Stephen Downes

Alan Levine links to this article from 2021 on two different products with similar names: Discourse and Discord. Discourse is software for hosting online forums, while Discord is software for hosting live discussions. "Discord is immediate and synchronous, while Discourse is gradual and asynchronous." There's a lot of overlap between the two, and as this article shows, they can be used effectively together to support virtual communities. That said, they each have a learning curve, especially if you're the host; the Ghost Forums implementation, highlighted in the article, for example, shows a lot of the thought that has gone into making the discussion board navigable and intuitive (which it certainly isn't right out of the box - contrast with OEGlobal Connect, and try to find the most recent posts). They also require community members to commit to the platforms, because they're not really integrated with social media.