Folding Forum

... or it it moving to Discord

I realise that when the forums recently went down Discord was the go to alternative but with the number of support queries still be handled there is the intention to move away from these forums?

Personally I find it somewhat difficult to try and cross reference solutions and previous posts in Discord and trying to follow multiple overlapping issues being discussed at the same time in a single chat window is for me sub optimal ... and it appears many of the new issues now being raised on Discord have been asked/resolved here in the forums

If the intent is to utilise both channels for the same task then please can someone formally announce this in both channels (if not already done - but I haven't spotted it if it has) ... Discord users are missing out on a wealth of knowledge stored here in the forums and the forum users are missing out on new issues reports that are being handled in discord

AFAIK, the Forums are hear to stay... as long as we don't have another technical issue which caused the outage few days ago

It has been posted in Discord about the Forum: https://discord.com/channels/5738706890 ... 8083049524

My take is that there are various communication channels. Each channel has its pros and cons so pick the one you like and that's it I have seen references on Discord to head over to the Forum for some issues but at the end of the day, Donors can choose what they want to do and I believe that the F@H project is making is easier by providing additional support channels.

Yup, people like different comms approaches .. the challenge is that having multiple channels providing the same function can actually dilute the quality/accuracy of the support as latest information is not synchronised and duplicating information backwards and forwards across the two platforms increases the level of resource/effort required to support?

Don't get me wrong, I think Discord is great for discussions/voice chat/etc. just not sure I like it as a public support platform … Maybe I am just too old for this type of thing - or maybe I have seen the pain of porting mountains of "stuff" from one social platform to another too many times - and I guess it isn't my problem anyways.

Neil-B wrote:Maybe I am just too old for this type of thing

not only you ...

ChristianVirtual wrote:

Neil-B wrote:Maybe I am just too old for this type of thing

not only you ...

Same here. I only checked out Discord when the forum was unavailable. It was like listening to several conversations, all going on at the same time, and trying to follow just one of them. Much prefer the forum format.

I actually use Discord a fair bit for WoW Guild stuff and Raid voice comms … There are only a limited number of "topics" that are needed/used and I don't mind a wall of text when it reads like a single group conversation … and voice comms during raid (for a social guild) can be quite amusing

Neil-B wrote:...the challenge is that having multiple channels providing the same function can actually dilute the quality/accuracy of the support as latest information is not synchronised and duplicating information backwards and forwards across the two platforms increases the level of resource/effort required to support?...

Maybe... however, my perspective is that as long as the Support Volunteers know where all the information is located, they can direct Donors to the correct area depending on their needs. I don't see it as Discord VS Forum, I see it as Discord & Forum VS Problems.

I see it as Discord & Forum VS Problems.

Yes, so do I as it will encourage the younger generation to get involved. The forum layout is great for us older folks who are used to traditional bulletin boards but some folders from younger generations will take one look and leave. They want something resembling social media that is simple and quick to interact with. If there are people supporting them with problems too on Discord it can only be a good thing.

Obviously there will be some duplication of issues on the two platforms, that cannot be avoided.

Yeah, coming from generation Z forums are kinda weird but they have some advantages over discord.

I have no problem with Slack or MS Teams; just can't stand Discord ... a pure mental block; but deep in my neuronal network.

NBR wrote:Yeah, coming from generation Z forums are kinda weird but they have some advantages over discord.

Newsgroups/NNTP would blow your mind then.

Discord reminds me of IRC in some ways ...

But yes, as soon as the problem is complex and involves logs, it's better to direct people to the forums.

NRT_AntiKytherA wrote:Obviously there will be some duplication of issues on the two platforms, that cannot be avoided.

There's a good deal of duplication right here. A lot of people don't make an effort to search for their problem and see if has already been asked. If I happen to read a second topic that essentially is about the same subjetc (within my current short-term memory) I often merge the topics. Sometimes it's just easier to answer the same question again.

That sort of thinking is out-of-place on Discord. PantherX (and a few others) are good at summarizing entire issues into a permanent "how-to" report.

What is Discord? Never heard of it before...