Hello, I’d like to add to this discussion.
TLDR: Basically make a Discourse app or really an app for forums in general with categories like unanswered posts. If the Discourse website was as convenient and easy to use as the Discord app, I would use it more often.
I’m not an app developer, but I can see this being very important and useful way down the line.
Discord is fun and it invites beginners and for people to be casual, but that is an issue in that I see questions being asked with a lack of information and no serious effort was put forth before asking such questions. This is unlike ROS Discourse, where the nature of a technical forum often encourages people to put forth well thought out messages. Moreover, because Discord is not connected to search engines, valuable information is getting lost. This is unfortunate because historically I’ve relied on website forums even with answers from 10 years ago to solve some of the most difficult and niche issues I’ve had with a computer. Answers provided by highly advanced technology experts are worth their weight in gold.
As someone that is just coming upon Discourse, I can tell you straight away the forum is inconvenient to use (in comparison to Discord). Unlike Discord where it seems that most questions and posts are being answered, I believe I’ve read that at least 40% of the questions on ROS Discourse remain unanswered. ROS Answers needs your help
Does this still apply today? If so, I’m not sure if it’s because those are basic questions that nobody wants to answer or if the questions are so difficult that nobody can answer them. I’m also a lazy person and if I can press on my phone twice to read new messages like I can with Discord, I’d rather answer those questions.
This is sort of speaking to the broader idea of making forums more easily accessible because technical forums are often answered by professionals who have day jobs using their free time to answer. Once someone has experienced how easy and convenient it is to use a certain product, they often won’t want to go back to the previous ways.