I don't know that I would call the cap 'pointless' - it creates an additional layer of complexity if you wish to maximize your GCL gain, which I think is very healthy for the game. Without nuanced situations like that, the optimization ceiling gets much lower.

@artch said in Screeps Discord?:

The discussion here is mostly about differences in Slack and Discord app features. But let's not forget that unlike Slack, Discord is more than an app - it's a social network. Rich Presence might be very beneficial to promote Screeps among Discord users who don't play Screeps yet, but are friends of Screeps players in some other games. Discord has some viral potential that we lack when using Slack as a standalone platform.

This, I believe, is one of the strongest considerations that has been raised so far. Some of the conversation has revolved around the notion that migrating from Slack to Discord would be inherently detrimental to the community, because it requires a change, new software, or whatever. But the fact is, there may be value to be gained from Discord that Slack does not offer. It may be an additional touch point for new players, and that, I think, is the holy grail.

@daboross said in Screeps Discord?:

Since we're currently unified on slack, I would argue this decision should be primarily feature-based. If its unification only we're looking for, we shouldn't even be considering starting or moving to another platform. However, if we agree on discord being better feature-wise and/or philosophically, aggressive archiving sounds good.

Features are meaningless if there is a migration to a platform where 80% of the installed user base has some predisposed distaste for the new platform, and simply no longer communicates. That is more my point. It's not only unification, it's unification on a platform which suits the communities needs.

I'm curious about your objection of fragmentation of channels. What kind of topics are you unsure about? I've found most things I want to post or discuss fit well into at least one of the public channels, and slack's ability to have any number of specific channels ensures there's some place any single thing fits in.

This is probably more of an administration/maintenance thing, but I am part of about a dozen channels, and over the past week exactly 3 of them have had any activity. In several cases I was unsure of which channel to join (screepsmods vs mod-development), and some cases I just have no idea what the channel is for. Again, this isn't a problem specific to Slack.

If we were to go to discord, sure, we'd have clear channels to put things in. However, those clear channels would be necessarily limited in number, and we wouldn't get to keep track of interesting discussions which happen in side channels.

I think a reduction in channels would be a good thing. If the numbers i'm reading are right, we have about 2 active users per channel right now.

In slack, I can read the archives of #servers or #operatingsystems and see what people have been talking about specifically about those two things. If we were to limit ourselves to discord, with all channels being open by everyone, I don't think we could sustain the number of unique channels we have today.

As far as I can tell, this doesn't really work. Most of the channels I'm interested in tell me that the archive is unavailable without laying down some cash money.

I'll reiterate what I've said elsewhere, I'm really not on either side of the fence here, I'm mostly interested in promoting discussion and figuring out what is the best option for the Screeps community.

@knightshade said in Screeps Discord?:

@cashewthecat said in Screeps Discord?:

I think unification should be the primary goal,

I'd just like to point out, if unification is the primary goal, we already have that. Whatever your reasoning is for wanting to move to discord, it isn't this.

I wouldn't say I want to move to Discord, my post was mostly stream of consciousness thoughts about the pros and cons given my experience on both platforms. I reiterate, I believe a strong community is much more important than which technology we communicate via. I also believe, however, that a technology that makes communication difficult can weaken a community.

I take no stance on Slack vs Discord at this time, my only goal is to foster discussion and raise points.

I think unification should be the primary goal, and platform features secondary. Whatever the decision, it should be approached aggressively (that is to say, if Discord is chosen, Slack should be archived and terminated).

I have a lot of issues with Slack, but most of them overlap with Discord as well, and they are philosophical in general. This doesn't apply as much to Screeps, since we are not strictly in a working environment, but many of the same issues are encountered. This article is an interesting read and echoes many of my thoughts:

https://abe-winter.github.io/plea's/help/2018/02/11/slack.html

Again, not strictly applicable, but perhaps interesting none-the-less.

One of the biggest issues I've had with Slack is fragmentation of channels. I'm never really sure where to start a discussion, or if a channel is even really alive. Does Discord solve this? I'm not sure.

Discord has better searchability in my experience. I also prefer its mechanisms for private chatting.

With Discord, voice chat becomes an easy to use option, should anyone desire it.

Slack's 'Code or Text Snippet' feature is nice, and very convenient for sharing large blocks of code. But I often wonder about the merits of posting such large chunks, and whether or not there is much value derived.

Discord-Screeps integration could prove interesting.

While Discord lacks those large chunks, it does support code formatting, along with syntax highlighting. It also supports markdown, which I have fallen in love with, and Slack does not. That one is big for me.

My personal preference is Discord, but I am not sure about the cost, not speaking financially, of switching platforms. It would be very unfortunate to reduce the size of active community members because of a tech switch. However, maybe Discord is attractive to some folks who are put off by Slack.

More discussion is needed. I will certainly give this some more thought, and maybe it's an excuse to do a little semi-formal comparative analysis.

The way I think about Screeps is as a set of several general problems, each branching towards specificity and increasing in complexity as the game progresses. As a puzzle solver, the progression of each problem is incredibly rewarding, where your successes introduce you to new problems, enabled by a continually growing, improving, and never lost codebase.

All of the problems currently posed by the game seem designed to follow this type of progression, and I think that this suggestion of NPC Strongholds fits perfectly. Given the provided design, which feels really well developed, I think it fits into what I perceive to be the general philosophy of Screeps, while introducing several nice features.  Additionally, I think several existing systems could be leveraged to make implementation fairly straightforward. 

Great idea.