[OOTB-hive] Use of / switch to Discord server?

Axel Faust axel.faust.g at googlemail.com
Fri Sep 14 19:28:26 BST 2018


Thanks Jim for pointing out the download link for desktop apps. The
invite link for Discord has actually been in the #orderofthebee IRC
channel welcome message since at least August 10th. Provided there is an
agreement for Discord sometime down the line, our website would be
adapted accordingly.

Not having unlimited, searchable history was one of the primary reasons
we have not looked at Slack. Additionally, when we looked at the
situation, the Alfresco Discord had already been created and it looked
like a majority or at least a significant subset of the active users had
already made the switch or were willing to make the switch. This reduced
the argument of "having to have yet another account" as a con. It also
turned relying on IRC only to a potential liability, since it would
force that user base to use multiple tools to keep being part of both
communities.

I also totally forgot that there was also an attempt to have an OOTBee
slack (https://ootbee.slack.com), which was used primarily around /
shortly after the first BeeCon in 2016.
I am not sure about "the one that everyone is probably already using
anyway: Slack". Same as with Discord, I have had zero contact with
Slack, were it not for our 2016 trial and a lone customer from outside
Germany, and there I have been frequently annoyed by the message storage
limit. I know, with our current level of activity we are not in danger
of reaching that limit in a reasonable amount of time, but I hesitate to
consider the current level of (non-)activity as the final state, and am
also thinking about potential notifications / integrations from 3rd
party systems inflating that number.

It was clear from the start that this could be a controversial
suggestion. It was that way back in 2016/2017, and will likely be that
way in 2030, unless some Zuckerberg clone manages to deliver a platform
that succeeds in killing off / suppressing all alternatives. As always,
any alternatives are welcome for discussion but that requires that
somebody (typically the one proposing a specific alternative) step up
and do the legwork for an evaluation.


