Hey All,

So we (BC, RG and I) have been internally considering moving the forum to a Discord server. Why are we considering this? It's largely down to the fact that message boards, outside of Reddit, are in sharp decline. So it makes sense to seek out a platform more in line with how people communicate today, especially considering this community itself has dwindled over the years for various reasons.

Here is a concise list of the pros and cons we've been weighing:

Pros:

- Discord has pretty robust social, messaging and voice integration with other social gaming and media platforms.
- It can be accessed via browser, desktop app or mobile app on Windows, Apple and Android devices.
- Setting up, managing, maintaining, customizing and joining a Discord server is free to all.

Cons:

- There is no message board structure, like what we have here.
- Discord has been subject to data breaches in the past. 2FA was added a couple of years back to help, but the phone verification side of that isn't great.
- Does not work well with VPNs.

Personally, I've used Discord for over 5 years and have honestly enjoyed it a lot. I've not had any major issues with it during that time and with apps like Twitter collapsing in real-time, combined with what I mentioned at the top of this post above, I've found myself drawn to it more and more.

So we'd like to know what you think about this potential move. Are there more pros and cons to Discord that we're not aware of? If there's something we're missing or have not considered with this move, we need to know as that will factor into our decision-making.

I've added a poll to this thread to help gauge interest in this move. We'll leave this thread open all week and then we'll take the feedback posted here into consideration as we make a decision by the end of next weekend.

Thanks folks.

no

IMO this format and classic forum structure is unbeatable and we should keep it running as long as possible

I mean, just because trends are changing it doesnt mean it's always for the better

So imo leaving here should be considered as an absolute last resort

the age of the forum is over, much as I miss it.

I use Discord almost daily and have since 2016, I'm not sure if moving GL there would be a good move in retaining activity, but I am sure the forum will see no real growth anymore in its current format. It'll just continue to dwindle in activity until it dies for good, so discord at the very least will be a good way to keep in touch with people.

I haven't used Discord ever in my life lol

For some reason I've always associated Discord with gaming. I don't game at all. Outside of FIFA and 2k when I was younger I've hardly ever played video games.

Have some mercy on us. Some of us, actually some of the best contributors, are still using teletext.

What is discord and how does it work?

Hapless_Hans wrote:Have some mercy on us. Some of us, actually some of the best contributors, are still using teletext.

What is discord and how does it work?

It's a chat app where you can join servers for different types of content and set up channels under different topics for each server. You can even host your own servers. It's easy to moderate, and has a lot of useful, built in features. I'll fax you the details

It looks something like this



Personally, I don't think a move over to Discord would make much of a difference for the majority of us. It would be more similar to our live match chat than a forum setting, but that likely also means that we'll have more bursts of activity rather than a more stable activity level. Catching up to older messages on Discord is a bit of a pain in the ass compared to on a forum, but it does have other, occasionally useful features, like voice chat and being able to easily tag multiple people for messages. I already use Discord for other things, and I don't need another Discord server that pings me constantly

The pros I can think of is that discord would be good for live chatting during games without having to beg RG to open the chat + dark mode + mobile-friendly app

The downside being the charm of the forum is lost on discord which I think outweighs anything else despite any issues or shortcomings of that format. But then again there are worse options like reddit and stuff

Whatever happens, it’s been a great ride, thanks.

Myesyats wrote:The pros I can think of is that discord would be good for live chatting during games without having to beg RG to open the chat + dark mode + mobile-friendly app

then we could do so only for live matches, but that's all...

honestly, moving the whole joint to discord won't improve activity of usual contributors. Because what's so hard about just opening your web browser and posting when you are on your computer, i do it all the time. If anything it might decrease activity because we attach GL with the forum format and might not adapt that sentimental value to a discord format - i know, for one, i definitely will struggle. I already can't understand something like reddit and its layout, can't imagine getting used to a new layout.

Closing the forum will mark the end of this community




Keep posting here and some guys may want to keep in touch on Discord or whatever app

I don't understand what the problem is, in fact

Bad idea IMO. At my age, I struggle to keep up with posting on this forum / format. No way I could adapt to an online chat format.

Firenze wrote:the age of the forum is over, much as I miss it.

