Comment by nine_k

3 years ago

Cynically speaking, platforms like Discord are not interested in their content being widely searchable. If a,user can satisfy their need for information by reading an existing answer (even within Discord), that user needs Discord less. The user depends less on there being an active community in Discord members of which could provide answers.

This all likely means fewer paying subscribers.

So, Discord search should be fine for a few months depth, and need not be good further into the past. Exposing historical data to external search engines is even less desirable.

Same of course applies to Slack, HipChat and whatever other commercial chat-like software.

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nine_k

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Manuel_D  3 years ago

I don't buy it: making discovery faster and more accessible may result in fewer hours spent on discord, but Discord as a whole becomes more valuable. If slack created some awesome feature that mined your company's chat logs to train something like the Librarian in Snow Crash that would be a massive selling point even if it means fewer chats between human beings. It's s valuable because it produces an answer without taxing another human.

  • mtlmtlmtlmtl  3 years ago

    >I don't buy it: making discovery faster and more accessible may result in fewer hours spent on discord, but Discord as a whole becomes more valuable.

    This could be completely hidden to the Discord devs though. They could very well be slavishly improving various internal metrics. If one of those is time spent in the app, then I could easily see search ending up a lower priority. It doesn't even have to be intentional.

  • lovich  3 years ago

    Look at stackoverflow. They made their information extremely accessible and now search engines are riddled with sites ripping the content directly from stackoverflow, rehosting it, and winning SEO on specific questions which bleeds advertising revenue.

    Discord, and 99.99% of companies under capitalism, do not care if they produce more value unless they get to keep that value.

    • Manuel_D  3 years ago

      I think it works perfectly for stack overflow. Rarely is the full answer in the Google blurb. I almost always click through to the actual SO post.

      Again, discord improving search would make users rely on their software more, since searching discord for answers becomes a part of user's workflows. Slack offering a premium enterprise "Librarian" feature would probably have significant demand. Usually, companies that offer more value can charge more for that value. I don't see the logic I how gimping search functionality somehow ends up improving these companies' bottom lines.

      3 replies →

    • HWR_14  3 years ago

      Stackoverflow made their content available to other companies. This is different making using the discord client and service provide quick answers.

      2 replies →