On 14/09/2018 18:29, Jim Tomonto wrote:
> There is a Mac app for Discord (just not in the app
> store) https://discordapp.com/download
>
> On the Mac App you just select the channel -> right click -> Invite
> People and then you are off to the races.
>
> Discord did start with gamers but has gotten real traction in the
> Blockchain/Crypto space.  
>
> The cool thing with Discord is that the free tier has unlimited
> storage for each user locally to see the history.  Slack requires you
> to pay once you exceed the dreaded history limit (which happens pretty
> quickly on most channels).
>
> Jim
>
> Jim Tomonto
>
>
>
>
>> On Sep 14, 2018, at 10:20 AM, Jeff Potts <jeffpotts01 at gmail.com
>> <mailto:jeffpotts01 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> When I first heard that some folks were using Discord I tried to
>> figure out how to access it and was totally flummoxed. I couldn't
>> find an invite link and didn't want to bother anyone. I ended up
>> giving up. If we were to switch entirely to Discord, would people
>> still need to hunt down an invite link? How will the community figure
>> out how to find us?
>>
>> Is there a MacOS app for Discord (didn't see one in the app store) or
>> must I use yet another browser window to keep it open? (Slack has a
>> nice desktop app, for example).
>>
>> It is frustrating to have to go create another account for another
>> service that I will only use for Alfresco stuff. Also, what's with
>> the gamer iconography everywhere? Strange!
>>
>> IRC is free and open, has a variety of apps for all platforms, and
>> does its job sufficiently well. I didn't see any concerns about IRC
>> that couldn't be addressed. But, if we can't stay on IRC, and if
>> we're going to move to a non-open source product, why wouldn't we
>> move to the one that everyone is probably already using anyway: Slack.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 6:11 AM Axel Faust
>> <axel.faust.g at googlemail.com <mailto:axel.faust.g at googlemail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     A quick follow up: To show that the Discord server is still in
>>     evaluation and even I have yet to learn more about it, I
>>     accidentally included the wrong invite link in my last email. If
>>     you want to check out the Discord server, please use
>>     https://discord.gg/wEvSqDG instead.
>>
>>
>>     On 14/09/2018 13:07, Axel Faust wrote:
>>>
>>>     Hello everyone,
>>>
>>>     in his last mail to this list, Younes has mentioned that we as
>>>     the Board have been looking into improvements of the internal
>>>     communication. One aspect of this is that we have setup a
>>>     Discord "server" for the Order of the Bee, created various rooms
>>>     and played with / implemented some integrations. All of this was
>>>     done as an evaluation or at least an interim solution (with
>>>     regards to how the new Board communicates among its members),
>>>     but with this email I want to start the discussion about this
>>>     potentially becoming a permanent solution.
>>>
>>>     Now, some of you may ask "Why Discord?" and "Don't we already
>>>     have an IRC channel?" / "What about our Mattermost
>>>     (https://chat.orderofthebee.org
>>>     <https://chat.orderofthebee.org/>) server?". So let me give some
>>>     arguments on why we have looked at Discord:
>>>
>>>       * In IRC we currently have one public channel on freenode.
>>>         Some of the discussions (especially among the board members)
>>>         may not fit in that central, public space. Having the
>>>         ability to host multiple channels was also a reason behind
>>>         the 2016/2017 trial of using Mattermost. This is also true
>>>         for Discord, though other than in Mattermost there is no
>>>         additional / superfluous concept of teams that separates the
>>>         channels and you don't need to explicitly add/join to
>>>         channels, so accessibility-wise it feels to be slightly better.
>>>       * Using Mattermost requires us to run and maintain our own
>>>         service on our infrastructure. Since we currently have
>>>         infrastructure sponsored by Magenta Apps, the cost is not
>>>         the main concern here, but the available resources in terms
>>>         of people in charge of administration / maintenance. This
>>>         was initially covered by the INFRA committee composed of
>>>         Marsbard, Daren, Lanre, and Heiko. But as most of our
>>>         committees, the level of activity has approached near zero
>>>         over time. As the board, we felt it would be better to rely
>>>         on a free, hosted solution to reduce our internal effort /
>>>         dependencies, and allow any renewed activities in the INFRA
>>>         committee (or any successor team / constellation) to be
>>>         focused on more productive tasks.
>>>       * Our internal Mattermost server has seen no activity since
>>>         the 2016/2017 trials, and even then the interaction was
>>>         extremely light.
>>>       * We recognize that Discord is not open source as opposed to
>>>         Mattermost. Still, it is a platform with a proven track
>>>         record among open source communities, has a - in my eyes so
>>>         far - mostly fair and transparent business practice, and -
>>>         most essentially - provides unlimited chat history in the
>>>         free tier.
>>>       * A significant portion of the #alfresco IRC channel members
>>>         have made the switch to a Alfresco Discord "server" created
>>>         by Bhagyas Silva, which may at some time in the future be
>>>         designated the official community channel by Alfresco. By
>>>         having our own Discord server, we make it easier for members
>>>         of #alfresco to engage in our organisation as well, without
>>>         requiring separate credentials on a disconnected system.
>>>
>>>     Currently we have the following channels on Discord:
>>>
>>>       * #general: the main channel, synchronized with IRC via a bot,
>>>         so that we can keep the IRC channel alive without cutting
>>>         anyone off
>>>       * #github-updates: collecting notifications from GitHub about
>>>         events on any repository in the OrderOfTheBee GitHub
>>>         organisation
>>>       * #board: a private channel for members of the board to
>>>         discuss / organise their activities
>>>       * #support-tools: a channel dedicated to the OOTBee support
>>>         tools addon, which may obsolete / succeed the previously
>>>         separate Gitter channel (a custom integration with GitHub
>>>         events provides the same type of notifications we had in Gitter)
>>>       * #alfresco-irc-bridge: a read-only channel dedicated to
>>>         keeping a complete history of #alfresco on IRC
>>>         (chat.alfresco.com <http://chat.alfresco.com/> runs on a
>>>         private server of Richard Esplin and may stop to work at any
>>>         time when alfbot breaks or Alfresco demands the server be
>>>         shut down / moved to a different name)
>>>
>>>     There are also a couple of channels for specific tests that may
>>>     come and go, i.e. a bridge to the Alfresco-internal Slack system
>>>     to allow for interaction with Alfresco staff.
>>>
>>>
>>>     TL;DR: We have set up a Discord server for evaluation
>>>     (https://discord.gg/kbPSjum), I outlined the reasons why we
>>>     chose it and what channels we currently have, and we want to
>>>     know your opinions on this subject before we call for a vote on
>>>     making it "official".
>>>
>>>
>>>     Regards and my apologies for not being able to write a shorter
>>>     mail...
>>>
>>>     Axel
>>>
>>
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