5 ms·

This is really nice. Just needs one click joining for voice channels. This is an under-appreciated killer feature of discord that slack missed when implementing

by moojd 3y ago

This is really nice. Just needs one click joining for voice channels. This is an under-appreciated killer feature of discord that slack missed when implementing huddles. The ability to instantly hop in and out of voice channels is what keeps discord from feeling like any other teleconferencing app. Any friction to this makes it so I am less likely to just casually jump into a call.

uoaei 3y ago
It's like talking over cubicle walls vs scheduling conference rooms.
steanne 3y ago
the very first time i went looking for a discord plugin, i was looking for a way to block that after having entered too many chat channels accidentally. it might be a killer OPTION.
solarkraft 3y ago
It's crazy how collaboration solutions keep missing this. I passionately hate "calls". You don't catch people with a lasso to talk to them in real life.
- heyoni 3y ago
  Lol! This is such a great analogy I might lasso some folks just to tell them about it.
- lucb1e 3y ago
  Not sure I understand. They're called "meetings" IRL right? Just that they're now online, a lot of the time. We use the word call and meeting interchangeably, I'm not really seeing the difference. (The only difference between before covid and after is that we are more people and have more calls that take longer. Text chatting is a lot more structured and efficient and inclusive because nobody has to wait for a turn while the topic evolves past five persons before it gets to you, but whenever a topic gets more than a handful of messages, invariably $boss will propose to stop wasting time and "plan a meeting" .... but I also have that experience with IRL meetings when there are more than, say, five people involved)
  - doctor_eval 3y ago
    It’s about the ceremony involved to initiate an informal meeting. IRL you might just grab an empty office or room and hit the whiteboard for ten minutes. In other tools you need to invite specific people to a chat, and they have to find and respond to that specific event. In discord you say “let’s meet in the engineering channel” and anyone who also wants to join can do so. It’s a seemingly simple difference but I found discord so great for remote work relative to slack. It’s just much more casual, like real life.
  - vel0city 3y ago
    Seeing who is in the channel is the big difference. It's one thing to just phone someone up, potentially disturbing them from whatever they were doing and suddenly demanding their attention through a ring. It's another thing to see they're in an open communication space and hop in to join impromptu. There's significantly less social friction involved.
    - CuriousCosmic 3y ago
      The problem is that in the real world you can have more than one conversation in a space. With a group call/channel you get exactly one conversation or a bunch of people yelling over each other. You could probably make that work in VC but the UX is going to be awkward and un-intuitive no matter how you slice it. So the best option (online/available status and 1:1 calls which is what we have now) is probably the best alternative.
      - steveklabnik 3y ago
        Discords usually have multiple audio channels, solve the "exactly one" issue. If you really want to have two conversations, one group drops down to another one.
        CuriousCosmic 3y ago
        Yes however that's no different than just being in multiple calls but just swapping between them (ala skype for business or teams). It's still exactly one conversation you can be part of at a time. This compares to in person conversation where you can be part of a greater conversation while also carrying on a smaller, secondary conversation with the people immediately adjacent to you. I've seen some conference software try to address this with a "tables" system where you sit at a table of a few people but are in a greater discussion room. Your table conversation is only heard at the table but the room conversation is heard at all the tables. then the table channel is "open mic" and the room "push to talk" (or both being bound to different "push to talk" buttons). That kind of addresses the issue but it's awkward and doesn't translate well to anything other than conferences. Maybe a 2d/3d game style environment with range chat would work the best for something like this but I've yet to see an interface for this that isn't miserable outside of actual games. It'd solve the "walk up and talk" issue but it'd add 10 other issues all of it's own.
pohuing 3y ago
But you can do that
- moojd 3y ago
  Nice! I tried but I must be missing something. Is it a setting? Only way I can see to join voice is to click on the channel and then click the voice button?
  - pohuing 3y ago
    You can create an invite link to a voice channel instead. There's even a wiki how to this https://www.wikihow.com/Invite-People-to-a-Discord-Channel-on-a-PC-or-Mac https://www.wikihow.com/Invite-People-to-a-Discord-Channel-o...
lucb1e 3y ago
