Please don't use Discord for FOSS projects

starman@programming.dev to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 1277 points –
drewdevault.com
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Leave us alone OMG i understand you are purists but be realistic as well, you need to go where people are to advertise your project and reach. We can use discord for our projects without it meaning we aren’t for your general privacy.

Sorry but you can't be serious. Do you really think that putting documentation, bug reports, FAQ, etc. on a Discord server is not a problem? If you want a place to discuss that is like Discord, use Element or some other FLOSS alternative because it just simply is more sustainable and better as it shows respect towards the user base.

I am talking about reach and promotion, please read what i am writing. If i made an app for 14 year old yes, i would create my platform where they exist (discord and reddit) - if its a fully FOSS project for a mature audience, i’d go there to promote but not for exclusive use in platform. Reach at first is incredibly tough, the time you place doing all that is valuable as well.

While Discord may be a valid place for your project to gain traction, documentation, etc. shouldn't be there as Discord is unsearchable. That's what I'm saying.

How would you advertise on discord? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't have any discoverability or recommendation algorithm to recommend your "server" to other users.

@Haha @starman

> to advertise your project and reach

so does every open-source project have to follow the venture capitalist road? People who are into open-source are pretty comfortable outside of discord, so it only depends who you want to meet. If you aim at the mainstream masses, and you want to grow as much as possible and as fast as possible (why? planning a business exit?) then sure, discord has more of those. But in that case why open-source anyway? It's anti-thetical.

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