Slack vs. Forums: How to Choose

Other platforms like Facebook Groups, Twitter, or Discord, might feel faster, more lively, more engaging, and may work really well for small- to mid-sized communities. But they often break down once the community gets too big and the pace of conversation gets too fast, or when too many different communities spring up all around the same topic. The ... See more

The more I see communities moving to real-time platforms like Discord and Slack, the more I miss classic forum experiences. Long-lived threads with bumping, a long tail of search ranking for niche topics, locking/combining threads, etc. Real-time communities breed FOMO.

I could keep going and compare Slack and Teams feature for feature, but no one disagrees that Slack is a better product (unless your company does everything in Office, in which case Teams’ tighter integration with its own products is an advantage).

Earlier this year I was looking for this and didn't find an adequate solution. I believe that the Reddit-/HN-way of leading a community is quite productive. As the connection between a chat and a forum, it provides the perfect mix between a casual exchange and productive discussions.

There's not much that Discord does that users strictly can't do elsewhere. On one hand, it's a lot like Slack, blending public channels with easy side-chats and plenty of ways to rope in the right people. It's also a bit like Reddit, full of ever-evolving conversations that you can either try to keep up with or just jump into when you log in. (In f... See more

While many communities have built atop various communication platforms and social networks, those platforms aren’t primarily focused on serving the needs of communities. For instance, while both Li and David use Slack for their communities, the platform is clearly designed for enterprises, which is apparent from its pricing model (starting at $7/me... See more