[hutzlibu]

Apparently because it is very easy to setup and offer a place where people can join.

More and more open source projects are using it and I don't really like it, but what easy alternatives can you recommend to them?

Genuine question, as it is an open issue for me. I want to focus on my project, not setting up and maintain a forum, mailing lists, etc. on top of that.

[Grimburger]

> what easy alternatives can you recommend to them

Github discussions.

A project I follow moved all their Q&A from discord and it's a joy to both search and ask now.

Discord is actively hostile to anyone simply wanting to browse.

[chillfox]

I would much rather engage with a community on Discord than on Github discussions/Reddit/a forum. The inability to easily browse historical posts is a feature to me that makes it much less risky to ask questions and join a community. I don't have to spend a lot of time searching and effort to phrase my questions just right to avoid getting yelled at by someone that I should have used the search instead of posting.

[TeMPOraL]

But then instead of putting X amount of effort up-front to do search, you have to put in 10X amount of effort to join a community and ask someone about the thing. It's not a good trade, IMHO.

[throwaway675309]

In my experience, most people on GitHub discussions seem to be more than happy to help out, and over time it also builds up a reservoir of information that anyone else can tap into. GitHub discussions search is relatively good.

Whereas on discord, you might get a great answer which helps you and anyone who is immediately following that conversation but that's it.

[fomine3]

Gitter is an ignored solution.

[waboremo]

Those are the biggest aspects, but the private aspect is actually an important part of why many open source projects are using it. They don't really want to be having those sort of conversations in github issues or the discussions page or anywhere indexable.

Like getting on a call with a coworker or a collaborator on the project. You can technically record it or leave it open to the public, but most people do not because they just see it as not "informing the public" worthy.

[thunky]

I don't know either, but I'm not the Discord target audience. I've tried but it gives me a headache like a Vegas casino.

I'd rather see something simple and plain (and functional) like phpbb.

[jacooper]

Matrix, but that doesnt really fix the searchability problem