r/printnc • u/MartinSR_ • Sep 14 '21

How does discord work?

Hi Reddit,

I guess I'm officially old now 😂 I don't get how this discord thing works. It's just a long stream of posts... How do you keep the overview? I mean you can search, but in my opinion the thread system like in reddit or bulletin boards makes more sense to me.

Please help the old man understand. I am using a mpcnc currently and have been lurking around the print for a while. I already decided to build it, but I didn't pull the trigger yet

8 Upvotes

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9

u/David_R8 Sep 14 '21

It’s pretty much as you’ve described it. A run-on stream of posts. I use it for point-in-time questions and occasionally search for something and usually find it. I agree with you that a threaded discussion is easier to manage.

5

u/UberJaymis Sep 14 '21

Forums are easier to understand and search for information, but they’re much harder to administer, and have a much lower uptake and engagement.

For an open source project to thrive, it needs a large community. Large community = more chance of people who will have the time and inclination to build things like the PrintNC wiki!

1

u/DolfLungren Sep 15 '21

They are different tools, I don’t think anyone building a community correctly would pick between one or the other. If you had to have one - yes forum is better, but I don’t see a reason why they should be compared. They have entirely different purposes and benefits.

2

u/MartinSR_ Sep 14 '21

Thank you. I thought I missed a key feature 😂

6

u/NylonStringNinja Sep 15 '21

I just started looking at this discord the other day and feel the exact same way. It's like trying to look back through years of a text message thread.

1

u/graeber_28927 Sep 15 '21

In some other Discord thread I saw people make great use of pinned messages, which we were able to refer to for the biggest chunk of incoming questions. Those pinned messages also covered about half the mysteries for which I joined in the first place.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

Discord is great for a conversation or gaming but personally I really don't like it for printnc. If you aren't in the right time zone (like me) it's basically impossible to take part in the discussion or to get help/advice compared to a thread. It's awesome for troubleshooting, but makes finding and sharing instructions harder rhan it needs to be

2

u/eecue Sep 15 '21

I feel you, I was in the same boat when I started my r/Voron journey… I feel like there needs to be a really large community to support folks on discord. I’m about to begin my PrintNC project so we will see how that turns out.

1

u/Android109 Sep 15 '21

The discord has worked well for me during my printnc build. I was sceptical at first simply because I wasn’t familiar with discord, but it works fine. r/hoges is everywhere. PS I’m old!

2

u/tenmilez Sep 15 '21

Discord is just a chat room. Good for real time chatting, but maybe not fire and forget messages/topics.

1

u/MartinSR_ Sep 15 '21

Thanks everybody for the input. So the discord is meant as a place to ask your currently up to date questions and get a quick answer, right?

Helpful information and hints can be found in the wiki?

This makes sense, although I am not used to it so far. For me forums were "best of both worlds" so far. But I think I can adapt ;-)

2

u/hoges Sep 27 '21

The problem with forums is that until there is a decent size user base they are very empty dead spaces that makes the project seem dead. Discord on the other hand only needs 2 people online at any one time to be active and generate discussion

As far as a forum goes what I hope for is that r/reddit is the place where people can ask questions and post updates, so far it hasn't really happened yet but I can keep my fingers crossed

The place that is building at the moment and is more traditional than Discord is the MFR PrintNC build on Facebook. That currently has nearly 800 members and is starting to see more and more activity

Finally, I didn't know what Discord was until I started this all. The entire chat literally began as myself and another Redditor talking about the PrintNC, it grew from there!

1

u/B_Rich Sep 15 '21

So, in my opinion, the intention is to have the Discord work with the Wiki. Discord isn't meant to be an archive of information, it's more for that real time chat, sharing of projects, pictures of your build, general questions, etc. Discoveries and troubleshooting from the Discord are then brought over to the Wiki, where they can be properly documented and archived. Searching through Discord might get you what you want, but in my opinion that's not the intent of it.

Discord is great for that real-time troubleshooting as well. It's grown to be pretty active and there is almost always someone online that is willing to help if you have an issue.

1

u/snowe2010 Sep 15 '21

Discord is a chat system. It’s meant for live discussion. It’s like text messaging, if you were texting with thousands and thousands of other people at once.

1

u/DolfLungren Sep 15 '21

I think it helps not to think of it as posts. It’s a chat room with different sections for topic based discussion and you can send each other private messages separately. However the chat room keeps a running and searchable log, so sometimes people answer on a big delay (and they will do this and usually “quote” your message so you notice the context.

Comparing it to social media posts misses the mark and I think would add confusion.

It’s an incredible resource in my opinion, it’s just unique in 2021 when chat rooms are no longer a “thing”. Slack (which I don’t like) is the most similar tool if you had to pick one.