

However, synchronous solutions go beyond chat and include phone and video calls. You can be super responsive, your users will feel loved, and you’ll get feedback quickly.

If you are trying to get immediate feedback from a small set of users, then synchronous solutions are better. There are a few key differences between forum software (which includes packages like nodebb, forem, discourse, and others) and chat software (like Slack, Facebook groups, or Discord).įirst, though, it’s important to know what you are trying to accomplish. While there are tradeoffs in terms of convenience and closeness, for most developer communities a public, managed forum is better than a private, unsearchable Slack. If you can pick only one, use forum software rather than synchronous chat software for community building around a developer platform. Hot take after a year or so of trying to build a developer community.
