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> If I want to contribute to a prior discussion that happened a few minutes ago but another one is taking place now, then we have two separate conversations in

> If I want to contribute to a prior discussion that happened a few minutes ago but another one is taking place now, then we have two separate conversations in the same linear chat stream. Yes, this is the essential nature of real-time chat. The channel already serves as the demarcation of topic. What you're describing is a forum, a totally different modality. > Direct replies to the messages help but they still exist in that linear main chat stream, so there’s still a lot of clutter that everyone has to navigate through. This isn't clutter, it's literally the point of the tool.

kowbell 5y ago
> Yes, this is the essential nature of real-time chat. Discord can be real-time, it can also be slightly-slower-than-realtime; maybe as slow as a forum at times, but with different expectations (namely being closer to real-time.) Personally, that’s most of the Discords I’m in. > The channel already serves as the demarcation of topic. Channels are a broad demarcation. Example from my experience, a #general-development-help channel in a Discord about using mods for a game, developing them, and chatting with mod developers. Threads then become useful for a person asking a particular question to whoever’s online and anyone interested gets to discuss it in an openly accessible but politely/quietly aside fashion. > This isn't clutter, it's literally the point of the tool. It does serve the useful job of “hey everybody, this message is a direct reply to this other message, not necessarily the one(s) right above me!” In smaller groups this is cool and good, and I like the replies as they are. In larger scale chats where there may be multiple discussions simultaneously within a channel (and they can’t reasonably make enough channels to break them all up), I think threads help contain the discussions. > What you're describing is a forum, a totally different modality. There are a lot of Discords that do function like faster-paced forums. It has grown beyond a real-time text/audio/video chat app for a small groups of people.

kowbell 5y ago

> Yes, this is the essential nature of real-time chat. Discord can be real-time, it can also be slightly-slower-than-realtime; maybe as slow as a forum at times, but with different expectations (namely being closer to real-time.) Personally, that’s most of the Discords I’m in. > The channel already serves as the demarcation of topic. Channels are a broad demarcation. Example from my experience, a #general-development-help channel in a Discord about using mods for a game, developing them, and chatting with mod developers. Threads then become useful for a person asking a particular question to whoever’s online and anyone interested gets to discuss it in an openly accessible but politely/quietly aside fashion. > This isn't clutter, it's literally the point of the tool. It does serve the useful job of “hey everybody, this message is a direct reply to this other message, not necessarily the one(s) right above me!” In smaller groups this is cool and good, and I like the replies as they are. In larger scale chats where there may be multiple discussions simultaneously within a channel (and they can’t reasonably make enough channels to break them all up), I think threads help contain the discussions. > What you're describing is a forum, a totally different modality. There are a lot of Discords that do function like faster-paced forums. It has grown beyond a real-time text/audio/video chat app for a small groups of people.