This was normal back in the days of IRC and Mumble. I should try introducing mumble into our company, come to think of it. I remember not understanding the client-side TLS certificate thing, so like, it had strong encryption way ahead of its time and the UI was basically as smooth as it could be because we all made it onto the server, even if we didn't understand what it was and the server just accepted any cert. It's a good reminder indeed, I hadn't considered the old gaming toolkit we used as teenagers and I work with 100% technical people that can figure out an apt install mumble
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- Grimburger 3y ago
  Mumble's latency is unbeatable imo, it's basically their main focus and shows. The sticking point for me is the lack of persistent messages, something the devs strangely think is a privacy plus. Issue open since 2016: https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/issues/2560 https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/issues/2560 If you drop out for a minute you won't have access to anything that was posted in chat, which makes it useless for anything other than voice only comms, that might suit some business purposes but I've always needed to post links or screenshots in chat during meetings.
  - astrobe_ 3y ago
    I think in the case of Mumble, the chat feature is intended to be used to let people fix sound issues, nothing more. This sort of is yet another data point related to a conundrum: on one hand, applications that integrate multiple functionalities are convenient but there's always one or more functionality that doesn't fit your needs; on the other hand, applications that focus on one functionality do it well, but you have to hand pick one-by-one to fit all your needs, perhaps add some glue scripts/plugins to make them work nicely together, and this is inconvenient (in particular if you are not alone and not in an organization that "dictates" those choices) and a slow process. Basically it is Office365/LibreOffice/Emacs or Browsers (with plugins to add chat, email clients, etc.), issue trackers (sometimes feature Wikis and more), Git online front ends (sometimes offer Wikis and issue trackers), versus e.g. raw Git, Vim/Notepad/Nano, bare-bones browsers (Surf, Midori browsers), ... I favor the dedicate apps for things I do a lot - usually I eventually know them pretty well and I have the know-how to make them interoperate. For more casual stuff, I'm like the random user - the convenience just wins. But for communication applications, as long as people jump the bandwagon of the latest private service provided "for free", you have to go with the flow or only be the nerd that talks with nerds on obscure networks.
burnished 3y ago
You can do this in slack by starting a huddle in a common channel. Its not as good but helps somewhat.
- cannonpalms 3y ago
  I think they mean that you cannot hop between different huddles in a single click.
  - burnished 3y ago
    Yes, I believe you are correct, discord makes it easier to see what you are potentially getting into much easier.
- loctal 3y ago
  Why is slack preferred over teams, discord or revolt?
  - burnished 3y ago
    I'm not sure, it seems like a corporate thing? I prefer discord personally, unfamiliar with revolt, will say that teams in an academic setting was immensely frustrating. But I use slack for work and some org's community space is also on slack so I make the best of it that I can.
TheBrokenRail 3y ago
Please no. As someone who doesn't use voice channels, I can't even count how many times I've accidentally joined them because I mis-clicked. And then I have to find the "end call" button because, of course, it's small and located away from the channel itself. It is so unbelievably annoying. The best feature Discord added recently was the ability to hide channels, so I can finally, once and for all, forget about voice channels.
- falsenapkin 3y ago
  I've been using Discord since 2017 and in that time I think I've literally never accidentally joined a voice channel? The app even prompts you if you're sure about joining under some circumstances. GP is right, frictionless voice channels is a killer feature. Maybe a toggleable prompt or some other feature to prevent accidentally joining can be an opt-in.
  - TheBrokenRail 3y ago
    > I've been using Discord since 2017 and in that time I think I've literally never accidentally joined a voice channel? I've also been on Discord since 2017, and I've done it many times. Especially on servers which put voice channels right next to text channels. And I'm not the only one either, judging by another comment[0]. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36439417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36439417 > The app even prompts you if you're sure about joining under some circumstances. The app is even worse! It brings a full-screen pop-up and if you haven't granted Discord microphone permissions, it will bug you, every, single, time.
    - falsenapkin 3y ago
      Maybe ask the server admins to make a voice channel category and then not only are text/voice separated/grouped but you can collapse the voice category when not using a voice channel. I really just don't see this problem, it's not even that I haven't done it but also I don't see other people doing it. To be fair though, like half the servers I'm active in organize their channels in this separated way. Anyway, I think opt-in for some kind of friction makes sense.

