5 ms·
> I also don't understand it from the perspective of the business. Is it a "Gen Z-thing"? Discord is already very popular in that segment, so if a company want
by DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
> I also don't understand it from the perspective of the business.
Is it a "Gen Z-thing"? Discord is already very popular in that segment, so if a company wants to engage with younger customers/users - or has a younger team-members calling the shots, then that would make-sense.
...just something I've noticed.
- jasonlotito 3y agoHonestly, I’d take it over other archaic forms of documentation that came before. These are, off the top of my head, the things Discord solves: Documentation that requires you to sign up to yet another website. Paying for documentation. Documentation in a PDF that you can’t access until you have a sale calls. Documentation on just a website. No documentation. Random forums I have to sign up for that are separate from the help desk sign up that are separate from the actual services signup. Not be able to search across others issues and to solve problems without needing to ask. Using HN to get assistance. Using Twitter to get assistance. Hoping my email doesn’t get lost or stuck in spam either way. Having notifications so I can respond. Not having to sit on some website in some chat window. Not having to use some crappy web form that won’t take my screenshot because it’s 2MB instead of only being at most 1MB. Not being able to add attachments at all. Being able to have a real time conversation with someone. Still having a search function. Have something that works well on mobile and desktop. (Oh, but websites work well on both… OH no they don’t have to. People can easily screw that up and make websites that work horribly on difference devices). All of these things can be solved, but they aren’t. And keep in mind, the context of the discussion here isn’t documentation that ONLY exists on Discord. Rather, documentation that exists on web AND also stuff that exists on Discord. So, stuff that has yet to make it to the website.
- xigoi 3y agoWhat's wrong with documentation on a website?
- Per_Bothner 3y agoThe complaint was about having to sign up to (register for) yet-another website.
- xigoi 3y agoWhich site requires you to sign up in order to read documentation?
- DaiPlusPlus 3y agoIt's certainly less common now, but prior to 2015 it was common for "legacy" vendors (y'know... the paranoid and posessive types, like ProgressDB...) - or just those embarassed about the state of their products compared to the rest of the industry: they'll hide their KB articles, bug-reports and workarounds, and more besides) behind a registration-wall, or even worse: only grant you access if you have a current support contract with them.
- acutesoftware 3y agoOracle requires you to login to get access to most support documents now.
- DaiPlusPlus 3y agoAt least their SQL documentation is public - I remember (at least a decade ago) that only Postgres, MySQL, and MSSQL made their documentation public, while info on IBM DB2 and Oracle was scarce.
- 0xEFF 3y agoRedHat has traditionally.
- lgas 3y agoRight. This is actually what I, and I think most people, actually want.
- rchaud 3y ago> These are, off the top of my head, the things Discord solves: 1) Documentation that requires you to sign up to yet another website. 2) Paying for documentation. 3) Documentation in a PDF that you can’t access until you have a sale calls. Huh? Who has ever had to log into something to view documentation? Discord seems to be the only example! Paying for documentation? Same thing, never had to it, pretty sure businesses don't think this is viable in any way. As for the last one, well, getting you on to a Discord and into their marketing drip feed is a lot cheaper than having a sales call.
- irdc 3y ago> Paying for documentation? Same thing, never had to it, pretty sure businesses don't think this is viable in any way. Very normal when working with ICs.
- marcosdumay 3y ago> Paying for documentation? Same thing, never had to it It was once very common. Microsoft had a "developers club" that basically sold access to their APIs docs.
- mook 3y agoMSDN sold a service where they mailed you physical CDs. Once they had the documentation on their website it was all free. (A subscription would get you licenses for QAing on different versions of Windows / additional other stuff, but the help files were free)
- _jal 3y agoI used to spend a nickel or two on O'Reilly books, too. Those were effectively "the manual" for a lot of things, once upon a time.
- i_am_jl 3y agoI don't think there's necessarily a problem with a company operating a Discord server for purposes of community engagement or marketing. But that's an entirely different thing than using Discord as a support platform.