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Makster's avatar

Forums are different from Discord from the get go.

Discord is more of an IM client so there are just reems of communication whether on topic or off.

Whilst forums are very much dedicated to one interest. If you're in a forum, you need to create thread with a subject matter and that is very focussed on that subject i.e. What do you think of X?
I bought X and having this problem, does anyone else have this issue

Discord doesn't really accommodate that unless you have people create separate channels as they would threads and discord doesn't really have the structure to facilitate this.

Discord replacing forums is the centralisation of users. When you sign up to discord you can join multiple servers but you need to make an account for each individual forum and actively login/ go to that webpage to stay up to date and engaged with the community. Discord it is all in one place

Lanah Tyra's avatar

I agree that they are different. I think what the poster meant was that a lot of fan-led communities are now on Discord instead of forums like 10+ years ago. Back in the days we had a forum and used mIRC for instant messaging for the group or was just hanging out on Ventrilo.

I like Discord, especially since I'm running a few servers and try to make them organised. Info channels are clearly labelled and locked down, and there are various channels for different chatter. So if someone comes to my Discord looking for information, they'll find it (or I should hope so)

But for users to be able to start conversations in a non-instant, searchable way it needs the forum function. I've seen many Discords handling bug reports this way, people start a new forum post and a moderator will label / close them when resolved. So if you search within that forum for an issue, you will find the previous entries if there were any.

My partner hates Discord, even on the most structured one he can't find things, he doesn't know how to mute channels or servers and just gets all the notifications constantly, and misses the important conversations. Not sure if that's a generational think of getting used to something new and unfamiliar or is Discord not really newbie friendly? I never used Snapchat for example, no idea how it works, and Reddit is just a huge mess for me, I only use it when it comes up in a Google search.

Sturmer's avatar

My favorite platform is Reddit. I often add it to search queries to filter out marketing and compilation articles, which are often based on Reddit discussions anyway.

Makster already highlighted the challenges of instant messaging platforms like Discord. These platforms often get cluttered with unrelated or poorly thought-out information, as people don't re-read before posting. Unlike forum posts, where users aim for clarity, instant messaging allows for a flood of follow-up messages to clarify points. Plus, duplicate threads are common, making it hard to find consistent solutions across multiple discussions.

Discord can feel like a giant cluttered mess where finding valuable content requires sifting through a lot of noise. The lack of proper tools to organize information—such as bullet points, tables, or embedded media—makes it difficult to present information clearly. Crosslinking content is also challenging.

Another significant issue is that Discord content isn't indexed by search engines, limiting its usefulness as a resource. If you're not part of a specific server, you can't access its history. Even if you are a member, you must search within Discord and then cross-reference with external sources, making it inefficient to gather comprehensive information.

Currently, I see only one effective way to work with a Discord server's history: pulling all the data via API and then applying large language models (LLMs) on top of it. For instance, you could build a custom GPT for a specific game like FFXIV. This bot could use Discord history, forums, and general public internet data to craft comprehensive responses. This method would help streamline the process of finding relevant information across various platforms. It's a relatively easy solution, you just need a Google Drive space or big query bucket where to store the collected data.

Lanah Tyra's avatar

Both with forums and Discord I've seen messy ones and well structured ones as well, so maybe it's also down to the initial structure the admins set and the culture of the users.

I'm learning now Discord management, especially the community style one and found a lot of useful tools which can make them more structured, just it's a lot of work and not everyone can or wants to put that effort in. I can see Discord servers slowly using the forum feature more, having a few locked information channels, something for instant chat, and the rest of the server is the forum. I think those have a chance to become structure information libraries.

It would definitely be good if you could search Discord properly. Not even sure if you can search across the servers you are in or just in one particular server? The problem library building method you mentioned would be that stuff like best equipment or job rotations changes constantly, and not all Discords are always caught up on it, or display different information depending if you ask a HC raider for best equipment or a casual player. So I can imagine that database being incorrect or conflicting in various places.

Sturmer's avatar

while discord is out of index, its out of the game, this is the core problem

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