by moojd 3y ago

uoaei 3y ago

It's like talking over cubicle walls vs scheduling conference rooms.

steanne 3y ago

the very first time i went looking for a discord plugin, i was looking for a way to block that after having entered too many chat channels accidentally. it might be a killer OPTION.

solarkraft 3y ago

It's crazy how collaboration solutions keep missing this. I passionately hate "calls". You don't catch people with a lasso to talk to them in real life.

heyoni 3y ago
Lol! This is such a great analogy I might lasso some folks just to tell them about it.
lucb1e 3y ago
Not sure I understand. They're called "meetings" IRL right? Just that they're now online, a lot of the time. We use the word call and meeting interchangeably, I'm not really seeing the difference. (The only difference between before covid and after is that we are more people and have more calls that take longer. Text chatting is a lot more structured and efficient and inclusive because nobody has to wait for a turn while the topic evolves past five persons before it gets to you, but whenever a topic gets more than a handful of messages, invariably $boss will propose to stop wasting time and "plan a meeting" .... but I also have that experience with IRL meetings when there are more than, say, five people involved)
- doctor_eval 3y ago
  It’s about the ceremony involved to initiate an informal meeting. IRL you might just grab an empty office or room and hit the whiteboard for ten minutes. In other tools you need to invite specific people to a chat, and they have to find and respond to that specific event. In discord you say “let’s meet in the engineering channel” and anyone who also wants to join can do so. It’s a seemingly simple difference but I found discord so great for remote work relative to slack. It’s just much more casual, like real life.
- vel0city 3y ago
  Seeing who is in the channel is the big difference. It's one thing to just phone someone up, potentially disturbing them from whatever they were doing and suddenly demanding their attention through a ring. It's another thing to see they're in an open communication space and hop in to join impromptu. There's significantly less social friction involved.
  - CuriousCosmic 3y ago
    The problem is that in the real world you can have more than one conversation in a space. With a group call/channel you get exactly one conversation or a bunch of people yelling over each other. You could probably make that work in VC but the UX is going to be awkward and un-intuitive no matter how you slice it. So the best option (online/available status and 1:1 calls which is what we have now) is probably the best alternative.
    - steveklabnik 3y ago
      Discords usually have multiple audio channels, solve the "exactly one" issue. If you really want to have two conversations, one group drops down to another one.
      - CuriousCosmic 3y ago
        Yes however that's no different than just being in multiple calls but just swapping between them (ala skype for business or teams). It's still exactly one conversation you can be part of at a time. This compares to in person conversation where you can be part of a greater conversation while also carrying on a smaller, secondary conversation with the people immediately adjacent to you. I've seen some conference software try to address this with a "tables" system where you sit at a table of a few people but are in a greater discussion room. Your table conversation is only heard at the table but the room conversation is heard at all the tables. then the table channel is "open mic" and the room "push to talk" (or both being bound to different "push to talk" buttons). That kind of addresses the issue but it's awkward and doesn't translate well to anything other than conferences. Maybe a 2d/3d game style environment with range chat would work the best for something like this but I've yet to see an interface for this that isn't miserable outside of actual games. It'd solve the "walk up and talk" issue but it'd add 10 other issues all of it's own.

pohuing 3y ago

But you can do that

moojd 3y ago
Nice! I tried but I must be missing something. Is it a setting? Only way I can see to join voice is to click on the channel and then click the voice button?
- pohuing 3y ago
  You can create an invite link to a voice channel instead. There's even a wiki how to this https://www.wikihow.com/Invite-People-to-a-Discord-Channel-on-a-PC-or-Mac https://www.wikihow.com/Invite-People-to-a-Discord-Channel-o...

