Discord is stepping into forum territory

[Houseman]

On a server I recently joined, there are now special forum-like channels that look surprisingly like forums with activity-sorted threads.

It's all within the discord application UI, where clocking on a thread opens up posts inside, and then you can add a new one as normal.

Interesting to see discord "regress" back to "old technology". Maybe they recognize that it's the superior format after all!
Embracing this form of asynchronous communication, as opposed to the "chat room/instant messenger" format is neat, but discord is already so ubiquitous, that it might be considered a real threat. Instead of going to another site for a dedicated forum, why not just use discord, like you do for everything else?

(Besides the ToS)

 

[Houseman]

More views:

 

[Houseman]

I would have put all these images in one post, but there's a "1 attachment per post" limit

 

[Battousai]

Instead of going to another site for a dedicated forum, why not just use discord, like you do for everything else?

That's the entire point, if Discord also does what forums can do why would you go for a forum at all when you can just create a Discord channel and get all the functions of a forum plus the regular instant messaging plus the voice chat. It is a smart marketing choice honestly, they can bring people more accustomed to forums into their app while also offering the regular instant messaging channels for everyone else all In the same server.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

While I know of a program to back up Discord channels, it's not as easy as backing up a regular forum with Wayback or Archive.is.

 

[Arnox]

*sigh*

On one hand, it's really nice to see the forum format more embraced. But on the other... There's still four huge issues with this.

1. You and any other Discord forum users are still under Discord's thumb. If Discord doesn't like you for any reason, they can fuck with you or the Discord forum.
2. You don't truly own the forum. You can't back it up. You can't port it elsewhere. You don't have nearly as much control over it as you would by spinning up your own forum.
3. Discord falls under US jurisdiction. You can get stuff on your Discord forum taken down or even the whole forum shut down due to... Overzealous litigiousness.
4. Connected to problem number two, you don't have access to the full amount of Discord features unless you pay monthly. Discord users don't have access to the full amount of Discord features unless they pay monthly. Discord could suddenly restrict features that were normally there behind a monthly paywall at any time.

There's also two other smaller problems with this.

1. The Discord forums use Markdown and I hate Markdown compared to BBCode. And there's no way to switch to BBCode.
2. I imagine I'm now going to have to deal with a whole new set of people complaining about us having a separate forum. "Why don't you just use Discord forums, bro? So much easier, bro. You're being stupid, bro."

 

[Drathnoxis]

I would have put all these images in one post, but there's a "1 attachment per post" limit

Wow, ghetto. I bet Discord allows for more.

*sigh*

On one hand, it's really nice to see the forum format more embraced. But on the other... There's still four huge issues with this.

1. You and any other Discord forum users are still under Discord's thumb. If Discord doesn't like you for any reason, they can fuck with you or the Discord forum.
2. You don't truly own the forum. You can't back it up. You can't port it elsewhere. You don't have nearly as much control over it as you would by spinning up your own forum.
3. Discord falls under US jurisdiction. You can get stuff on your Discord forum taken down or even the whole forum shut down due to... Overzealous litigiousness.
4. Connected to problem number two, you don't have access to the full amount of Discord features unless you pay monthly. Discord users don't have access to the full amount of Discord features unless they pay monthly. Discord could suddenly restrict features that were normally there behind a monthly paywall at any time.

There's also two other smaller problems with this.

1. The Discord forums use Markdown and I hate Markdown compared to BBCode. And there's no way to switch to BBCode.
2. I imagine I'm now going to have to deal with a whole new set of people complaining about us having a separate forum. "Why don't you just use Discord forums, bro? So much easier, bro. You're being stupid, bro."

I think for most people, outside of the paranoid type that end up on sites like these, these are largely non-issues.

 

[Arnox]

Wow, ghetto. I bet Discord allows for more.

It's annoying, yes, but it does discourage mass spamming. I suppose I can raise it to two, but for multiple images like this, you really should consider using imgur to host the files. Once again, we do not have unlimited space.

these are largely non-issues.

Oh? How so?

 

[Signa]

If this was older internet times, I'd celebrate this, because it's the one thing Discord does poorly today. But as others are saying, it's a poor replacement for an actual forum due to the way Discord themselves conduct business.

The plus side this has over Reddit is that your activity and particpation is completely isolated, so if you're a member of another server that someone thinks is cancelable, no one will know unless they are also in that server. This sort of thing stands to knock Reddit down a peg, and that's a good thing no matter what in my book. Reddit killed forums by being what they are.

 

[Drathnoxis]

It's annoying, yes, but it does discourage mass spamming. I suppose I can raise it to two, but for multiple images like this, you really should consider using imgur to host the files. Once again, we do not have unlimited space.

