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did user engagement drop significantly in programming forums? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago by GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml to c/programming@programming.dev

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There was a lot of engagement in the communities I participate up until a couple of years ago. People were interested and actively discussing a lot of topics. There were a lot of newbies asking questions and people proposing different ways for tasks.

Is it just me or did it reduce a lot? LLMs? Company forums? Other forums I did not move to (e.g. discord)? Reduced interest? Or is it just subjective?

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[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 43 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Especially Discord is bad, because it cannot be indexed by web search engines. And the entire structure is not really good for long term, compared to dedicated posts in forums.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago

It can be (linen.dev is one such solution). But the server owners have to set it up obviously, and often they don't. But it's not an issue if they cared to.

[–] GenosseFlosse 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I agree, but I think it's easier for the community owners to get user to join their discord channel with one click, than having users to sign up for a forum, create an account, confirm the email, post in the right subforum and also deal with spam and forum maintenance. It's seen as less hassle for admins and users

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 8 points 3 weeks ago

it depends. Its not like every user and question requires a new account. There was a time where these companies had a Reddit group instead Discord. Its the same effort to create an account one time, but then it can be reused. Also there is this login with existing accounts (like Google or other methods), as a secondary option.

If we are speaking about a dedicated forum, that's another thing. But since I gave up Reddit and because Fediverse is small, I started back creating accounts for forums. But only if really want to be part of it. But yes, agreed this is not convenient and Discord has a plus point here. Also Discord is integrated in other services as well (I think on game consoles, not sure).

I see its pros and cons and why its successful. Also there is no better alternative for what it does. I'm just critical about the negative impact of it. I'm so glad that StackOverflow is not close like Discord.