[ejj28]

IRC is not a suitable platform for anything in 2024 in my opinion. I've also never used Matrix and it doesn't seem to be catching on either. I gave up on using forums years ago as well, because why would I want to make a forum post asking for help, only to get a single response hours later, when I can chat with other users in real-time on Discord.

Personally I think that as valid as some of the issues with using Discord for FOSS are, there isn't a better platform for a community to interact with each other on. Sure, projects shouldn't be using Discord for everything, there should be documentation and stuff available online, but for fluid discussion and getting help from others users, I don't see any decent alternatives.

[skydhash]

> why would I want to make a forum post asking for help, only to get a single response hours later, when I can chat with other users in real-time on Discord.

Because when someone else encounters the same issue, the answer there may help him as well. Just like surveying the opened issues may reveal problems about the project. It seems to me that every project that has opened a discord is suffering from stale or lack of documentation.

A group can use whatever it likes for collaboration, but pointing users to a discord server feels like being asked to first be initiated to the club, before having the privilege of receiving information. There is a strong aura of exclusion.

[ericjmorey]

I suspect that people who prefer the instant feedback from a chat room also aren't interested in researching the questions first and therefore place no value on what can be found in research. There's such a high preference for instant feedback that people are choosing ChatGPT knowing that the information will not be correct in ways they cannot identify.

[unsignedint]

The primary issue with IRC is that its design presupposes a persistent, always-on session, which is not conducive to users who switch between multiple devices. While it functions adequately on one or two PCs, integrating mobile devices complicates the experience. Although it is possible to bridge and proxy connections to mitigate this, it introduces an additional layer of management, leading some users to prefer alternative platforms. Furthermore, IRC's notification system is less robust and feature-rich compared to contemporary messaging solutions.

[buovjaga]

I am introducing over a 100 people to IRC per year by using it for FOSS mentoring. It has a much lower threshold than anything else as you can start with a web client without registration (I share the first chat log via email). Once Libera Chat switches to https://github.com/Libera-Chat/sable registered users will have 24/7 logs (especially great for flaky mobile connections).

[OJFord]

> why would I want to make a forum post asking for help, only to get a single response hours later, when I can chat with other users in real-time on Discord.

Discord or chat doesn't do that, quantity of active users does. My experience with FOSS and similar Discord 'servers' is waiting and never getting an answer. And then of course I can't even find it again, or someone searching with the same question can't find it.

[halfcat]

> why would I want to make a forum post asking for help, only to get a single response hours later, when I can chat with other users in real-time on Discord

I’ve never had questions of any substance solved in Discord (or any chat), except for very small groups (single digit regulars).

Any serious question goes to whatever the project’s most significant async message board is (Reddit, Discourse, etc).

The main problem with Discord, to me, is that in any popular project, you have about 15 seconds for the right person to read your message before emojis push it off the screen.

[15457345234]

> The main problem with Discord, to me, is that in any popular project, you have about 15 seconds for the right person to read your message before emojis push it off the screen.

It's like... this defines the issue.

I don't see why this point isn't always mentioned front and center when it comes to discussion of Discord as a help vector. It's transient. It's ephemeral.

Forum posts persist, they're asynchronous. People visit forums and catch up, it's considered acceptable to reply to a post that's a couple of weeks old. Yes, you shouldn't necro a thread from a year ago but forums are designed for casual access which is always going to be the majority of a userbase. You can drop in and help as and when it suits you. If you get abused or a toxic reply, there's a good chance you might not even see it because the admin will clean it up before you log in again.

They're searchable and open.

Compared to that, everything about discord appears, to me, to make it completely unsuitable as a support platform. I've tried a few times to use some subreddit discords and they're just bizarrely fast-moving with multiple channels, memes and stuff popping up all over the place - I fail to see how you can get any real value out of that. It's hugely interactive and feels like - to use a very old metaphor - having a boxing match with your computer in which you're constantly ducking stuff being thrown at you. It's a bit exhausting.

It seems... discord, like tiktok, is something you do - it's a two-way street. You use discord, you install the app, the app pings you up when _it_ wants to and you respond to the app, which is a really unhealthy way to interact with technology, having an app endlessly jerking your chain.

Forums, on the other hand are a passive place _you_ visit when _you_ want to - which is a much more human-centric way to interact with technology.

[skydhash]

IRC has the same ephemerality attribute. But people were aware of it and set up additional communication channel, like wiki for documentation and guides, forum for support, tracker for discussions, and blog for announcements. IRC was always a place to hangout. Now people expect Discord to be everything above.

