> it’s impossible to search chats meaningfully, whereas forums/DLs let you quickly figure out if you’re facing a common issue (and finding resolutions easily)

> it’s impossible to search chats meaningfully, whereas forums/DLs let you quickly figure out if you’re facing a common issue (and finding resolutions easily) From a user's perspective, that's a more important aspect than the underlying platform being FOSS. Also as a maintainer, I would neither want to answer the same questions again and again nor would I like to create the impression of answering in real time, as chat clients usually do. I don't care if it's Gitter, GitHub discussions, or a mailing list, but please make it easy for search engines to index the messages instead of placing them behind a proprietary wall like on discord.