We now have an official Discord. Click on this link to join!
We also recognize that Discord is not for everyone and want to make sure that everyone knows nothing will be changing for our forum as a result. Quite a few of you are already on Discord so it makes sense to keep the good times rolling there!
If you have any issues joining, feel free to ping me and I can get it sorted out!
What exactly is Discord?
Looks like a fancy mIRC to me. Tons of Discord servers out there, I think.
TLDR is it’s a group of online communities for people with shared interests built around the “live” format. You can find channels for pretty much everything, and start one for one that doesn’t exist. It’s different than traditional social media platforms and forums because of that truly instant application.
I literally was thinking we should have a discord today.
I’m not a fan of Discord. I use it sometimes, but the app is way too aggressive on a PC, sending out notifications and always wanting attention and resources. I do not find it confusing, just annoying. Maybe it’s because I want messaging apps and chat apps to be more like Pidgin or like the good old days of Creative Computing’s chat that we ran on BIX (based on COSY, Univ. of Guelph). Or even IRC in the wild old days.
The real concern I have with a Discord is that it could draw people away from this forum (Listening, @taronlissimore?). Maybe I’ll look in on it, but it’ll probably be kicking and screaming. In a Discord chat, people don’t take the time to think about what they are saying. And I thin’ we could all use a bit more thinnin’ around here, as QuickDraw McGraw used to say.
And this reply isn’t specifically to you. @atticus_grey, I just hit the reply…
I agree with it pulling people from the forum, but one benefit of it is being able to ask small questions for a quick response, or even unimportant chat. Forums can be a bit too structured and formal. Discord is nice for back and forth small chat.
Yup. We’ve been wrestling with having our own Discord for 2 years now for the exact reason you outlined. However, the reality is, 80% of the active people here are already chatting in Discord so there’s no reason to not extend the community to Discord as well. Discord and Discourse are built through the same platform and there are already a couple integrations between them. We’ve got our fingers crossed on more to come in the future!
Well - it seems that there is no way to prevent mischief with quotes.
don’t worry the curmudgeons will still be here
Yes we will 
hehehe
Yes, too invasive. I use those systems only when required for work. I have a hard enough time staying focused as is.
One other thing to consider is retention of content and access to archival answers. I routinely find extremely ancient threads through search of old school forums, sometimes from 10, 15, or 20 years ago. They have answers to FAQs for anything from cars to audio to tourist destinations to air conditioners to tools, etc. This forum already has some authoritative niche answers (e.g., various comments by @Torq).
THIS
I keep thinking we should have a headphones wiki for this very reason.
I completely understand why we would have a Discord but I can’t do realtime. I have days where I can check the forum a few times but I also have stretches of several days where I don’t have time to check it once.
It is nice to see something different coming. Even if discord ends up killing or damaging the forum as it is, it just a sign that people preferred it, I guess there is no reason to be afraid of that. It would be worse if you didn’t make it and someone else made it and people could just go to that somebody’s else discord.
I’m not playing games that often anymore, but I do see myself interacting in discord at game breaks in situations that I wouldn’t even log into the forum, just because it is in the same platform I do use to talk to other friends playing with me.
IMO I prefer the forum as it’s much easier to read and search… Discord can become a mass mess and before you know it the post you want to read is 50 buried and there is no organized chain of discussion.
I think that’s the whole point. I mean the name is “Discord”. Like Ludacris enjoys being ludicrous. On the other hand, this forum is on “Discourse”.
FYI for those who are worried about notifications. You can disable them easily in discord settings. You can also disable per server as well. Lots of ways to get zero notifications and still use the platform. And these settings travel with you on every device you use.
Example
My initial reaction was “Uh oh.” to the announcement. Now a week later it is still “Uh oh”.
I don’t see an upside to having a Discord that takes energy / posts / information out of The Headphone Community. I already monitor as many various forums as I have time for. So, I won’t be adding Discord - I don’t have time for it.
If this kills what we have here then it will be a sad thing.
Mark Gosdin
