Reply To: OnTableTop needs a forum – A discussion thread

[blinky465 17028xp 2]

@ninjilly makes some great points; but as @phaidknott suggests, the Pandora’s Box is now open, it’s going to be difficult to reconcile what is undeniably a split in our community now.

What is notable, however, is that those who are reluctant to go “all in” on Discord and want to keep to the slow, measured pace of the forums do so because of time constraints or other commitments, an inability to stay “camped” on the computer all day, or just a preference for the way forums work (e.g. searchable information you can come back to in the future). It’s not a personality type issue – it’s a time and means of use issue. Which is why it’s disappointing to read comments like “forums are for casual and newer members”. As if you somehow need to “level up” to get with the cool kids over on Discord, granddad.

I’m involved with a few forums that have gone a similar way (a learn-guitar forum, where I fill the role of “student” and an learn-electronics forums where I’m very much a high-volume contributor as a “mentor” type role). In both cases, the website organisers eventually admitted they felt adding Discord was a mistake because it created exactly this kind of fracture in their communities, but didn’t know how to put it right. Maybe it doesn’t apply so much to OTT since there isn’t the same mentor/student type role, but it’s interesting to see that a split does indeed appear to have occurred, and will be interesting to hear how it’s addressed.