OPNsense Discord

[OPNsensediscord]

Hello,

we have created OPNsense as a community in Discord and you are welcome to join.
the purpose of this Discord is to learn and exchange possibilities. anyone is welcome.

https://discord.gg/invite/kRBGSRpV7b
its growing and fast.

[ProperCactus]

Hi, it says the invite is invalid

[mimugmail]

I dont think this is officially driven by any core member

[franco]

Hmm, I would like to hear the backstory and motivation of the creators. It might help others assess if they should join. At the moment it feels a little shallow.


Cheers,
Franco

[thefunkygibbon]

given the community nature of opnsense, i'm surprised that there is no discord channel.  most other open products I use have at least some discord presence, official or not.

[mimugmail]

No need to split the community now that you are here :)

[thefunkygibbon]

yeah, that argument doesn't hold up.
I'm a member of plenty of discord/irc channels for different communities which have forums/subreddits.  it does not 'split' the community at all, they both offer completely different and complimentary routes to get help or chat.

[cookiemonster]

I get that. It is useful to have the potential option to get help quickly.
What I also see is that it discourages the sharing and documenting of information for posterity. The user gets a quick answer to a question and nobody else can benefit from it unless it's immediately after or in the moment, becomes fleeting tidbits.
Just as I find it annoying when I see on the forum a user that asks a question, gets an answer and doesn't even bother to give thanks, just takes. Maybe I'm old school and expect people to show manners that are perhaps seen as unnecessary on online forums, I don't know.
My 2 pence. Each to their own I suppose.

[mimugmail]

yeah, that argument doesn't hold up.
I'm a member of plenty of discord/irc channels for different communities which have forums/subreddits.  it does not 'split' the community at all, they both offer completely different and complimentary routes to get help or chat.

I often see threads in both OPNsense subreddits and forums with different peoples and different (often wrong) answers. To me it feels wrong, but only my personal opinion

[thefunkygibbon]

yeah, that argument doesn't hold up.
I'm a member of plenty of discord/irc channels for different communities which have forums/subreddits.  it does not 'split' the community at all, they both offer completely different and complimentary routes to get help or chat.

I often see threads in both OPNsense subreddits and forums with different peoples and different (often wrong) answers. To me it feels wrong, but only my personal opinion

absolutely.  manners are key!

I think for the most part it really matters what the thing is that you need help with.   for example a firewall such as this, usually someone wants to advice THERE AND THEN.  they've likely (hopefully scoured all online resources) and is now requiring to chat to someone who has more of a clue than they do.   Its the next best thing to getting phone support really.  Often (especially with more niche things) it can take hours or days to get a reply.  (not saying its always massively quicker via chat... if noones around, noones around) Yes non essential things will still be posted on forums for all and sundry to benefit from.  and chat servers help with offloading the banter/rubbish posts which are better suited to a chat than a forum.
my 2p's worth.

[jpfeifer14]

Seconding a need for a discord, topic take a really long time to get a response here and are sometimes just lost entirely

[franco]

> I often see threads in both OPNsense subreddits and forums with different peoples and different (often wrong) answers. To me it feels wrong, but only my personal opinion

It depends on the subreddit. One is run by us and the other was run with the help of us but that is no longer the case so we don't post there and often false information is given due to this.

Twitter is half dead already with no useful replacement in sight. Some cases and reports there were also very helpful and effective...

To be frank, I don't mind a discord, but I've been neglecting IRC more than I should have since covid hit so I don't have a lot of energy for another communication channel.

We are working with marketing experts to review and improve communication channels, but so far nothing has been concluded.


Cheers,
Franco

[genesysguy]

Who runs the Twitter account for OPNsense?

[mimugmail]

Franco

[rossigee]

FWIW, I also think a Discord channel for OPNsense discussion would be a great idea, whether official or not. I'm a little disappointed that the invite link in this thread is broken, whether 'officially endorsed' or not :shrug:

I see no reason to centralise discussion, or limit it to a certain format or venue.

--
Ross