Switch to to discourse from discord for our forum (and as general "landing point")?

[rufuspollock]

Hypothesis: Switch to using discourse (and deprecate discord?) as our main place for participation and discussion.

S: have both both this discord and a discourse (web) forum setup. For now, we are using discord and wanted "one place" so kept the discourse invisible.

### Tasks
- [x] Analyse pros/cons of moving to discourse for forum (and in general as replacement for discord)
- [ ] Discuss this hypothesis **🚧2024-06-30 in chat and with curator group**
- [x] Set up discourse **✅2024-06-28 already done back in May**
- [ ] Research how to do onboarding on discourse **🚧2024-06-28 have not found that much from 20m of googling - will list below as we find it**
- [ ] Implement onboarding on discourse
- [ ] Switch instructions on secondrenaissance.net to go to discourse forum rather than discord chat
- [ ] transfer required content from discord to discourse (what content?)

Shaping

Situation

• Want a place for people to go who want to "engage / participate / go deeper" on Second Renaissance project and specifically from secondrenaissance.net
  • Say hello
  • Engage in discussion and q&a
  • Share information
  • Find out where they can contribute
• Had set up discord and discourse prior to launch
• At launch decided to only show one of these to keep things simple and went with discord as using discord for the team
• Some activity on discord though reasonably limited
• Synchronous chat is limited importance relatively and could use whatsapp etc if needed
• Voice chat features of discord are not needed (we have hangouts or zoom)

Problem

• Discord is a poor match to need in terms e.g.
  • post length limited
  • can't paste images
  • not internet discoverable
• Want to avoid duplication so we only really want to use one of discord or discourse
• Discourse has some nice features for forums e.g. turning posts into wiki posts, better categorization etc
• Essentially discord is comms for gamers with some attempt to bolt on other features ... whilst discourse is designed as a forum

Hypothesis

Switch to discourse and deprecate discord ...

• Discourse is better for our core needs
• Discord is a barrier to some of our uses / needs in key areas e.g. use as forum
• It's early on so no great switching cost ...

Comparison

• Ease of access: Discord requires sign in and is somewhat geeky. Discourse is web so anyone can browse. General experience is likely a bit more familiar. Discourse the winner?
• Editing: Discord has annoying limitations e.g. 2k character limit, can't have images inline, etc. Discourse is really designed for posting etc. Discourse is the winner
• Onboarding: seems a bit mixed. Discord now has welcome flow. Discourse has discobot and things. No clear winner
• Discoverability (e.g. by search): discord is basically a closed space. Discourse is web and well indexed by google etc. Some may say they want more of a private space. That said our goal is making things more accessible. Winner: Discourse
• Cost: discord is free but closed. Discourse costs ~$20/month (or more)
• Opens source: discord is closed and proprietary. Discourse is open source. Winner: discourse
• Real-time chat: Discord is built for this. Also has video etc. Discourse really has this a kind of add-on and does not really compare Discord is clearly the winner

More discussion in https://discord.com/channels/1230798369337643030/1255828195916255254

How to do onboarding on discourse

• https://meta.discourse.org/t/welcome-message/225465 this indicates that some custom messaging from discobot is possible
• have a banner encourage signup https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-add-a-banner-asking-new-users-to-register/172467 - i wonder if one can adjust this to have any content you want ...
• https://meta.discourse.org/t/welcome-message-at-the-top/129246 this also has some stuff about creating a banner ...

Here's an example from openrefine forum that shows a custom welcome message at the top

They also have categories on the home page which i achieved via instructions on https://meta.discourse.org/t/displaying-categories-on-the-homepage/275874/2

[rufuspollock]

Just to say i've found everyone's thoughts and contributions here super-useful. Thank-you everyone.

Also want to emphasize this is very much an open item atm: the github issue was an attempt to summarize a hypothesis clearly - one that could be discussed (and disagreed with :smile:)

I'm also delighted to see engagement on this as it indicates care :pray:

To very roughly summarize we have:

• What's the intention (and flavor) of the interactions we seek to foster [1]
• And ... what's the definition of "working"? (as in "there needs to be a clear and agreed purpose to the forum to make it work")
• What flows, or combination of flows, (supported by what tools) best supports this atm?

[1]: " ... there are some really deep differences between the two media here which will have huge implications for what kinds of interaction will take place and what type of community will emerge. Discourse seems much better for having the types of discussions that work well in a forum format - slow-paced and potentially rigorous discussions. Discord seems much better for facilitating more informal real-time interaction."