NighthawkSLO wrote:I'm the creator of the discord server and myself and many others prefer it to the irc channel, mainly because of the ability to look through history and a nicer looking client. Currently the server is set up more or less as a "firehose of unstructured random 'social media' blather" because it's mostly ~20 regulars who can't discuss rainmeter 24/7 so we talk and have channels for other stuff. Discussion with the developers is incredibly useful, that's why I will change the structure of the server and make it more serious if you decide to switch, just tell me how you want it structured.
Nothing at all wrong with it, there is a place for a "firehose of unstructured random 'social media' blather", and if you have a community of folks coming together in real-time, you would want and expect quite a bit of "getting to know you" and other general conversations.
Just not my cup of tea however. I can't do 24/7 of the firehose, and to be honest I pretty much hate people anyway...
Several of us developers just stay on IRC 24/7. We mostly use it to discuss development issues, with from time to time someone coming on who has a question about doing something in Rainmeter, which we try our best to answer. Any questions like "What the best Kenshin Himura skin out there?" or "How to I add icons to the Honeycomb widget?" or "Here is an image of my current desktop, what should I add to make it better?" we just ignore until the person goes away.
For more detailed help, we always point people to these forums, where they can post their issue, code they are working with, links, images, etc. and anyone in the community can weigh in with help as and when they have time. It is very "structured", in the sense that there is a "thread" that is about that single discussion. That makes it all very easy to follow, and creates a good permanent reference for future people who have the same issue. I can't imagine at all trying to be helpful in an environment that doesn't have topics and threads.
We find IRC very useful for real-time collaboration between developers, and we are happy to help folks with quick Rainmeter questions or problems. You want a friend who is fascinated by everything you say? Get a dog.
I'm not suggesting you change a thing. A community like that will be self-governing, and if folks enjoy the way it works, good deal. I don't mind jumping on from time to time to see what is going on, but that isn't somewhere I can have open on a second monitor 24/7 like I do IRC. Same reason I don't do Twitter or Facebook. I'm a curmudgeon, and get off my lawn...