> These are, off the top of my head, the things Discord solves: 1) Documentation that requires you to sign up to yet another website. 2) Paying for documentation. 3) Documentation in a PDF that you can’t access until you have a sale calls.
Huh?
Who has ever had to log into something to view documentation? Discord seems to be the only example!
Paying for documentation? Same thing, never had to it, pretty sure businesses don't think this is viable in any way.
As for the last one, well, getting you on to a Discord and into their marketing drip feed is a lot cheaper than having a sales call.
> Paying for documentation? Same thing, never had to it, pretty sure businesses don't think this is viable in any way.
Very normal when working with ICs.
Re:Discord Is Not Documentation
by marcosdumay on Sunday July 16, 2023 @02:03PM
(#36749845)
> Paying for documentation? Same thing, never had to it
It was once very common. Microsoft had a "developers club" that basically sold access to their APIs docs.
MSDN sold a service where they mailed you physical CDs. Once they had the documentation on their website it was all free. (A subscription would get you licenses for QAing on different versions of Windows / additional other stuff, but the help files were free)
I used to spend a nickel or two on O'Reilly books, too. Those were effectively "the manual" for a lot of things, once upon a time.
What's wrong with documentation on a website?
Re:Discord Is Not Documentation
by Per_Bothner on Sunday July 16, 2023 @12:26PM
(#36748719)
The complaint was about having to sign up to (register for) yet-another website.
Which site requires you to sign up in order to read documentation?
Re:Discord Is Not Documentation
by DaiPlusPlus on Sunday July 16, 2023 @05:28PM
(#36751562)
It's certainly less common now, but prior to 2015 it was common for "legacy" vendors (y'know... the paranoid and posessive types, like ProgressDB...) - or just those embarassed about the state of their products compared to the rest of the industry: they'll hide their KB articles, bug-reports and workarounds, and more besides) behind a registration-wall, or even worse: only grant you access if you have a current support contract with them.
Re:Discord Is Not Documentation
by acutesoftware on Sunday July 16, 2023 @09:05PM
(#36752981)
Oracle requires you to login to get access to most support documents now.
Re:Discord Is Not Documentation
by DaiPlusPlus on Monday July 17, 2023 @01:19AM
(#36754412)
At least their SQL documentation is public - I remember (at least a decade ago) that only Postgres, MySQL, and MSSQL made their documentation public, while info on IBM DB2 and Oracle was scarce.
RedHat has traditionally.
Documentation that requires you to sign up to yet another website.
Paying for documentation.
Documentation in a PDF that you can’t access until you have a sale calls.
Documentation on just a website.
No documentation.
Random forums I have to sign up for that are separate from the help desk sign up that are separate from the actual services signup.
Not be able to search across others issues and to solve problems without needing to ask.
Using HN to get assistance.
Using Twitter to get assistance.
Hoping my email doesn’t get lost or stuck in spam either way.
Having notifications so I can respond.
Not having to sit on some website in some chat window.
Not having to use some crappy web form that won’t take my screenshot because it’s 2MB instead of only being at most 1MB.
Not being able to add attachments at all.
Being able to have a real time conversation with someone.
Still having a search function.
Have something that works well on mobile and desktop. (Oh, but websites work well on both… OH no they don’t have to. People can easily screw that up and make websites that work horribly on difference devices).
All of these things can be solved, but they aren’t.
And keep in mind, the context of the discussion here isn’t documentation that ONLY exists on Discord. Rather, documentation that exists on web AND also stuff that exists on Discord. So, stuff that has yet to make it to the website.