Expansion of Cbox vs. Discord

[Benjamin]

If you are anything like me, you may be constantly looking into ways of simplifying life and relying less and less on multiple tools.  With that premise set, my question to everyone is this:

How important is a live discussion/interaction area of WPStudio for you as a freelancer / developer / participant of WPStudio's community?

I ask because I see multiple options for moving forward with revitalizing the community within WPStudio.

1. Go forward with the prior idea of pushing the community over to a Discord channel.  This would mean people have an additional website open or an additional app downloaded to their devices.  And while there are many ways I can integrate things that are happening at WPStudio into Discord, it won't be 100% integrated.
2. I'd like to bring back the "forums" idea for WPStudio for several reasons. One, it can provide a searchable record of conversations, ideas, support, code examples, etc. Two, it is a way for support requests to be visible to everyone so that everyone can benefit.
3. I'd also like to integrate the chat room that we use for live webinars (cbox) in a more integrated method. We would still have the "live webinar" chat room, but we could open up additional chat boxes/channels to embed in different areas of the website.

By focusing on the forum and the live chat (cbox), it will enable us to utilize just the WPStudio website as the foundational landing point without having to push the community off into other 3rd-party services like Discord.  But what are your thoughts?  If a live-chat location where people can hang out and interact with something that you miss about WPStudio?  Or are forums and training events enough?

[winday]

I like forums. Always have. I appreciate threading and searchability. They are both immediate and long-lasting.

I'm not a fan of Slack, nor of Discord. Slack I just find inconvenient for long content-rich discussions. I had a bad experience with a Discord channel that was set up with insufficient security, and I'm hesitant to go back.

I'm not sure how the chat (cbox) integration would work, or if it would be of benefit outside of the way it's used now when it accompanies a live training session, but I'm willing to try!

[Benjamin]

I am with you in preferring forums. There is something about putting your entire thoughts down in writing and not being tied to the screen waiting for a reply.... I can just check back later. I also agree that having "support requests" be made available 24/7 to the whole community can be helpful in people learning and sharing with each other.

The chat (cbox) would allow our community to have the ability to chat in real-time during times that we can pre-arrange. I'm going to be having "office hours" opening up soon where I'll be "working on things" and have the chat room open on a screen and that would allow people to interact in real time.

[BG]

I do like forums over Slack (I have not looked into Discord, but somehow I already dislike the name...). It would be nice though to be able to upload images in case e.g. a screenshot could help explain something.

Live chat is definitely great and will be very useful for "office hours" and webinars.

QUESTION: How do I add my avatar to my profile? 😉

[Benjamin]

I know you can click on the "IMG" tag in this bbpress markup tags above the content box and paste a direct URL to an image... it just means you have to host the image somewhere else.

As for the avatar to profile... I'll work on that. In my investigation of avatar implementation, I've also found I need to write some more conditions to not allow individuals to edit their entire profile.

[Marianne]

I like forums to isolate discussions and searchability. Slack and Discord are both fine too though at times I find them to be a distraction and a time sink.

Regarding the avatar question BG, I’m thinking this is defaulting to my wordpress.com avatar.

[SherriGoodman]

I like forums. I'm not familiar with Discord. I've been happy using Slack too, although getting back to the exact "thread" of a comment or question is not ideal. I think a forum here on the site is a great idea for all the reasons stated. 🙂

[SierraMyk]

I like the idea of forums for the reasons you mention, especially the ability to search and find answers that is often lacking in communication tools like Slack.

I don't mind Slack or Discord, but they can be a time suck, and I find that sometimes I have to back off them for a few days - then it's hard to pick up a thread (especially when people don't respond in a thread!)

I do enjoy the live chat during events, so I like the "office hours" idea for interaction during specific times.

[BG]

Maybe we can use a "preview" of a forum post before submitting.

[Benjamin]

You can check out the two links that are now below the content box where you enter your replies and topics. It should allow you to click on "Preview" to see the post... and then click on "Write" to go back to the editor.

[BG]

Thank you, Benjamin! And thank you, Marianne!

[marcy]

I like having a forum here on the WPS site. I find it easier to find information. I would prefer this over using Discord.

[Author]

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