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I don't think every single individual message ever needs to be archived. Every text, every email, every post-it, every poke, every emoji, every reaction GIF...

famahar 2y ago
Definitely not everything, but it's still wild to me that so many products and services have all their troubleshooting and customer support in a discord server.
- foobazgt 2y ago
  Sadly, I can understand why Discord doesn't have a lot of incentive to do this. Maybe the community should popularize an open-source free/low-costing bot and hosting solution for exported chat? (I couldn't find one in a few minutes of searching).
  - tbrockman 2y ago
    Here ya go: https://github.com/AnswerOverflow/AnswerOverflow https://github.com/AnswerOverflow/AnswerOverflow
- ekianjo 2y ago
  Even FOSS communities. shame on the devs who decide to do so.
  - squigz 2y ago
    Why do you and GP think so many FOSS projects choose to use Discord like this?
  - Kiro 2y ago
    It used to be IRC channels on Freenode and I didn't see anyone complaining back then.
    - CamperBob2 2y ago
      That's the thing. No one ever complains at the time.
- proteal 2y ago
  It makes sense to me. The number of people who actually create useful open source software is so vanishingly small compared to the number of people who use OSS, it seems obvious that we should optimize for their time, not the other way around. I agree with you that using mailing lists or GitHub issues or whatnot would be globally more efficient, but if I’m working on a product, I’m going to work in the way that is most efficient for my time. I owe my “customers” nothing because they are not paying for my work. We keep seeing discord as a means to communicate about products because devs see it as the best use of their time. The fact that so many people use it should be an indictment on the alternatives, not the devs who choose to use discord.
ktosobcy 2y ago
Well, considerting annoying push for "let's resolve the issue on discord" it's very annoying. With things like github issues you can search for a problem and find a solution. Even ancient mailing lists most of the time have archives. Not so much with all those fancy "realtime" :/
- klabb3 2y ago
  I agree with the sentiment but GitHub issues is not a good replacement. First, it’s also owned by a corporation and is available on the open web today because they let us (is it even scrape/api available today? Can people build tooling on top?). Anyway, this “openness” can easily be changed once the “value extraction knob” is turned. Secondly, GitHub is a developer platform, not a user/enjoyer platform. Issue reports are high-barrier even for devs. People get upset if you’re asking a random question, don’t check for duplicates, etc. Some people even get upset about issues without a PR. Again, I’m all for good open alternatives but when HN is like “you just configure Gentoo and type 30 commands” we don’t stand a chance to actually win users over, gotta accept reality before we can improve it…
  - ktosobcy 2y ago
    GH was only an example of something quite common and seachable. It could be codeberg.org or similar

famahar 2y ago

Definitely not everything, but it's still wild to me that so many products and services have all their troubleshooting and customer support in a discord server.

foobazgt 2y ago
Sadly, I can understand why Discord doesn't have a lot of incentive to do this. Maybe the community should popularize an open-source free/low-costing bot and hosting solution for exported chat? (I couldn't find one in a few minutes of searching).
- tbrockman 2y ago
  Here ya go: https://github.com/AnswerOverflow/AnswerOverflow https://github.com/AnswerOverflow/AnswerOverflow
ekianjo 2y ago
Even FOSS communities. shame on the devs who decide to do so.
- squigz 2y ago
  Why do you and GP think so many FOSS projects choose to use Discord like this?
- Kiro 2y ago
  It used to be IRC channels on Freenode and I didn't see anyone complaining back then.
  - CamperBob2 2y ago
    That's the thing. No one ever complains at the time.
proteal 2y ago
It makes sense to me. The number of people who actually create useful open source software is so vanishingly small compared to the number of people who use OSS, it seems obvious that we should optimize for their time, not the other way around. I agree with you that using mailing lists or GitHub issues or whatnot would be globally more efficient, but if I’m working on a product, I’m going to work in the way that is most efficient for my time. I owe my “customers” nothing because they are not paying for my work. We keep seeing discord as a means to communicate about products because devs see it as the best use of their time. The fact that so many people use it should be an indictment on the alternatives, not the devs who choose to use discord.

ktosobcy 2y ago

Well, considerting annoying push for "let's resolve the issue on discord" it's very annoying. With things like github issues you can search for a problem and find a solution. Even ancient mailing lists most of the time have archives. Not so much with all those fancy "realtime" :/

klabb3 2y ago
I agree with the sentiment but GitHub issues is not a good replacement. First, it’s also owned by a corporation and is available on the open web today because they let us (is it even scrape/api available today? Can people build tooling on top?). Anyway, this “openness” can easily be changed once the “value extraction knob” is turned. Secondly, GitHub is a developer platform, not a user/enjoyer platform. Issue reports are high-barrier even for devs. People get upset if you’re asking a random question, don’t check for duplicates, etc. Some people even get upset about issues without a PR. Again, I’m all for good open alternatives but when HN is like “you just configure Gentoo and type 30 commands” we don’t stand a chance to actually win users over, gotta accept reality before we can improve it…
- ktosobcy 2y ago
  GH was only an example of something quite common and seachable. It could be codeberg.org or similar