+1 reason to join the Escapist over Sanctuary. Escapist allows for 5 per post.

Oh? How so?

Because they don't care.

 

[Arnox]

This sort of thing stands to knock Reddit down a peg, and that's a good thing no matter what in my book. Reddit killed forums by being what they are.

That's... Actually a pretty good point. I'd take Discord over Reddit any fucking day of the week if I had to choose.

Because they don't care.

If they really don't care about all that then they're very likely not gonna care about Discord forums either and are gonna stick with instant messaging.

+1 reason to join the Escapist over Sanctuary. Escapist allows for 5 per post.

You're probably just trolling at this point, but even so, remember that you can always bundle multiple files into a zip and upload that. Multiple pictures in posts are the only thing where you'd need more than 1 attachment per post.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

That's... Actually a pretty good point. I'd take Discord over Reddit any fucking day of the week if I had to choose.

Discord's problems are that it's also woke (public servers), and supporting google (because it's Electron, which is a lazy program I.E a wrapper for chromium). Still, some few things might be worth it. I use YT occasionally, and have Gmail, for work..soo..

You're probably just trolling at this point, but even so, remember that you can always bundle multiple files into a zip and upload that. Multiple pictures in posts are the only thing where you'd need more than 1 attachment per post.

Darn, I was hoping someone would post a forum where the limit is 6+ images and recommend he ditch the 'pist for that ,)

 

[Houseman]

remember that you can always bundle multiple files into a zip and upload that.

That so defeats the purpose of quickly showing other people multiple images.

 

[Arnox]

That so defeats the purpose of quickly showing other people multiple images.

Look, if there was a way to just have unlimited attachments but with a total size limit per post, I'd totally do that, but that option is not available. I could have it set to 6.5 MB per attachment and 5 attachments per post, but then videos greater than 6.5 MB could not be embedded.

Honestly Houseman, I really wish you wouldn't get mad at stuff that's not in my control. lol

 

[Houseman]

Honestly Houseman, I really wish you wouldn't get mad at stuff that's not in my control. lol

No one's getting mad.

But as the admin, you don't have the excuse of "it's not in my control". You don't get to say "welp, nothing I can do". It may not be within your current set of tools/abilities, but it's definitely a problem that can be solved.

 

[Gauche]

Discord regularly breaks on my browser
I check in every few weeks now just to see just how inaccessible it got - they legit can't stop changing stuff
At one point it wouldn't load anything - black screen for months followed by two weeks of it working and now it just errors out
I figure its some combination of browser settings that makes it die on me

+1 reason to join the Escapist over Sanctuary

Wonder if their discord group will use this feature - last time I checked it out it required phone# verification to post
Fuck that shit

I remember some guy on staff made their first one and controlled it so when he left/got canned or something he took it with him forcing them to make an official one

 

[Drathnoxis]

Wonder if their discord group will use this feature - last time I checked it out it required phone# verification to post
Fuck that shit

I remember some guy on staff made their first one and controlled it so when he left/got canned or something he took it with him forcing them to make an official one

Not sure, I've never been on the Escapist Discord. Even if they do I don't think they will can the forums for the sole reason of SEO. They recently moved all the threads from the old forums to the new for that stated reason.

 

[quest1000]

It's a really old thing and I always considered Discord suspect, at beginning it was a replacement for RaidCall and TeamSpeak, then a Steam replacement, then a IRC-like hub/slack (RaidCall again) replacement and now a forum replacement. Discord is a really big and expensive project, for me it was always CIA/NSA behind.

 

[Arnox]

It's a really old thing and I always considered Discord suspect, at beginning it was a replacement for RaidCall and TeamSpeak, then a Steam replacement, then a IRC-like hub/slack (RaidCall again) replacement and now a forum replacement. Discord is a really big and expensive project, for me it was always CIA/NSA behind.

Whether it has the backing of the CIA or NSA doesn't actually matter. Any tech company in the US can be issued a warrant and made to hand over any information they have.

Of course, that doesn't mean all is lost necessarily. The older personal information gets, the more useless it becomes.

 

[Adeptus]

When Discord became exactly like a forum, maybe I will start enjoying it.

 

[CharlieTheStooge]

When you take a proprietary platform with lack of search engine indexing and discovery (as compared to traditional web based forums) and lack of organization or pagination and no easy way to meaningfully export its contents for preservation or publication it certainly ruins the appetite among the purists of internet based communities. And I wished more people realised this.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I dislike Discord because it's a google Electron app, which is using google chromium. I also dislike the way it locks discussions behind walls. Especially when it comes to official game development and such.