not always sure where to read/continue a conversation.
  - ryanSrich 6y ago
    Wow really? I'm genuinely surprised. I couldn't imagine using Slack without threads, how do you keep discussions on track for certain topics? At any given time I have 30-40 threads going, which means I can easily track conversations. Without threads I'm just endlessly scrolling, or trying to find something, or god forbid relying on Slack's utterly broken search.
    - rexreed 6y ago
      The comment below is on point. It's all-or-nothing on threads. If people don't commit to using threads it gets hopeless really fast.
      - ryanSrich 6y ago
        I don't understand, even partial adoption of threads is better than no threads. A simple "please respond in the thread" goes a long way.
  - mushishi 6y ago
    I would say they help to scope a part of a discussion that clarifies some detail or maybe when giving a link elsewhere, without derailing the mainline of the discussion. It's useful when people arrive in the discussion at different times and you don't want to necessarily let the whole channel to be notified about your specific remark, and don't want to write a private message either -- one reason being it would lose the context. In our project we have multiple channels that have actively 3-5 persons and work at different times. The things we chat about are lightweight changes or news, or maybe someone has a quick clarifying question about implementation detail. Something that wouldn't be posted in an issue for one reason or other.
  - arwineap 6y ago
    FWIW, I was also a threads nay-sayer but I've since seen the light Remember the irc support channels where conversations and problem/solution dialogs were constantly muxed with other conversations / dialogs? Imagine each question being a root message, and all of the dialog / suggestions / answers being in a thread. Also makes it super convenient for search. In addition to that I find that beyond a certain channel / DM count it's a lot easier to follow up on things with threads Give it a shot, try to get your whole team on board. You can always revert back to not using them later :)
    - fivre 6y ago
      yes! I actually love that format! it's how I grew up! I'll recognize that I'm a bit of an oddball in that respect nowadays, but it can work, at least with a small enough room. I love having all the conversations cross over one another and just being able to read back and follow them.
  - lovehashbrowns 6y ago
    Yeah, you definitely are, especially for larger companies. Just from one example: you can tell when a specific issue requires attention based on how many comments the thread has. So let's say I wake up in the AM and there's a thread that says "how do I use the API for companyservice.example-api.com" and the thread has 50 comments. Let's say it's a service I support. First, I know there's an issue because a customer required attention to begin with. This is then confirmed by the fact that the thread has 50 comments in it so there are probably documentation and usability issues with this service. The company I work for and the services I am responsible for deals with internal customers and we use these two absurdly simple metrics to optimize support regularly. When we first started with certain services that my team is responsible for, we used Slack metrics A LOT. As in, we had spreadsheets with this data and we'd go over them every week. Nowadays, our services are almost 100% self-service and we rarely, if ever, get pinged on Slack for those services because the documentation is optimized and the usability has been specifically designed so that our engineers don't get in the way of our customer's needs.
- fphilipe 6y ago
  Messages within threads are not searchable. Maybe that changed, but until recently that was definitely the case.
- postalrat 6y ago
  No threads is a feature IMO.
- ajpalkovic 6y ago
  fwiw, threads _are_ being worked on, but it will be a while still
CoryAlexMartin 6y ago
From my perspective, it offers an overall nicer user experience, and it's free. I assume Discord's gamer branding (which they only dropped recently) might be the reason Slack is more widely used for teams.
blueblisters 6y ago
If Discord wades into the business communication space, I would move without a second thought. The voice/call reliability seems better, anecdotally. I think the voice lounge concept could translate well into the enterprise space as well, if done right.
sergiotapia 6y ago
Unfortunately their video is terrible. Screen sharing would peg our computers and spin up our coolers.
ifaxmycodetok8s 6y ago
If you're question is it a viable alternative to Slack for business purposes, the answer is no. And it's not bc of anything related to the application itself but because of the insane TOS. > By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. https://discord.com/terms https://discord.com/terms
- war1025 6y ago
  Are these licenses actually enforceable? Those absolutely seem like overreach in terms of what someone would consider reasonable from a user perspective.
  - paxys 6y ago
    Regardless, I doubt any business wants to get in a position where their existence depends on a judge evaluating the license with their chat software.
- kevindong 6y ago
  > in connection with operating and providing the Service I'm not a lawyer, but that seems like a key limiting clause in that statement.
  - ifaxmycodetok8s 6y ago
    yeah agreed. but at the same time it seems just vague enough.
holler 6y ago
if you’re looking just for an alternative chat option, check out sqwok.im, it’s sort of a mix of twitter and slack, in open beta
swaraj 6y ago
we have fallen back to discord for work today. Obviously the terms/security controls are not a great permanent solution, but it's a great fallback for real-time chat across all devices

For sure. We love discord. Less distractions and great integrations for developers.

