I don’t really think chat is a step back (discord may be a step back vs irc or I am just graying). Learning newish tech in chat has always been way more engaging for me than wiki or forum style communication.
IME chat attracts people who devote a lot of energy to the topic, including top contributors and power users. If you have questions about the latest features or obscure use cases there isn’t a better place to go.
Forum and wiki are great formats too, with different strengths. But if you are frustrated because you can’t seem to find help in those formats, head for the chat.
Some communities archive their chat. This seems like a great source of data to bootstrap a wiki or faq.
> forum is awash with questions from beginners like “How do you make for loop in reverse? or “What allocator to use in WASM?” Most get answered within minutes.
You wouldn't get a chat awash with these questions if they could be easily searched for.
1. Not as much because people can actually find the answers to their questions before locking to the chat
2. On top of that you can make info on and solutions to other issues/problems actually available and accessible. Like the one the author describes later in the same text
Instead all this info is locked behind a proprietary chat platform
IME chat attracts people who devote a lot of energy to the topic, including top contributors and power users. If you have questions about the latest features or obscure use cases there isn’t a better place to go.
Forum and wiki are great formats too, with different strengths. But if you are frustrated because you can’t seem to find help in those formats, head for the chat.
Some communities archive their chat. This seems like a great source of data to bootstrap a wiki or faq.