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Ask HN: It's "software 3.0" time, why is community knowledge hidden in Discord?

6 points by consumer451 1y ago

My preferred longer title: > Why would any product owner want to hide their community knowledge base in the un-crawlable product known as Discord? As a user, I want to use search, or ask an LLM "how do I _ in product?" As a product owner, I want users to find all the community Q&A, very easily. Can anyone help me understand why product owners hide their community knowledge base in Discord? - Discord plus: amazing app, people chat, community grows - Discord minus: Search engines learn nothing from "how do I _ in product" and all the community answers - Discord minus: All LLMs learn nothing from "how do I _ in product" and all the community answers I believe that there is a Discord bot that publishes to a website or something, however it appears to be underutilized. Am I crazy, or is everyone messing this up?

MongooseStudios 1y ago
Because it takes minutes to set up a Discord server and everyone expects them now. Setting up a good old fashioned forum would take more effort.
- consumer451 1y ago
  Understood, but we have Reddit, right? Reddit is just as easy to set up as Discord, but maybe it's not as sticky? I feel like there should be some very easy way to fix this issue for product owners. Discord siphons away from Reddit, as Discord communities buzz more. But jeez, Discord signal to noise is terrible as a user, and whatever signal there is, is not discoverable. As a product owner, that does not seem ideal.
  - bigyabai 1y ago
    Discord is not a B2B product. They're under no obligation to give you a nice experience on a platter, they serve a different market.
    - consumer451 1y ago
      I am not asking Discord to do anything more. Discord can be TeamSpeak 2.0, or whatever. What I want to know is, why are so many software product owners satisfied with a Q&A forum that is not discoverable?
      - bigyabai 1y ago
        Just stop buying software from those people, then. I'm always wowed when people pay for proprietary software from an indie developer then flip their shit when they ask them to use a free service to communicate with them. You want principles in your software? Stand for them yourself. Stop paying these people out of spite, or beg for them to accommodate for your horrible internet disability. Pay them out of pocket, pester them to set up a fan-mirror of the Discord so you can peruse all the answers from your JS-disabled Macbook and enjoy your decaf latte. Or do nothing, and just accept that people are going to go where the users are. In the third world you need WhatsApp to do anything, try protesting that and paying for a taxi in the same day. I swear that Silicon Valley breeds the most contemptible software critics on the planet.
consumer451 1y ago
Thanks to chatgpt deep research, I have now found that this has been covered previously [0]. However, what is the solution? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30311982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30311982
herbst 1y ago
Discord support is IMO the biggest red flag for any software project right now. If you have to hide your support or are to lazy to offer support without walled garden it just appears fishy Edit'// Worst are those who require phone verified discord accounts to even ask a question.
salawat 1y ago
Some people simply don't value being scraped. They don't want their interface to the world to be managed by AI company scrapers of Google/Bing. Contrary to popular belief; not everyone wants a de facto business relationship with Google.
- gaws 1y ago
  > Some people simply don't value being scraped. There are tools available that allow anyone to export and save server logs.
- herbst 1y ago
  They don't care about their users finding solutions and examples for their software or code base? That's an weird argument
  - salawat 1y ago
    That can be done without Google. Shocking. I know. In fact, it can be done even easier at times when you cut advertisers and those aligned with them out of the loop.
    - herbst 1y ago
      By joining discord and scrolling trough hundreds of unrelated answers? I get what you mean, but I think you discuss the wrong point