Discussion: gitter vs Slack vs Discord

[neuecc]

No description provided.

[NoxMortem]

gitter :)

[grofit]

I think the 3rd option was Discord, as Discourse I think is more a forum thing.

The main pros/cons of each platform is:

Gitter

+ Easy to access (no need for custom sign ups etc)
+ Archival of chat

- Lack of separate channels
- Lack of threads in channels
- Not many features outside of text chat

Gitter is very simple and is basically just an evolved IRC client, so while its great as an entry point if you are hoping to grow the community further other tools may be better suited.

Slack

+ Threads in chat (this is great)
+ Easy to setup and manage channels

+/- Voice chat but only 1-1 if needed

- Not as much data archived on free plans
- Harder to access, as you need to setup a proxy invite page

Slack is great and its threaded chat is amazing (REALLY GOOD for discussing specific points in detail without derailing chat), but its a pain to sign up as you need to invite people in, which generally needs someone to action those invites from a proxy form of some kind.

Discord

+ Easy to setup and manage channels
+ Easier to access just click a link to login
+ Group voice channels if needed
+ Screen sharing available in groups if needed
+ Far more data archived for searching

+/- Roles, allowing you to clearly see who is experienced/maintainer etc if needed

- No ability to create threads in chat

Discord is amazing given its free and totally feature rich, and as a user of all 3 I can tell you the code embedding in Discord is slightly better than the other 2 (as it will actually allow you to tab inside and correctly assign language to the code sections). It is also super easy to get on to as its just a link someone clicks and on they get. The only thing I miss about other clients in Discord is the ability to do threaded chat which Slack provides and is great, but other than that Discord (for me) is the far better client in terms of experience and accessibility.

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Some more things to note

There are some big communities on each.

• Typescript (Gitter)
• Atom/Electron (Slack)
• Unity (Slack)
• VueJS (Discord)
• Yarn (Discord)

Having interacted with most of the above on all the clients I can say that gitter is great for startup projects that just want a single place for people to chat, when you get a certain level of activity there will be text churn and your questions will be lost in the ether.

Slack side steps this problem with its threads so its a lot easier to have in depth conversations on topics without stalling chat.

Discord is a nice half way house with a better user experience than the others but much like Gitter you can potentially end up with text churn in busy channels, but you can side step some of this by making contextual channels and having people ask questions in there.

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My vote would be for Discord, but I do think Slack is a brilliant tool but given that it requires someone to action the invites and @neuecc is a busy man it would require others to manage the community if you were using slack, whereas with Discord you can just make a lifetime invite link and just post that on the repo page.

[RDeluxe]

I would vote for Slack, but Discord is fine by me (I guess they will add threads pretty soon :) )

[RDeluxe]

I you want, I can create the Discord channel and modify the README to include a link to it :)

[grofit]

I would rather get @neuecc blessing first before we start trying to move the community.

[RDeluxe]

Sure, I was waiting for his GO

[neuecc]

Hmn, my thought is keep "gitter" is better.
If we want to deeply discussion, should use issues(like TypeScript, Roslyn, corefx, csharplang, etc...).
If we talk a small topic, gitter is easy to join and talking.

[netlander]

Slightly inclined towards Discord.

[KAW0]

Discord chat can be archived too. https://github.com/Tyrrrz/DiscordChatExporter

[playground]

You can create public workspace using Slackin to enable self invite without having to have a human in between.

[grofit]

yeah but its still an extra faff, I dont think the problem at the moment is really the tool we use to communicate, as we could use any of the tools and I am pretty sure @neuecc would still remain silent for the most part so until we can sort that issue I think the community chat program can take a back seat.

[ocornut]

I feel there's one major problem with Discord which hasn't been mentioned: it is less designed for collaboration, focus and getting shit done.

• PM are in another tab, so you cannot easily collaborate with one person from your team without back and forth.
• All servers are visible.
• Very easy to get distracted and notified from another place.
• People are explicitely broadcasting that they are playing xxx or xxx.

It's easier with Slack to stay in a focused work "flow".

[MartinGonzalez]

I've been using Discord and Slack a lot and I can say Slack has the enormous advantage of having threads, seems stupid but it really change the way of communication. I would vote for Slack.

[Xeoneid]

I would vote for Slack. Threads are a game changer

[RowDaBoat]

Slack. Threads. No brainer.

[Allerek]

I would vote for Slack, but Discord is fine by me (I guess they will add threads pretty soon :) )

Threads are up and runnin

[Xeoneid]

Well, now that Discord has threads I would be ok with it. Has a decision been made already?

[Martmists-GH]

-1 for slack, still fails to open slack:// urls with xdg-open on linux.