3 ms·

> becoming more and more difficult to ask a simple question on the internet i know people here like to hate on discord servers, but this is one thing they shin

> becoming more and more difficult to ask a simple question on the internet i know people here like to hate on discord servers, but this is one thing they shine at, it's easy to drop in and just ask a damn simple question to people that are online, in real time

mhitza 2y ago
The same can be said about Discourse, and at least then the information is also publicly searchable. Not realtime, sure, but for me most of that time that's perfectly alright.
- skywal_l 2y ago
  Yes my algorithm is, for basic & general question: Stack Overflow. For specific questions related to a particular technology: look for the specific Discourse (or forum equivalent) site. Otherwise, discord as last resort.
nottorp 2y ago
Well one thing to hate about discord is you should use "chat server" instead. Discord is trying to become a monopoly on that (bar the corporate oriented offerings) but it's not the only option. And yes, the usual thing: since it's not a forum it's impossible to search the history (yes they have a search button which is useless for howto type questions). It's also impossible to browse it like a forum to see what problems people have encountered before you have them and possibly avoid them, or get better insight in the stuff you're using.
layer8 2y ago
The drawback is that it generally only helps the one question asker, and that answers only reflect who happened to be present synchronously and what they thought at that moment. Discord content is ephemeral and not discoverable, and tends to consist of reflexive rather than well-considered and thought-through answers. The value of public forums is that their content appears in public searches, can be publicly linked to, and that they facilitate asynchronous, longer-form and longer-term discourse.

3 ms·

> becoming more and more difficult to ask a simple question on the internet i know people here like to hate on discord servers, but this is one thing they shin

by thousand_nights 2y ago

mhitza 2y ago
The same can be said about Discourse, and at least then the information is also publicly searchable. Not realtime, sure, but for me most of that time that's perfectly alright.
- skywal_l 2y ago
  Yes my algorithm is, for basic & general question: Stack Overflow. For specific questions related to a particular technology: look for the specific Discourse (or forum equivalent) site. Otherwise, discord as last resort.
nottorp 2y ago
Well one thing to hate about discord is you should use "chat server" instead. Discord is trying to become a monopoly on that (bar the corporate oriented offerings) but it's not the only option. And yes, the usual thing: since it's not a forum it's impossible to search the history (yes they have a search button which is useless for howto type questions). It's also impossible to browse it like a forum to see what problems people have encountered before you have them and possibly avoid them, or get better insight in the stuff you're using.
layer8 2y ago
The drawback is that it generally only helps the one question asker, and that answers only reflect who happened to be present synchronously and what they thought at that moment. Discord content is ephemeral and not discoverable, and tends to consist of reflexive rather than well-considered and thought-through answers. The value of public forums is that their content appears in public searches, can be publicly linked to, and that they facilitate asynchronous, longer-form and longer-term discourse.