I use Discord almost daily and have since 2016, I'm not sure if moving GL there would be a good move in retaining activity, but I am sure the forum will see no real growth anymore in its current format. It'll just continue to dwindle in activity until it dies for good, so discord at the very least will be a good way to keep in touch with people.

That's probably one of the main if not the only reason I kinda went along with the idea. If the activity is dying here and people are slowly disappearing then at least we can have a place where we can always be around without the worry of domain ending or server stopping etc

At least discord is eternal.

But this move is true democracy so power to the people whichever we all go for.

If the vote ends up being remain then we'll try and revamp the entire thing to make it more clean

Myesyats wrote:The pros I can think of is that discord would be good for live chatting during games without having to beg RG to open the chat + dark mode + mobile-friendly app

The downside being the charm of the forum is lost on discord which I think outweighs anything else despite any issues or shortcomings of that format. But then again there are worse options like reddit and stuff

Whatever happens, it’s been a great ride, thanks.

Honestly I wish we never had the option of a live chat feature. As much as I loved it and the insane times we had on it. It was quite bad for forum activity. I mean we lost thousands of posts per day during peak years which would have helped us stay on page 1 in Google search lol.

I play Asphalt 9 and have my own group over at Discord even though I'm pretty noob at using the app

I love the forum the way it is but I would also welcome the live chatting feature over at Discord

I love Discord, but it's just not a forum.
I'd be fine if we had both, but the kind of long-form discussion, where you can read up on old-ass arguments is pretty exclusive to a forum, and I enjoy that.

Closing the forum would also cost us a lot of members I'd end up missing, I think. Obviously, we might get new peeps on Discord, but still.

Finding someone's 7-year-old prediction on a then-young talent is awesome, especially if it's totally wrong. Can't do that on Discord.
I voted no, and advocate for a big no.

However, it would be cool to have the forum and a Discord server (though you probably don't want to mod both).

Shit Im down for this move. I also have Discord and plan to use it for a long while.

stop the steal

Lets set up one for live chat and we'll see how we like it

Good feedback so far.

It's very possible to just setup the Discord alongside the existing forum without eliminating anything. That's definitely a possibility.

One thing we also discussed was making the Discord less football-oriented and more of a general community, with effort put in to grow the userbase beyond where we are now with the forum.

I am not super familiar with discord but i voted yes because I think spicing it up or trying different things will give much needed freshness to our already very stale and slowly dying relationship.

Make a discord for Goallegacy but don't close this forum, I've grown quite attached to this place and if it disappears one day i'd feel something is missing.

What is Discord, asking from a country where everything is banned lol... is it like Whatsapp? Which I dont know much of either looool... sad shit.. btw, im currently locked down again, fking yay... lucky for WC n GL from feeling like shit naturally when ur locked down time n again So prolly I have to vote no?

BarcaLearning wrote:What is Discord, asking from a country where everything is banned lol... is it like Whatsapp? Which I dont know much of either looool... sad shit.. btw, im currently locked down again, fking yay... lucky for WC n GL from feeling like shit naturally when ur locked down time n again So prolly I have to vote no?

I've seen people mention that Discord is similar to skype/teamspeak/teams but superior in many ways to all of them, so a bit different than whatsapp/telegram

It doesnt have a "post count" and is indeed similar in format to messaging services.

I might be wrong but it would probably be impossible to dig up 10 year old messages on discord like you can do with posts on GL.

Grabbed this from Discord's website:

Discord is a voice, video, and text chat app that's used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.

People use Discord daily to talk about many things, ranging from art projects and family trips to homework and mental health support. It's a home for communities of any size, but it's most widely used by small and active groups of people who talk regularly.

The vast majority of servers are private, invite-only spaces for groups of friends and communities to stay in touch and spend time together. There are also larger, more open communities, generally centered around specific topics such as popular games like Minecraft and Fortnite. Users have control over whom they interact with and what their experience on Discord is.

I've spent the majority of the last 5 years of my life on discord through various communities and met people who I now consider my best friends who have gotten me through some seriously tough times.

So obviously I have some really positive things to say about it, it's obviously up to you guys but I think it's a good idea. You can still do a lot of the forum like feel this place has tbh.

I think discord would kill the forum, as people wouldn't be posting in match threads as often tbh. Also I won't be able to bump my prophetic posts.