I tried launching a forum, I spent a _lot_ of time setting up Discourse and proper CDN/uploads etc. I didn't go all out, only a few categories based on what was commonly needed (like 5?). I did this _before_ I resorted to Discord as the only point of help. People begrudgingly used it... It got to the point where I was asked "why aren't you using Discord like everyone else in this space?" enough that I asked my power users on the forum, and the broader internet via other channels, and most people overwhelmingly wanted Discord. In particular, of note, my power users on the forums wanted it. After switching, the number of people asking for help significantly increased, and we gained a fair number of new power users willing to help those people out too.

Here is the thing. You may be seeing more people seeking help because they are repeating the same questions again. Where as before they found the thread with the answer.

To me this is the biggest drawback for discord over forums.

From my experience it happens just as much on forums. Hell, just take a look at Stack Overflow! If someone is wanting to reanswer a question for the nth time, I have no problem with that, and the helpers in my community don't either. As another poster said, as well, sometimes "repeat questions" age out after a certain point, where a newer method is actually more appropriate than an older one anyway.

"As another poster said, as well, sometimes "repeat questions" age out after a certain point, where a newer method is actually more appropriate than an older one anyway."

I rather like the approach of editing the original question/solution or posting the latest solution there as otherwise this just creates fragmention.

> I rather like the approach of editing the original question/solution.

I believe we need the history, especially when dealing with legacy versions. The first thing I usually check is the date or contexts to infer it.

That's somehow even worse than doing support on Discord, where at least there is a history and the (bad!) search or one of the regulars might remember something to find it.

> If someone is wanting to reanswer a question for the nth time, I have no problem with that

But I do have a problem with having to ask a question that has already been answered a hundred times, instead of being able to search for the answer.

This is a great point, especially since its a metric thats extremely difficult to track, if at all

> I probably wouldn't use it because signing in is too much effort

What if the forum offered the following three options for sign in:

- Sign in with GitHub

- Sign in with Apple

- Sign in with Google

Specifically signing in with a consistent persona. All of these link to an actual "work" identity. Sometimes I want some customer support. Other times, it's a gaming identity, or a writer identity.

Part of the problem is that communities can get really nasty, worst case going as far as writing bad reviews at the place you work at. So it's useful to containerize your identity.

Reddit actually does this very well.

Sign in with Apple allows you the opportunity to generate unique email address aliases per service when you use Sign in with Apple to log in to third parties.

Say for example that your “real” iCloud account is muzani at iCloud dot com.

You browse to my hypothetical forum and choose Sign in with Apple. Then Apple lets you choose if you want to use your “real” mail address or if you want to make a new alias specific to this service. You make an alias an it will look something like emperor_virginia.9p at iCloud dot com.

It’s super convenient and easy to use, while at the same time doing a great job of keeping your identities separate between separate services.

Can I sign in as a guest/anon user?

I explicitly avoid all of those and am willing to do the extra two clicks to get a real account.

I have no idea how long these random companies will keep providing auth services, I don't want to be part of the mess when they inevitably stop the service or start charging. It barely solves the account fragmentation problem because every website supports a different random combination of providers. It centralizes everything more than it already is, further increasing your dependence on these companies. Not to mention the tracking.

But the biggest thing is that with a native account I know that I'll be getting all the features of the app and everything will work normally. There have been too many times where I've experienced "your account does not support this feature" because of a botched external auth integration. Remember when Spotify users with Facebook sign-in couldn't change their name from the default string of random characters?

No thanks, the "effort" is more than worth it for me.

> I think I do want a forum, but I probably wouldn't use it because signing in is too much effort. Maybe if forums had shared profiles and better mobile support, they'd be used more.

That's what made Reddit so popular.

Reddit basically stole all of traditional forums' thunder and removed their weaknesses as the same time. Setting up, maintaining and moderating a forum takes time and money. It takes less of the former and maybe none of the later. And for users creating an account is quick and doesn't even need an email so they can quickly reply even if they just blundered in from google.

Reddit definitely demands an email to register. It's unclear to me whether they verify it (I didn't bother to check), but it's the first thing they ask for.

You used to be able to just leave that field empty, not sure if that's true anymore.

They have changed the UI to make you think it is required. Start with old.reddit.com and click next with the field empty.

It's possibly because of abuse from bots and such. It still does a great job of letting you manage anonymous accounts and swapping between them.