Yes it is, but a key feature discord lacks is threads. Still it is a huge upgrade from Slack in terms of performance and ease of use.

rexreed 6y ago
I am a heavy Slack user but I don't use threads. Threads seem like a confusing mess. Am I missing something not using Slack threads?
- strifey 6y ago
  If everyone is bought-in on using them, they can be a really nice way to keep single topics in one place rather than having interleaved conversations in a single channel. If people don't use it 100% of the time, though, it's honestly worse because now you're not always sure where to read/continue a conversation.
- ryanSrich 6y ago
  Wow really? I'm genuinely surprised. I couldn't imagine using Slack without threads, how do you keep discussions on track for certain topics? At any given time I have 30-40 threads going, which means I can easily track conversations. Without threads I'm just endlessly scrolling, or trying to find something, or god forbid relying on Slack's utterly broken search.
  - rexreed 6y ago
    The comment below is on point. It's all-or-nothing on threads. If people don't commit to using threads it gets hopeless really fast.
    - ryanSrich 6y ago
      I don't understand, even partial adoption of threads is better than no threads. A simple "please respond in the thread" goes a long way.
- mushishi 6y ago
  I would say they help to scope a part of a discussion that clarifies some detail or maybe when giving a link elsewhere, without derailing the mainline of the discussion. It's useful when people arrive in the discussion at different times and you don't want to necessarily let the whole channel to be notified about your specific remark, and don't want to write a private message either -- one reason being it would lose the context. In our project we have multiple channels that have actively 3-5 persons and work at different times. The things we chat about are lightweight changes or news, or maybe someone has a quick clarifying question about implementation detail. Something that wouldn't be posted in an issue for one reason or other.
- arwineap 6y ago
  FWIW, I was also a threads nay-sayer but I've since seen the light Remember the irc support channels where conversations and problem/solution dialogs were constantly muxed with other conversations / dialogs? Imagine each question being a root message, and all of the dialog / suggestions / answers being in a thread. Also makes it super convenient for search. In addition to that I find that beyond a certain channel / DM count it's a lot easier to follow up on things with threads Give it a shot, try to get your whole team on board. You can always revert back to not using them later :)
  - fivre 6y ago
    yes! I actually love that format! it's how I grew up! I'll recognize that I'm a bit of an oddball in that respect nowadays, but it can work, at least with a small enough room. I love having all the conversations cross over one another and just being able to read back and follow them.
- lovehashbrowns 6y ago
  Yeah, you definitely are, especially for larger companies. Just from one example: you can tell when a specific issue requires attention based on how many comments the thread has. So let's say I wake up in the AM and there's a thread that says "how do I use the API for companyservice.example-api.com" and the thread has 50 comments. Let's say it's a service I support. First, I know there's an issue because a customer required attention to begin with. This is then confirmed by the fact that the thread has 50 comments in it so there are probably documentation and usability issues with this service. The company I work for and the services I am responsible for deals with internal customers and we use these two absurdly simple metrics to optimize support regularly. When we first started with certain services that my team is responsible for, we used Slack metrics A LOT. As in, we had spreadsheets with this data and we'd go over them every week. Nowadays, our services are almost 100% self-service and we rarely, if ever, get pinged on Slack for those services because the documentation is optimized and the usability has been specifically designed so that our engineers don't get in the way of our customer's needs.
fphilipe 6y ago
Messages within threads are not searchable. Maybe that changed, but until recently that was definitely the case.
postalrat 6y ago
No threads is a feature IMO.
ajpalkovic 6y ago
fwiw, threads _are_ being worked on, but it will be a while still

CoryAlexMartin 6y ago

From my perspective, it offers an overall nicer user experience, and it's free. I assume Discord's gamer branding (which they only dropped recently) might be the reason Slack is more widely used for teams.

blueblisters 6y ago

If Discord wades into the business communication space, I would move without a second thought. The voice/call reliability seems better, anecdotally. I think the voice lounge concept could translate well into the enterprise space as well, if done right.

sergiotapia 6y ago

Unfortunately their video is terrible. Screen sharing would peg our computers and spin up our coolers.

ifaxmycodetok8s 6y ago

If you're question is it a viable alternative to Slack for business purposes, the answer is no. And it's not bc of anything related to the application itself but because of the insane TOS. > By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. https://discord.com/terms https://discord.com/terms

war1025 6y ago
Are these licenses actually enforceable? Those absolutely seem like overreach in terms of what someone would consider reasonable from a user perspective.
- paxys 6y ago
  Regardless, I doubt any business wants to get in a position where their existence depends on a judge evaluating the license with their chat software.
kevindong 6y ago
> in connection with operating and providing the Service I'm not a lawyer, but that seems like a key limiting clause in that statement.
- ifaxmycodetok8s 6y ago
  yeah agreed. but at the same time it seems just vague enough.

holler 6y ago

if you’re looking just for an alternative chat option, check out sqwok.im, it’s sort of a mix of twitter and slack, in open beta

swaraj 6y ago

we have fallen back to discord for work today. Obviously the terms/security controls are not a great permanent solution, but it's a great fallback for real-time chat across all devices