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If you go to technical discords you’ll find that there’s someone joining almost everyday who asks a set of questions that was aksed the day before. These peopl

If you go to technical discords you’ll find that there’s someone joining almost everyday who asks a set of questions that was aksed the day before. These people annoy existing servers members and get angry replies because people are so tired of answering the same basic question multiple times a day. Some servers have created processes where you can only access the FAQ channel until you prove your knowledge, and only then you can enter ‘general’. That clearly shows that something is wrong with content discovery on Discord.

netr0ute 5y ago
> These people annoy existing servers members and get angry replies because people are so tired of answering the same basic question multiple times a day. From the numerous Discords I'm on, this problem is either fixed by making the members answering have a mindset to always help, or by using a bot with canned responses.
cinntaile 5y ago
This always happens, people don't bother reading old info. Discord simply lowers the barrier to ask questions. It's probably a net positive overall.
magicalhippo 5y ago
> If you go to technical discords you’ll find that there’s someone joining almost everyday who asks a set of questions that was aksed the day before. I've been in programming IRC channels since the late 90s. People asking the same questions as someone else asked the day before was the norm back then too. In fact, Discord is better than IRC in this regard, because it has history in the client. You can easily search what's been written by a member or in a channel. I've used it many times to find relevant information in the Home Assistant server and similar. You also get the history when you join, so you immediately get some sense for what kind of channel it is. Is it very active or not? Are they discussing relevant things or not? IRC has none of that. Sure some built bots that recorded the conversations, but you'd have to know where to find the logs. When joining a channel it was blank. In fact I did this just yesterday when I had some SystemD question, and hopped on their Libra Chat IRC channel. Took me a few hours to realize this was a dead place. That being said, I do think open source projects should consider alternatives like Gitter.
- remram 5y ago
  You mean: is has history on the server?
  - magicalhippo 5y ago
    Discord has history on the server, unlike IRC. This makes a huge difference when joining a new channel.
    - remram 5y ago
      I know, I was correcting "Discord [...] has history in the client" from your comment.
- scambier 5y ago
  > I've been in programming IRC channels since the late 90s. People asking the same questions as someone else asked the day before was the norm back then too. With the huge difference that IRC did not have chat history, unless you used a bouncer
  - beebeepka 5y ago
    Nothing stopping any client from having logs. mirc and xchat have had them for decades. Yes, they are local but do exist and serve their purpose
    - timmattison 5y ago
      Sure. But when you first join there is no history which means that anyone new to the channel would ask the same questions because there was nothing they could search.
      - magicalhippo 5y ago
        Exactly, and it won't search for stuff that was written when your client, or the bot, wasn't running. Sure, you could set up bouncers and whatnot. But it's a barrier that Discord doesn't have.
megapolitics 5y ago
That sounds indistinguishable from forums or subreddits, which are usually touted as superior alternatives to Discord. Your final point actually makes Discord look preferable to the other two, as Discord servers have found a solution to a problem predating Discord.
eadler 5y ago
didn't unrealircd do something similar 10+ years ago?
johnny22 5y ago
i wish i could enable that for IRC reasonably without running my own bots and such.

netr0ute 5y ago

> These people annoy existing servers members and get angry replies because people are so tired of answering the same basic question multiple times a day. From the numerous Discords I'm on, this problem is either fixed by making the members answering have a mindset to always help, or by using a bot with canned responses.

cinntaile 5y ago

This always happens, people don't bother reading old info. Discord simply lowers the barrier to ask questions. It's probably a net positive overall.

magicalhippo 5y ago

> If you go to technical discords you’ll find that there’s someone joining almost everyday who asks a set of questions that was aksed the day before. I've been in programming IRC channels since the late 90s. People asking the same questions as someone else asked the day before was the norm back then too. In fact, Discord is better than IRC in this regard, because it has history in the client. You can easily search what's been written by a member or in a channel. I've used it many times to find relevant information in the Home Assistant server and similar. You also get the history when you join, so you immediately get some sense for what kind of channel it is. Is it very active or not? Are they discussing relevant things or not? IRC has none of that. Sure some built bots that recorded the conversations, but you'd have to know where to find the logs. When joining a channel it was blank. In fact I did this just yesterday when I had some SystemD question, and hopped on their Libra Chat IRC channel. Took me a few hours to realize this was a dead place. That being said, I do think open source projects should consider alternatives like Gitter.

remram 5y ago
You mean: is has history on the server?
- magicalhippo 5y ago
  Discord has history on the server, unlike IRC. This makes a huge difference when joining a new channel.
  - remram 5y ago
    I know, I was correcting "Discord [...] has history in the client" from your comment.
scambier 5y ago
> I've been in programming IRC channels since the late 90s. People asking the same questions as someone else asked the day before was the norm back then too. With the huge difference that IRC did not have chat history, unless you used a bouncer
- beebeepka 5y ago
  Nothing stopping any client from having logs. mirc and xchat have had them for decades. Yes, they are local but do exist and serve their purpose
  - timmattison 5y ago
    Sure. But when you first join there is no history which means that anyone new to the channel would ask the same questions because there was nothing they could search.
    - magicalhippo 5y ago
      Exactly, and it won't search for stuff that was written when your client, or the bot, wasn't running. Sure, you could set up bouncers and whatnot. But it's a barrier that Discord doesn't have.

megapolitics 5y ago

That sounds indistinguishable from forums or subreddits, which are usually touted as superior alternatives to Discord. Your final point actually makes Discord look preferable to the other two, as Discord servers have found a solution to a problem predating Discord.

eadler 5y ago

didn't unrealircd do something similar 10+ years ago?

johnny22 5y ago

i wish i could enable that for IRC reasonably without running my own bots and such.