If a software company has 3 unique client projects, is it better to structure the discord server this way:

`-` is a category (parent) and `--` is a text or voice channel (child)

OPTION 1: category as project

- Project A
-- general
-- resources
-- design
-- dev team 1
-- dev team 2
- Project B
-- general
-- resources
-- design
-- dev team 1
-- dev team 2
- Project C
-- general
-- resources
-- design
-- dev team 1
-- dev team 2

OPTION 2: category as event

- Projects
-- projectA-general
-- projectB-general
-- projectC-general
- Design
-- projectA-design
-- projectB-design
-- projectC-design
- Resources
-- projectA-resources
-- projectB-resources
-- projectC-resources
- Developer discussions
-- projectA-team1-dev
-- projectA-team2-dev
-- projectB-dev
-- projectC-dev
- Meetings
-- projectA-meeting
-- projectB-meeting
-- projectC-meeting

?

What do you think is better.

PS. there is literally NO other communication service that can structure it exactly like this. Only discord is powerful and FREE to do it like this.

- Rocketchat isnt flexible enough to do this
- Slack requires me to pay first so i can do this
- Teams too

So fuck all of them I'll stick to discord unless someone can name me 1 single alternative service capable of structuring channels like this for a real time communication for FREE

You already run a company with this structure or planning ahead?

@ScriptCoded Yes and it works. But its getting harder to manage everything as it scales. I'm discussing here to see if theres a better way of managing and removing all this overhead

How would you structure it?

Option two has all information in channel name. If you do this, I don't see any reason not to use rocket chat. Option one looks cleaner

@retoor i actually like rocketchat and I'd use it but it's not flexible enough. I can't create as many categories as i want there

Have a look at the screenshot. Rocketchat Forces 2 and exactly 2 categories:

- Teams
- Channels

Ok but what if i need a structure of

- Projects
- Design
- Resources
- Dev discussions
- Meetings
- etc...

?

Rocketchat doesnt allow me to create that..

@ScriptCoded i started to run it like option 1, and it works. But im now planning ahead of time because of scaling, i want to figure out the best way long term how to do it properly Now so i dont run into a bunch of conflicts and problems later when i get a ton of projects

Not entirely sure, but you may wanna look at
https://docs.rocket.chat/use-rocket...

I would however throw a wrench in your discussion, because you prioritize structure over viability.

Structure as in you want to have a certain layout no matter what,
Viability as in concerns regarding availability, legal issues, data security issues, ...

Don't choose a tool just cause it fits your structure. You end up with a walled garden that is entirely dependent on wether the service keeps offering the structure or not.

... Which is a very very very dangerous game.

E.g. discord owns to a certain degree any content that you host on their servers, has the right to shut down their services whenever it pleases them - or refrain from offering you their services whenever it pleases them.

RocketChat has still the option to self host, while Discord pulling the plug is the same problem like e.g. GitHub pulling the plug.... Your data is gone. Forever.

Reason why I'm always arguing that a compromise is better if it gives one long term security...

We had a similar debate by the way a short time ago and everyone was bamboozled when I explained calmly:

"No one expected Atlassian to go cloud only. As the first press releases came out, a lot of people still thought that Atlassian would give up given the negativity of PR they got. Guess what, they didn't. Atlassians major products are all cloud only now, unable to get any Apps or further updates.".

Atlassians services cost multiple thousand bucks - yet they did it.

I really don't want to know in which direction Discord goes, but the last changes regarding their ToS make it evident that you shouldn't put security / business related data there....

RocketChats biggest downside is the limitation on mobile device notifications.... And apples handling of push notifications, though I think there was some movement not so long ago...

Would have to pick my notes for more info, but it's Sunday. XD

@IntrusionCM okay so imagine you're a freelancer (doesnt have to be a company) and you have 3 unique clients (3 unique projects)

You have to have real-time discussions with those clients. How would you do that using rocketchat?

Using the existing rocket chats functionality, tell me how you would structure the channels so you can properly handle working on 3 projects and communicate with those clients

@IntrusionCM also worrying about a 3rd party service pulling the plug and deleting everything isnt very realistic to stress about.. all major companies and corporations use github gitlab or bitbucket. They can pull the plug on them too. So im not the only one. What am i supposed to do not use git? Some of those things are outside of my control

@b2plane I dunno.

RocketChat has added VoIp abilities as far as I know. Would have to look it up.

"isn't very realistic".

It is. Pulling the plug can mean btw removing the service you rely on, adding constraints on e.g. how many projects you add, etc.

You should take that always into consideration.

GitHub is a multi service for example.

You can easily make backups by creating a git clone of GitHub.

GitHub has a API allowing access to the content stored, like Wiki pages.

Backup and export is possible for this, too.

Going back to Discord... Can you export the textdata stored there? I don't think so - would be news to me.

The thought that "everyone uses it, so it has to be safe" is very naive and dangerous.

Think at least about how you can backup the data and make sure that you have an possible exit strategy.

For GitHub, most painful in the exit strategy is e.g. utilizing the CI / CD functions - will take time to recreate it, but as you have an offline backup if you clone the entire git repos, as they contain the necessary YML definitions, you have at least a way of reconstructing them...

Now with Atlassians fucked up APIs, this is near to impossible... :)

@b2plane it depends on the size of the company ofcourse. anything over hundered employes should probably not use discord. as in that case it would make you depended on them such as their downtimes, feauturechanges, api restrictions, and as intrusion mentioned, data security and data management as in who actually has access to modify and backup data.

not sure how the other services work but a selfhosted solution of a service would probably be the best solution.

@IntrusionCM @joewilliams007 i dont have to worry about that much high end security lol its not some multimillion dollar company right now. Why can't anyone tell me the solution to the problem im facing? Is it really that difficult?

Lets ignore the security part right now and focus only on how to structure the messaging platform so it can be easily scaled as i get more and more clients and projects. Its a fundamental building block. Once that is firmly organized Then i will worry about security and third party services who can pull the plug. Im not there yet.

Help me get there by advising me how to structure the rocketchat per each individual project

@IntrusionCM "you prioritize structure over viability", you could be right. I might be completely wrong in my logic and approach of how to organize this. Never have i done it before and no one is advicing me how to do it. Thats why im discussing about it here. Tell me how you would do it better if you think my logic is flawed?

@b2plane Oh I see. Not applying for jobs?

@b2plane regarding the scaling topic: what exactly is the issue? the one time setup?

if yes, you can write a discord bot which creates the structure when a new client needs to be added

Discord server for a company...
Is this a joke?

Discord is as free as the data you are constantly feeding it about you and your company

At least self host a Revolt server if you really want a discord-like experience

Revolt.chat

@iiii thank you! Never heard of Revolt.chat before. Installed it now. So far looks amazing and almost exactly what i needed. Will reply later when i explore more about it

@iiii wow i fell in love with revolt.chat already. Its so simple and perfect for what i wanted to do. Thank you for sharing. Does revolt have a mobile app? I cant seem to find it

@b2plane there's a link to it on the main page (at least when opening with a phone)

But it's in alpha

@iiii just tested voice and text channels. Everything works great. But i cant find a share screen feature while on voice channel, can i share screen with revolt?

@b2plane no idea

@iiii after messing around with revolt i came across a bunch of bugs. Channels get randomly rearranged and not saved. Categories get removed randomly. I am tired of having to recreate them from scratch all the time. And plus it has no video calls or screenshare. Basically revolt is exactly like discord but less features... So why not use discord instead. At least for start until i have enough money to pay for Microsoft teams subscription

@b2plane why not: because you cannot self host it. It's the main and a huge reason why