Why Discord
Context and problem statement
Communication within a team is often done with email or, in more modern and tech environments, with instant messengers like Slack. While email is a great tool when communicating with people external to a team (or organization), there are numerous reasons why it is a poor communication tool within teams. It is therefore important to us to select a way of communicating within our development team that will facilitate good cooperation. The question here becomes:
Which tool should we use for inter-team communication?
Decision drivers
With a geographically dispersed team it is important that we have a way to ‘talk’ to each other in an information and quick way. Instant messaging seems to be a good solution. There are quite a number of IMs around, but we are looking at two that we believe would be suitable for the Seedcase team. The first is Slack which is very popular in the corporate world, and the second is Discord, which is slightly more informal. We have not discarded emails, they are useful for some things, but they are very cumbersome for quick questions and water-cooler chats.
Considered options
Slack
Slack has synchronous communication, and you can control how information is distributed and organized (in “Channels”). Their features are targeted to teams in corporate environments, so the focus is more around productivity and work. However, Slack’s main focus is also, for us, its biggest weakness: It isn’t designed around being inclusive since corporate teams are by default exclusive. Slack has a free version, the main difference with the paid subscription is that messages are not accessible after 90 days.
Benefits
- Instant messaging with colleagues
- Option to create channels or groups for specific jobs or teams
- It is possible to download conversation in groups, as well as personal chats to avoid knowledge loss
Drawbacks
- History is lost after 90 days on the free version
- Traditionally not geared towards voice communication (although it does support that)
- Only 1-on-1 conversations (Huddles) in the free version
Discord
Discord has become a popular communication platform, particularly for online communities. It was originally built for use by people playing video games together in a group, so they can chat while plying. However, because of this informal and easy way of joining voice channels and the text channels, as well as other features, non-gaming communities have been increasingly making use of Discord because of its focus on community engagement.
Benefits
- Free version with no restrictions on functionality
- You can video/voice call with individuals and teams and share screens
- History is always available, and accessible to new members added to groups
Drawbacks
- Not entirely intuitive for beginners
- Adds for ‘fun’ add-ons must be closed every time you log in
- Historically a problem with uptime, but hovering around 99.6% for the last couple of years
Decision outcome
We have decided on Discord for the following reasons:
Its free plan is very suitable for our purposes
Its overall focus and values (community based) align with our goals and values, since we want to encourage and build an online (and in person) community around Seedcase and related projects
Text chat history is available in the free version. So onboarding a new member is easier for them to see what’s been happening
Joining the voice/video channels are very easy, which is perfect in remote working settings and when co-working together