[bee_rider]

Is discord profitable yet?

For some reason I think people are hoping they’ll break the chat app treadmill (gain users and community by giving service away for free, try to monetize these communities, go out of business because chat is a solved problem and you can’t offer anything comparable to your competition who is still in the “give away service” stage). This time will be different, sure…

Their business model is selling premium. But, I’ve never met anybody who’s paid for it.

[JohnBooty]

    Their business model is selling premium. But, I’ve never 
    met anybody who’s paid for it. 

anecdotally, paid upgraded users do not seem uncommon to me. feels like a few percent? maybe 5%?

boosted servers seem quite common

[chokma]

> But, I’ve never met anybody who’s paid for it.

I bought the server boost once, hoping it would improve the audio quality of my little channel. There was no discernable difference, and as I do not need more dancing blinking emojis, I canceled the subscription again.

[unsignedint]

Discord's voice codec, which seems to be based on Opus, delivers surprisingly high-quality audio even at lower bitrates. Additionally, its integration with Krisp for noise filtering enhances its performance, making it one of the best voice chat services I regularly use. This observation comes from my experience of frequently using voice chat over connections with high latency, where Discord has consistently presented the fewest issues. Ironically, this efficiency somewhat diminishes the appeal of boosting a server for improved voice quality, which is both unfortunate and amusing in a way.

[add-sub-mul-div]

Everything will succumb to enshittification, yes. It's a matter of jumping ship at the right time and getting the five or so years you can out of the next generation while it's still good, and staying ahead of the wave like that.

[chillfox]

I have been paying for premium for a while now. The killer feature for me is larger file uploads.

[skywal_l]

> why would I want to make a forum post asking for help, only to get a single response hours later, when I can chat with other users in real-time on Discord

To give you some anecdata, I have found the zig discourse forum (ziggit.dev) to have a much higher quality in response than their discord help channel. Sure you might wait a little longer but the answer is now web searchable and own by the community.

[nurettin]

IRC was fine. People used it to get help, collaborate, have fun and share ideas for decades. Just because you can upload pretty pictures, watch "Discord Nitro" ads and clutter the channel with emojis doesn't mean IRC suddenly stopped being useful.

[FireBeyond]

> There are great FOSS alternatives to Discord or Slack. SourceHut has been investing in IRC by building more accessible services like chat.sr.ht.

Meanwhile, on SourceHut:

> Notice: sr.ht is currently in alpha, and the quality of the service may reflect that.

> Payment is optional for most features during the alpha, but some services require payment to use.

> Service Payment chat.sr.ht Required

Ahh, $10/month for an alpha system, whose latest blog dates back a few months, and details how they were taken offline for multiple days by a DOS.

And Mr DeVault should probably disclose in his blog post that SourceHut is, it seems, his.

Also, it's not about form over function, but are we comparing https://sourcehut.org/chat.png to Discord?

[eesmith]

> And Mr DeVault should probably disclose in his blog post that SourceHut is, it seems, his.

He did. Footnote 3, linked after the second mention of SourceHost: "Disclaimer: I am the founder of SourceHut."

Disclaimer: My repos are on SourceHut, and I've been a paying customer for several years.

[herewulf]

> And Mr DeVault should probably disclose in his blog post that SourceHut is, it seems, his.

Most people reading his blog already know that and most of his articles mention SourceHut so it really does not bear repeating.

The site has always worked fine for me despite the alpha statement but you seem to already have a bias against it.

And then you complain about IRC on the "IRC of websites".

[throw1234234]

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem

I don't think Drew makes, or has made in this blog post on his personal website, any secret of the fact that he founded and operates Sourcehut.

> Ahh, $10/month for an alpha system

Actually, $5/month for the "Hacker" plan or $2/month for the "Amateur Hacker" plan. If you bothered to read that page rather than cherry picking, you'd note the following text in the third sentence of the page:

> You should pick the plan which best matches your financial needs and best represents the level of investment you have in sourcehut.

Ironic that one of the most honest and clear pricing pages that still exist in the cesspool of the Internet today yields such a dishonest interpretation from people like you...

> Also, it's not about form over function, but are we comparing https://sourcehut.org/chat.png to Discord?

It's been litigated to death in previous HN posts similar to this one, but some people actually prefer this kind of chat interface, rather than a million animated emojis, "rich" text formatting and metadata insertions...

[adrianN]

When your forum post only gets an answer hours later it’s unlikely that there would be enough active users in a Discord room to have a real time chat instead.