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>For chat, storing knowledge, "community building", etc it is all strictly worse than the alternatives. What alternatives do you suggest?

by shusui 4y ago

aaomidi 4y ago
Honestly a subreddit right now is a better choice. Mainly cause it gets indexed. Who knows if reddit is going to keep it that way though. Alternatively github discussions might also be a good tool here.
kovalevski 4y ago
something like Discourse (old good forums?)
krageon 4y ago
Chat: IRC was good, XMPP has all the modern things folks apparently want, Matrix is the hip new chat thing. Storing knowledge: Has a good system already (a wiki, take your pick of software). It is widely used, everyone agrees it is good. What holds wikis back is most folks insist on using really bad wiki hosts that are full of ads and javascript. Community building: Forums (bad choice because nobody writes longform anymore, so why even have this)? Mastodon (not an ideal choice for the format, but it aligns with how people interact)? Literally anything that can be indexed and searched in a non-cancerous way gives you an advantage over Discord. If you'd ask me to do it, I'd probably go for an indexed mailing list. It's accessible to literally everyone and folks have used it to talk since the dawn of computers.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  I pay for the premium matrix server and even I’ll admit that discord is vastly superior. It honestly makes matrix look like SMS in comparison. The UI of discord is basically perfect, it’s extremely fast, it has so many useful tools. If you don’t care about open source or self hosting, there are vanishingly few reasons to not use discord. Not being indexed is a feature for many. It always mildly bothered me how my irc conversations from many years ago still show on google when searching my username.
  - luckman212 4y ago
    > the UI of discord is basically perfect I find it way too distracting- everything is constantly bleeping, blooping, popping and animating.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Part of that is because they want to make the program fun. Microsoft Teams is what you get when you focus on utilitarianism. The program is stale and depressing, it mostly works fine but sparks no joy. While every time I use discord I feel a little better. Opening it up and seeing some confetti burst for an update makes me feel good. Even if it is silly. But when I want to get something done, its very easy to understand. If I want to create a new group, the big plus button is right on the side bar, If I want to stream my game to friends, it shows the game next to the voice chat while its running and I just press the big button. The flows are so seamless and it all just works.
  - krageon 4y ago
    Yes, if you don't care about privacy or freedom you may as well use Discord. That was the point to begin with, so I'm not sure what we are driving at then. Discord should not be used because it's a walled garden with all the detractors that come along with that. There's good replacements for them (even if they don't come with confetti :) ), but because they are not covered in corporate honey folks don't like them as much. To me, that seems really short-sighted. Even if I do understand it.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      I don’t see what’s wrong with being short sighted. I didn’t sign a contract to use the program for 10 years. If next year the VC money runs out and the program goes to shit than my friends and I will hop to the next best. Might as well take advantage of the subsidised product while it’s good.

>For chat, storing knowledge, "community building", etc it is all strictly worse than the alternatives. What alternatives do you suggest?

by shusui 4y ago

>For chat, storing knowledge, "community building", etc it is all strictly worse than the alternatives. What alternatives do you suggest?

aaomidi 4y ago

Honestly a subreddit right now is a better choice. Mainly cause it gets indexed. Who knows if reddit is going to keep it that way though. Alternatively github discussions might also be a good tool here.

kovalevski 4y ago

something like Discourse (old good forums?)

krageon 4y ago

Chat: IRC was good, XMPP has all the modern things folks apparently want, Matrix is the hip new chat thing. Storing knowledge: Has a good system already (a wiki, take your pick of software). It is widely used, everyone agrees it is good. What holds wikis back is most folks insist on using really bad wiki hosts that are full of ads and javascript. Community building: Forums (bad choice because nobody writes longform anymore, so why even have this)? Mastodon (not an ideal choice for the format, but it aligns with how people interact)? Literally anything that can be indexed and searched in a non-cancerous way gives you an advantage over Discord. If you'd ask me to do it, I'd probably go for an indexed mailing list. It's accessible to literally everyone and folks have used it to talk since the dawn of computers.

Gigachad 4y ago
I pay for the premium matrix server and even I’ll admit that discord is vastly superior. It honestly makes matrix look like SMS in comparison. The UI of discord is basically perfect, it’s extremely fast, it has so many useful tools. If you don’t care about open source or self hosting, there are vanishingly few reasons to not use discord. Not being indexed is a feature for many. It always mildly bothered me how my irc conversations from many years ago still show on google when searching my username.
- luckman212 4y ago
  > the UI of discord is basically perfect I find it way too distracting- everything is constantly bleeping, blooping, popping and animating.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Part of that is because they want to make the program fun. Microsoft Teams is what you get when you focus on utilitarianism. The program is stale and depressing, it mostly works fine but sparks no joy. While every time I use discord I feel a little better. Opening it up and seeing some confetti burst for an update makes me feel good. Even if it is silly. But when I want to get something done, its very easy to understand. If I want to create a new group, the big plus button is right on the side bar, If I want to stream my game to friends, it shows the game next to the voice chat while its running and I just press the big button. The flows are so seamless and it all just works.
- krageon 4y ago
  Yes, if you don't care about privacy or freedom you may as well use Discord. That was the point to begin with, so I'm not sure what we are driving at then. Discord should not be used because it's a walled garden with all the detractors that come along with that. There's good replacements for them (even if they don't come with confetti :) ), but because they are not covered in corporate honey folks don't like them as much. To me, that seems really short-sighted. Even if I do understand it.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    I don’t see what’s wrong with being short sighted. I didn’t sign a contract to use the program for 10 years. If next year the VC money runs out and the program goes to shit than my friends and I will hop to the next best. Might as well take advantage of the subsidised product while it’s good.