I personally found a lot of enjoyment in the Framework discord. The format of a discord server is a lot more useful for chatting and discussion within a community than something like a forum (which seems a little more siloed). From what I can tell, it seems like the way things played out was this:
People didn’t like that Framework supports certain projects
Framework’s response to that outcry caused the volunteer mods to strike
Catastrophic couldn’t really manage a whole server by herself (very reasonable) so it was put on hiatus
After the mods came back to the table, FW decided that the hassle of managing the discord just wasn’t worth it, and the discord was closed
This is of course relatively speculative on my part—I’m sure there’s more detail that I’m missing. But from where I’m standing, it seems like a pretty significant loss to shutter the server over something that seems to me to be a surmountable challenge. I certainly had issues with the way the server was moderated, and I could definitely feel an unusual amount of tension between mods and users… but I still think that it was overall a net positive. And it made me, personally, feel connected to the Framework community/product line in a way that isn’t really replicated by the forum/social media channels—and, critically, isn’t replicated by any other consumer electronics company.
I understand that the community seems to have a pretty crystallized stance on Omarchy. But I wonder if there’s another solution here.
I will be the first to support the switch to a siloed community. While Discourse isn’t exactly a forum, it is closer to it. Forums are a far superior platform for discussion, documentation, faq, and solution discoverability than a chat room is.
Even ignoring every possible reason mentioned above, I still think this is a good move and will have long lasting positive consequences.
Solution discoverability,
this, a million times over.
For any upsides they may have, isolated platforms like discord, telegram, ect, bring a lot of harm to the distribution of knowledge and answers. Not searchable by any search engines, not archivable by archive.org’s wayback-machine (web.archive.org/[…]/community.frame.work). If anyone knows of a way to search open discord communities, without joining each, please share! Discord seems to be built for isolation, best with just small groups imo. I spent a lot of time in the past on discord, ultimately it doesn’t feel worth it to me.
the type of people who would join the framework discord after the news of their support of dhh i imagine would strain the moderation staff more than they are usually.
I agree: discord is garbage. I am in a few servers and all people do is type their little comment into a thread without any reference to anything else typed previously, which then gets pushed down by the other users doing the same. Rinse repeat, yawn. I feel no sense of being in a conversation, let alone a community.
Yeah, I can imagine. Don’t want to imagine, but I can, to an extent. I’ve modded some discords. Probably still have mod in one or two, despite not logging in, who knows how long.
There are things that can be done. Discord & mod bots offer a lot of options. For a situation like this I imagine rather extreme measures are likely needed, they may have tried to avoid going that far. Closing the server to new joins, until the risk of, raiding, essentially, cools down. Slightly less extreme, cordoning off all new joiners into a “new” area. Let them prove they aren’t there to just stir chaos, or watch chaos. After a set amount of time, perhaps they could be granted read-only access to other channels, provided they have been active. Bots can do a lot, if you how to use them & have the time and inclination.
The Framework reddit sub seems to be over the moon about this, which I thought was weird before realising that of course the reddit sub users would be happy that the discord is no more.
I can appreciate moving to a discussion forum platform for framework community discussion. A lot of the Internet has become ephemeral af and distributed between too many platforms. This is frustrating as a user trying to find information about and/or discuss topics. Back in the day everything was on forums where there is an easily searchable history. It is much easier to find topics, information and solutions. Trying to do the same on a chat platform like discord is a nightmare.
my own preference is to have framework community forums As long as framework in the community has the ability to moderate.
I feel like an obvious drawback that I don’t see mentioned is speed. Back in the day you would hop on IRC and get instant linux help cus somebody somewhere in the world was awake and sitting in the channel(s). I used to argue for being able to access IRC from work purely on the basis that I could get more work done when I had access to community support and that claim proved true time and time again.
Maybe discord isn’t the answer but being able to live stream one’s terminal for help or chat via audio instead of having to type manicured responses was a quite nice alternative in situations where one doesn’t know if a response will come in 10 min or 10 days or never.
I think discord is good for like useless discussions or quick trouble shooting but I absolutely hate it for any kind of useful information. It’s terrible to search and you have to know the server exists in the first place. Forums are much better despite people for some reason not using them anymore.
I feel that acting like the discord is no more for purely practical reasons is a bit gaslighty. A bit like having the staff walk out on a restaurant because they didn’t want to serve a notorious local racist and then demolishing the restaurant a few weeks later and saying “Well, I always found the food a bit greasy and the local parking situation has really improved.”
Absolutely. I strongly dislike Discord, and I think they should have never had a Discord, but the reason why they shut it down is obvious, and their statement is absurd.
Nirav finds it easier to talk to his echo chamber on X, apparently. The statement about moving to “social channels” rings hollow when they’ve completely abandoned their Mastodon account—40 days of 0 posts now—due to the fallout resulting from their actions.
Losing the live community support Discord due to what is, as charitably as possible, a massive PR blunder (go see the 2K+ forum post currently sitting front and center of the Categories) stings.
The forum here is certainly better for being more accessible to search engines, but there’s still something to be said that the live assist capability that this forum cannot do (in it’s current state, something something Discourse has a feature yes but still) is unfortunate.
I can only assume that Framework ran into more of an impasse regarding that PR blunder with their moderators than they were able to reconcile with them, and left without moderators to moderate the platform opted instead to leave it.
Hopefully they start picking back up again elsewhere, people have pointed out their Bluesky and Mastodon accounts have been largely dormant the last month, and complete radio silence from the PR arm anywhere doesn’t help… but talking like that feels like it starts to leech the two forum posts together.
Framework has better things to do than care about internet drama.
Closing discord is the only sensible decision.
Framework has important things to do, a mission to make repairable laptops.
Wasting resources on linux infighting is for 4chan, not for serious people.
Agreed. If I have issues I go to the forum, not the discord exactly for this reason. I find solution here via google, and others will find my solution here via google.
DHH’s views are legitimately harmful. This isn’t some petty inter-project drama; this is a guy actively and vocally advocating for transphobia, racism, etc. Have you heard of the paradox of tolerance? I can’t really get behind the rationalist/utilitarian mindset of sacrificing minorities at the altar of techno-philosophical advancement.
Framework is and always has been a community-driven company. Let’s face it—Framework products are expensive, difficult to use, and underpowered compared to products from Apple, Dell, and the other major players. I bought my framework laptop not because I wanted the most powerful/lightest/easiest to use laptop for the money, but because I want to support the mission of open, repairable, upgradable hardware. And I’m willing to bet that you did too. Framework has established itself on a basis of transparency, openness, and community collaboration, and those qualities are essential to its continued survival.
Edit: this post was flagged as off-topic, which seems… not at all correct? Not sure if this was a bug or something.