I’m a bit late to the game, but I agree it would be great if there was a thread where we could talk ‘shop’ - otherwise this discord is just going to be an archive of ‘hellos and goodbyes’

I would love ideas on how to make this happen! Every time we try, it immediately (like within days) devolves into questions that belong on the forum. So how can we describe this properly, how can we make the delineation clear between forum question and "talking shop"? For example, (and no offense to the people involved!) this thread was a perfectly good forum post: https://discord.com/channels/869656431308189746/1410916324170928138 I know that there's a type of people who would (almost) never ask anything on a public forum as that's just not their thing. We started this Discord server with a Q&A section and somehow wrangled it so that all that extremely helpful content that many people benefit from still ended up in search engines, but that was always a hack and an actual forum discussion was always a much better option. So... here we are! I acknowledge the problem but there's a grey area. I am also a big proponent of being Friendly but I often have to jump in here and be the angry policeman telling people their questions belong elsewhere. I'd love to find a workable solution, but don't know how. cc: @CodeSharePaul

As that person - my intention was to sound out something informally then create a forum post or two on the issues involved. Forum posts are great when you know what you're asking 🙂 They are invaluable as they often solve other's problems and build a body of knowledge in an informal way. In fact quite often my own questions and even answers have solved my problems months / years later. I'm a big fan. I don't have an answer how to solve this issue but I can categorically say I couldn't write a forum post there... not sure why

Hehe I know, the gray area is enormous! And I know and trust you, so this didn't bother me as such! But allowing these kinds of questions easily devolves unfortunately - the problem is that people don't read (myself included) and even if they do read the rules and guidelines.. how long will they remember those? Not for very long. So we're left with decisions to be annoying make very clear what should move or to just give up and say "anything goes" which will not make people happy either. Maybe some kind of middle ground could be a daily (automated) thread that gets started where people can "ramble" like you did @SiempreSteve to start forming an idea of what you're actually trying go ask.. That way people can dip in with their random thoughts/ideas/vague questions if they want to. My struggle then is: how to remind people it's only for that, and not for general Q&A.. 😅

I guess my question is.. why does it have to be so ... formal? The rules I mean... Discord is a chat platform (as I understand it), so why should there be rules that limit the chat? Technically, nothing stops people starting their general chat threads in the Social channel.. yes it might create noise and maybe a "Let's talk shop" channel may be better, but then why? Maybe as a thread evolves a Moderator possibly needs to post, something like.. "This has been an interesting discussion, maybe it's not at the point it would benefit from being a Forum post? Or how about a Blog post? Or a code example for the new community site?" .... Different people are drawn to different platforms through personal preference/convenience etc. I Agree that Q&A is well suited to forums, but Discord chats have their place as well. [Repeating sorry] I would argue that fact that threads exist on Discord, we already have a place for "talking shop", it's a thread based on what someone wants to talk about in the social channel... I think all the channels actually becomes more of the issue as it raises the question of "where should I start my thread/discussion". With the "how do you remind people" question, if it's possible to have a bot post on a thread in the following situations: * Newly created? - "We love a discussion, but don't forget to consider the forum might be a better place for questions?" * After X number of replies / days of activity - "H5YR for the great discussion, Maybe it's not at the point it would benefit from being a Forum post? Or how about a Blog post? Or a code example for the new community site?" If it can't be done with automation, maybe it's just somthing Mod's need to keep an eye on? It would captcha most - probbably not all? situations. Sorry, feels a bit rambely but I hope it was helpful

> "This has been an interesting discussion, maybe it's not at the point it would benefit from being a Forum post? Or how about a Blog post? Or a code example for the new community site?" .... Yes, and at that point, most people will have solved their problem and have moved on already, the most appropriate thing at that point would be to turn it into a blog post. Which we've encouraged and.. hardly ever happens. > I would argue that fact that threads exist on Discord, we already have a place for "talking shop", it's a thread based on what someone wants to talk about in the social channel... I think all the channels actually becomes more of the issue as it raises the question of "where should I start my thread/discussion". Threads are super hard to discover, we've just seen this this week where people who's been here for a long time don't know how to create them. Unless we turn it into a forum-style channel, where threads are the only way - but then.. it turns into a forum again. Yes, too many channels gets confusing which we realized real quick, so there are now a few dozen channels that have been deleted as it was unmanageable sending people to the right channels. > have a bot post on a thread in the following situations: There's a bot here that reminds you to introduce yourself when you first join the server. Nobody does it. There's a bot here that reminds you that we're not all "guys" here, gets largely ignored (or mocked). I doubt people will pay much attention 🙁 I kind of feel like we've tried many solutions already and they just fall on deaf ears. > Different people are drawn to different platforms through personal preference/convenience etc. Maybe, just maybe, we need to admit defeat and say: HQ should not run a Discord server at all. If people prefer Discord, they can set up their own instance? I know there's an Umbraco Facebook group like this, for example.

I'm not sure it is defeat though, I get what you are saying about the bots being ignored/mocked. Is it down to HQ to worry if the forum questions / blog posts get created? The most HQ/Mods/Bots can do on that front is remind people that it would be appreciated. I personally feel that allowing natural conversation to happen on Discord is a good thing, I don't think it has to be indexable/discoverable by a search engine / resulting in a forum post / blog post - it would be nice, but just providing that community space for fluid conversation (and one for structured [i.e. the forum]) is all HQ need to do. There is an onus on us as community members to try and help encourage / lead by example - and admittedly, including myself, we aren't the best at it - and it would be nice if we were better. I think Discord is "just" about getting to the point of engagement as the early Community Slack that was run is now - At least discord is searchable 😄 If it was me, I think I'd maybe add a "help" or "discussion" channel in general, and I guess try and let that evolve into the place for "shop talk" and see what happens?

I would rather see a thread in the discord than it just get moved to their private DMs. Some people work better in this format than in the forum.

From a background from working in education, we encouraged students to ask their questions and concerns with the medium they felt most comfortable using - face to face, instant message, email, discussion boards. The aim wasn’t to discourage communications or make people worry if something was being asked was posted in the right medium or not. Everyone has their own way of doing things. With Matt brailsford excellent work on safeguarding a neurodiverse culture, umbraco hq should be open to making this channel a safe place for members to ask anything about umbraco, be it an opinion, bug fix, or sharing ideas. The umbraco community embraces a friendly attitude and to except people from all walks of life. Some people may not want to broadcast publicly in a forum, and would prefer a more low key environment to ask a question and get that instant feedback. I don’t think it’s appropriate to point fingers, and force people to use the forum. If it is a point for a wider audience then maybe a Umbraco representative can post something on the forum or include it in a blog post. This doesn’t have to be a difficult decision. We just need a new thread for ‘Umbraco Talk’, and then just see how it goes.