I think most of the users or a least a substantial amount of users would not mind the perceived clutter. You just get used to focus onto the right side of the screen.
Additionally, with this design, the following features would fit nicely:
- full width
- list of categories in left panel (like channels in Discord)
- folders to organize categories (like folders used to organize channels in Discord)
Additionally, it would be great to have open box to write reply instead of reply button.
It would be also great to have chat channels like they are on Discord. In terms of Discourse it would be categories where users write posts instead of topics.
I just realized that for our community, the ideal community building software would be a platform with Discord-like design, but with Discourse-like authorization and hosting model - to be able to serve it from our domain, have it accessible directly with no “Join Server” Discord nonsense, have it open and indexable by Google.
Do you think it’s possible to develop?
In summary, in my opinion, the ideal community building software would be a platform with Discord-like design (mix of chat channels and forum-like channels), but with traditional forum-like authorization and hosting model - to be able to serve it from separate domain, have it accessible directly with no “Join Server” Discord nonsense, have it open and indexable by Google.
I think the first who creates this chat/forum hybrid platform is going to win big share in community building market!
I have created the same post on NodeBB forum also;)) Guys, we need it, so who is going to be first?