Discord now has threads like forums

[R0binHood]

Something that has been missing for a long time in discord compared to the forums - the ability to organise conversations by threads. This has now been introduced. It's a big leap for discord and and another jump ahead for the popular free community software.

Connect the Conversation with Threads on Discord

Today, we’re excited to introduce a new home for all those winding discussions happening in your communities: Threads!

blog.discord.com

 

[Pete]

This is in no way surprising; once Slack and Rocket.Chat had implemented it, it was inevitable that Discord would.

However there is one truly huge difference between Discord threads and forum threads: Discord threads disappear. It's essentially a way of forking a channel's discussion flow into its own space - similar to the recent conversation about threading vs linear where you're siphoning off a specific focus away from the linear flow, and presenting it in a findable interface. But because Discord trends towards the 'new' and the 'now', threads are by design more ephemeral than they are on forums, and it actually works pretty well in the right venues.

What I find interesting is how most of the Discord servers I'm in tried it and went right back to just having channels for things.

 

[AlexTheBat]

What I find interesting is how most of the Discord servers I'm in tried it and went right back to just having channels for things.

My discord server didn't even bother trying it - it was an immediate nope for us. I think they DO keep the threads but they got shuttled off somewhere and like... Man, that's the opposite of what I use discord for. It's so I can gather all these conversations I'm having with people about something in one place! You gonna just hide half the crap people write? We'll all forget everything like ten minutes later.

Seriously; memory issues and ADHD are no joke when it comes to stuff like this. You're just asking for trouble, half the time xD

I wouldn't have minded if they made it a little more like forums (in that maybe you click into a channel and it just shows you all the available threads with no general conversation, but at that point I'm just wanting a mobile friendly freely hosted forum service, not a change to discord.

 

[LeadCrow]

Disappearing threads are bothersome in many ways. I can only think the durations accomodate the busiest servers.
But for small ones, threads shouldnt archive regardless of individual users' own paying subscriber status and "server boosts".

Making the feature freemium and less non-viable only in exchange of payments is ridiculous, especially as we assume the way its architectured actually saves the discord company money by chopping off then freezing discussion streams from the channels its actively processing.

 

[Pete]

OK so they archive after 24 hours of inactivity but are still accessible - I'd never gone looking. Unarchiving is as simple as replying to it.

But for small ones, threads shouldnt archive regardless of individual users' own paying subscriber status and "server boosts".

Threads archive after 24 hours of inactivity, regardless of users' paying status. The only premium change I can see is that a server boosted to level 2 (which means, 15 people supporting it, or 1 very enthusiastic person) can have private threads.

And really, private threads are essentially a leaner version of a group DM that organises into a channel, which makes more sense if you find yourself having quite chats where that plays out - except that only one of my servers is level 2, and they don't care to try it.

 

[R0binHood]

Damn, level 2 and 3 are expensive.

$10 a month for level 1
$75 a month for level 2
$150 a month for level 3

Although it looks like you can knock 30% off if you have nitro. Still pricey though.

 

[Pete]

That's only if you're boosting it yourself. The reality is that keeping a server at level 1 is not difficult (even solo, you get two free boosts with Nitro), but even to level 2 isn't hard if you have a healthy number of people in the server, because that 15 boosts is total across all members.

 

[KimmiKat]

Their thread system seems kind of clumsy.

 

[Pete]

No more so than Slack or Rocket.Chat and in some ways much better. It's the result of trying to capture the fork of a discussion naturally and it doesn't quite work because you can't 'split the flow from *this point*' but only from 'now'.

 

[mime]

I really don't want to sound like an old fart, and I see the advantages with Discord and why people want to have lots of communities lumped together under one Discord account. But why not just make a community software the same as Discord/Slack but with proper "old style" threaded discussions?

 

[Pete]

Because old style threaded discussions were phased out by almost all the forum solutions because they confused users.

In any case what Discord and Slack do isn’t really what you’re thinking of, it’s more “reply as new topic” with a slightly different UI.

 

[Danloona]

I really don't want to sound like an old fart, and I see the advantages with Discord and why people want to have lots of communities lumped together under one Discord account. But why not just make a community software the same as Discord/Slack but with proper "old style" threaded discussions?

Honestly... Discord is not perfect solution for big communities...
Eurogamer is example...