Development:Discussions

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The purpose of this page is to determine which main communication tools we want to use for our discussions. For our overall tool architecture see: Development.

Decision on Topic based Discussions - Do we need a Forum?

What are "topic based discussions?"

  • Discussion on a company, research or macro topic e.g. "Companies that could profit from recent AI trends"
  • Discussions on what we build and how we work together e.g. "Do we need a forum?"
  • In general: Discussions with fundamental value that we want to preserve (and use to build to Wikiarticles)
  • Topic based discussions usually contain well formulated thoughts or research and are the opposite to casual discussions and "just chatting" and have on average a longer post length compared to casual chatting.
  • Topics can easily be resumed at a later stage.

Current State

"Topic based discussion are currently happen partially on Linear, Discord, and Wikipedia.

Going forward we need one go to central place in which topic based discussions are happening.

The purpose of the next sections is to list advantages and disadvantages of each communication tool.

Please add more suggestions, your arguments and final assessment

Open Questions

  • What should be discussed internally what should be discussed publicly?

A possible "tool setup" can be seen here at the button of the article.

Goals

Establish a good tool architecture (See Development) that allows us to build a great research community.

We want to be

  • open
  • welcoming
  • foster high quality discussions
  • foster the pursuit of our common investment goals
  • build a great investment knowledge collection/database. (Wiki)

Option 1: Wiki Discussion Page + "Discussion Tools"

Wikipedia uses an extension called "Discussion Tools" which streamlines discussions in the Wiki as it makes tagging, replying and subscribing easier.

In order to get an understanding how "Discussion Tools" work you can have a lock at these three links, especially the second and third one or explore it within Wikipedia.

Getting Discussion Tools installed is not super easy but should be possible. While "Discussion Tools" is addressing some issues those are the advantages and problems i still see:

Advantages of Discussion Tools

  • Discussions on the Discussion section are as tightly integrated with the Wiki as possible
  • It is possible to have multiple discussion topics/threats in the discussion page related to one article.
  • There is not yet another platform.

Disadvantages of Discussions Tools

  • Users not familiar with wikipedia discussions will probably not find the discussion sections easily, and find it hard to use them hence don't participate in discussions frequently.
  • Adding comments on the discussion page via mobile is not very user friendly. We might loose engagement.
  • Discussions in Wiki are harder to read and less fun(?)
  • It is not possible to use emojis or reactions. (Workaround: Use "thank you" function via "view history" if you want to agree with a statement in private)
  • No overview over all Discussions. Some discussions can be "lost" when they are attached to minor articles. Central and important discussions need to be highlighted. It's harder to join into a discussion as a third party. (But you can see all ongoing discussions easily in a Forum)

Option 2: Forums -Discourse

The alternative for an open work environment to discussion tools are forums.

Corresponding forum threads could be linked to a respective Wikiarticle at the top of the Wikiarticle.

Forum Selection

Criteria for forums: Ability to subscribe, notifications, mobile friendly, emoji reactions

Selected

Examples of Discourse Forums:

Alternative

Not now

  • Reddit

Rejected

Advantages of a forum

  • A forum is open and there is no need to create an account to view the content. That increases our conversions. (I witnessed older users shying away from creating a discord account)
  • A forum feels more "open".
  • Discussions are persistent (and don't get lost in channels)
  • Clear overview over all Discussions
  • Discourse is more suitable for a serious brand than having all discussions in Discord.
  • Seo is possible
  • It might be easier to catch up when being tagged on a forum compared to when being tagged on Discord. (Because you get an Email)
  • Email notifications on topics make it easier to draw people back in.
  • It's easier and faster to browse back in very long forum threads in Discourse compared to Discord channels.
  • It is possible for everyone to open a new topic as a new thread for a new topic or initiative. Example: "A new research initiative into AI companies" or "Discussion if we should use an Forum". This flexibility does not exists for community members on Discord and even for us It's harder to do this on Discord because we don't want to open a new channel lightly but also not the conversation to get pushed back by too much.
  • There can be fewer active channels in Discord people can focus on & have more "real time" communication channels.
  • It is possible in a forum to Find all posts and topics from one user easily which helps with credibility building.
  • It's possible to resume topics later.
  • A forum is likely needed to have clear and persistent discussions on proposals incl. votes in order to be able to create governance or dao mechanisms for the community.
  • It is easier to find latest discussion topics in a forum compared to Discord channels

Disadvantages of a forum

  • We are using yet another platform
  • Seofriendliness vs. Wiki-Discussion Tools unclear.
  • Users might be confused among the Forum and the Wiki.
  • Users might work on articles in the Wiki less?
  • If a user is not registered we cannot tag him in the Forum.

Option 3: Discord Threads

We could achieve some level clearness in discord by having more threaded discussions and linking to those threaded discussions from the Wiki.

Advantages of Discord

  • Great for real time and very fast discussions. (In any case i still plan to use Discord. In my new vision of Discord we have fewer channels which in turn are more active. I like the Miraheze Discord server. They just have one channel which is very active [1])
  • Discord is familiar with people who are active in other Discord communities (Esp. Cryptocommunities)
  • Discord feels more private?
  • It's easy to communicate on Discord 1:1 with others.

Disadvantages of Discord

  • Discussion is not as open as everyone needs to create a Discord account
  • Some/Older users don't feel comfortable on Discord
  • You can set notifications for individual channels but that gets annoying if there is a casual chat on that channel.
  • Harder to build a serious brand
  • We will have many Discord threads
  • Discord servers have no seo impact
  • It's hard to determine where a topic should be discussed.
  • Discussions will be "pushed back in time" in a channel and it's harder to follow up.
  • Topic based discussions are harder to facilitate.
  • It's impossible to resume topics later.

Option 4: Linear Workspace

We could create a new Linear workspace just for discussions with the community.

Advantages of Linear

  • Cool Inbox & Due Dates & Assignments (Could be replicated to some degree by Discourse as there is also date (?) and assignment functionality)
  • Very good notifications via Slack integration.

Disadvantages of Linear

  • Everyone needs to create a Linear account
  • Only 250 active issues possible
  • No Seo
  • It might be better to preserve slack notification for team notifications. (Not a broader community)

Option 5: More or new Ideas?

Add other ideas here.

Other Backlog Ideas:

Open Source Project Management: Phabricator

Virtual Office: Gather Town.

Types of Discussion - Possible Layout.

There are different types of discussions. Currently i see the follow tools for the follow types

  • Discord: Casual discussion/chatting.
  • Forum/Discourse: Structured Discussion e.g. on a company or macro topic.
  • Linear. Short task related discussion.
  • Wiki Discussion Pages. Concrete Discussion or Feedback about an article.
  • Wiki Pro and Con Article. Discussion on fundamentally important setup/decision with many pros and cons.

Different Platforms from Casual to Serious:

Reddit -> Discord -> Discourse -> Wiki -> Sheets

Internal: Linear

Final Assessment

Moritz: In my assessment only WikiDiscussions or Discourse makes sense for structured discussions as they full fill our openness and documentation requirements. Discord can still be used for casual chatting/discussions and Linear for Project Management.

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