lucb1e 3y ago

This was normal back in the days of IRC and Mumble. I should try introducing mumble into our company, come to think of it. I remember not understanding the client-side TLS certificate thing, so like, it had strong encryption way ahead of its time and the UI was basically as smooth as it could be because we all made it onto the server, even if we didn't understand what it was and the server just accepted any cert. It's a good reminder indeed, I hadn't considered the old gaming toolkit we used as teenagers and I work with 100% technical people that can figure out an apt install mumble

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Grimburger 3y ago
Mumble's latency is unbeatable imo, it's basically their main focus and shows. The sticking point for me is the lack of persistent messages, something the devs strangely think is a privacy plus. Issue open since 2016: https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/issues/2560 https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/issues/2560 If you drop out for a minute you won't have access to anything that was posted in chat, which makes it useless for anything other than voice only comms, that might suit some business purposes but I've always needed to post links or screenshots in chat during meetings.
- astrobe_ 3y ago
  I think in the case of Mumble, the chat feature is intended to be used to let people fix sound issues, nothing more. This sort of is yet another data point related to a conundrum: on one hand, applications that integrate multiple functionalities are convenient but there's always one or more functionality that doesn't fit your needs; on the other hand, applications that focus on one functionality do it well, but you have to hand pick one-by-one to fit all your needs, perhaps add some glue scripts/plugins to make them work nicely together, and this is inconvenient (in particular if you are not alone and not in an organization that "dictates" those choices) and a slow process. Basically it is Office365/LibreOffice/Emacs or Browsers (with plugins to add chat, email clients, etc.), issue trackers (sometimes feature Wikis and more), Git online front ends (sometimes offer Wikis and issue trackers), versus e.g. raw Git, Vim/Notepad/Nano, bare-bones browsers (Surf, Midori browsers), ... I favor the dedicate apps for things I do a lot - usually I eventually know them pretty well and I have the know-how to make them interoperate. For more casual stuff, I'm like the random user - the convenience just wins. But for communication applications, as long as people jump the bandwagon of the latest private service provided "for free", you have to go with the flow or only be the nerd that talks with nerds on obscure networks.

burnished 3y ago

You can do this in slack by starting a huddle in a common channel. Its not as good but helps somewhat.

cannonpalms 3y ago
I think they mean that you cannot hop between different huddles in a single click.
- burnished 3y ago
  Yes, I believe you are correct, discord makes it easier to see what you are potentially getting into much easier.
loctal 3y ago
Why is slack preferred over teams, discord or revolt?
- burnished 3y ago
  I'm not sure, it seems like a corporate thing? I prefer discord personally, unfamiliar with revolt, will say that teams in an academic setting was immensely frustrating. But I use slack for work and some org's community space is also on slack so I make the best of it that I can.

TheBrokenRail 3y ago

Please no. As someone who doesn't use voice channels, I can't even count how many times I've accidentally joined them because I mis-clicked. And then I have to find the "end call" button because, of course, it's small and located away from the channel itself. It is so unbelievably annoying. The best feature Discord added recently was the ability to hide channels, so I can finally, once and for all, forget about voice channels.

falsenapkin 3y ago
I've been using Discord since 2017 and in that time I think I've literally never accidentally joined a voice channel? The app even prompts you if you're sure about joining under some circumstances. GP is right, frictionless voice channels is a killer feature. Maybe a toggleable prompt or some other feature to prevent accidentally joining can be an opt-in.
- TheBrokenRail 3y ago
  > I've been using Discord since 2017 and in that time I think I've literally never accidentally joined a voice channel? I've also been on Discord since 2017, and I've done it many times. Especially on servers which put voice channels right next to text channels. And I'm not the only one either, judging by another comment[0]. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36439417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36439417 > The app even prompts you if you're sure about joining under some circumstances. The app is even worse! It brings a full-screen pop-up and if you haven't granted Discord microphone permissions, it will bug you, every, single, time.
  - falsenapkin 3y ago
    Maybe ask the server admins to make a voice channel category and then not only are text/voice separated/grouped but you can collapse the voice category when not using a voice channel. I really just don't see this problem, it's not even that I haven't done it but also I don't see other people doing it. To be fair though, like half the servers I'm active in organize their channels in this separated way. Anyway, I think opt-in for some kind of friction makes sense.