Words from a queer, neurodivergent, feminist, Linux sysadmin/dev/advocate and geek.
Recently I accidentally made a Fediverse post which went viral:
stop using discord for your open source communities
That post is short, punchy, opinionated, and prescriptive, which I suspect is the cause for its virality.
Unfortunately, like many micro-blog posts, it lacks nuance, which many replies highlighted. I made the post to vent my frustration at needing to join a Discord server to interact with a community, so it is far from a measured critique of the subject.
This blog post is an attempt to address those nuances in greater detail. This is not an exhaustive analysis, and I’ve resolved to not let “perfect” be the enemy of “done”.
I do not like when a community asks me to join their Discord server if I need support on something. Not everyone uses Discord and some that do do not even want to be using it. I use it for work and friends, I wouldn't use it otherwise.