We use Discourse in a small office. As mentioned above, there is the problem of drafts. You probably know that there is a habit of quickly creating a new folder, then a new folder (2), a new text document, a new text document (2), filling these files with different information and never renaming them afterwards.
Later it turns out that blocks of text have no time reference, no versions, no pictures, and sometimes some things are not saved due to lack of automatic saving.
The information in the text files is mixed and poorly structured. After a long time there is very little chance to find anything in such folders. Content indexing or artificial intelligence could help a bit in this case and Discourse fulfills this function.
I mentioned office teamwork. And that means that employeesâ local proprietary drafts are locked behind user accounts. Speaking of employees working on a collaborative task, there is no need to hide their drafts from each other. On the contrary, it would be better if the drafts were available to everyone at once. Remember how software developers work? They put code (and often documentation as code) in a shared repository with version control. And as soon as the lead engineer checks the changes, they become available to everyone in the master branch. In the case of drafts, there is no need for such a moderator. So here Discourse is on top of things.
The problem of drafts with linked pictures is easily solved by Markdown editors (I stayed with Typora, especially when editing tables and oddly backwards base64 picture conversion - no editor inserts this text from the clipboard). Discourse is perfectly suitable as a concurrent work platform. Chat discussions are easily converted to topics or posts. The OpenAI model can play a significant role in data processing, but the built-in algorithms are also enough to make forum threads look related.
We use the inbox feature to quickly send text as an email to the forum. This way we donât lose precious thoughts without the distraction of opening the forum itself. We then use these ideas in the brainstorm.
Using permissions, itâs easy to move topics from sandbox to public when theyâre ready. Flexible trust levels allow us to organize access for different departments.
@Ivan_Rapekas if I understand correctly, youâre already using Discourse within your organization as a collaborative note taking app. Is that a fair statement? Or am I misunderstanding?
Are there any challenges you want to call out in using Discourse that way currently? Are there any changes you have in mind thatâd help address those challenges?
Maybe this is the main issue youâre currently facing?
Have you considered creating a category for drafts where itâs understood that whatâs there is unpolished work in progress?
Yes, we have used Discourse for 3 years. At the beginning I was the only person who shared notes in Discourse. I realised that I donât need to use text editor to prepare the article before publish it. I used to answer the same questions from support team every day. And I created a personal knowledge base.
After a year we hired a guy, who was inspired by Discourse articles. He became the first editor. As a pioneer, he scaled the influence to nearby colleagues. Now 1/5 of 150 employees actively works in Discourse writing and editing. Topics are wiki-type by default with no limit of edits.
First time team was confused of markdown tables and inability to indexing of attachments.
Then they realised that editable text more powerful than compiled PDF, for example. No need to search the source code, ask the approval, make a binary file, upload it and finally inform about the update.
You ask the main problem is a sharing drafts, right? Yes, it is. But I think that the root problem is an indifference and responsibility. Sometimes they afraid to show their work, but they always donât care how others be able to use what they produced.
Also people are not motivated to do something in public, because they become a person to be asked. Another point, forum members in this case discuss out of the forum. They prefer messaging in Skype instead of quoting the original post and talking the same place. For my mind, people always prefer âfast laneâ to solve their problems.
Upd: we donât divide categories for drafts and ready to publish. Sometimes we move a draft to Announces. Let it be a finished article:)
I voted yes, because I think Discourse should do something in this space. My preference would be for a local note taking app that synced with a shared Discourse instance.
For my purposes, notes should be saved locally as markdown files, editable with Vim, and easily synced with both Github and Discourse.
I roughed out an Obsidian/Discourse CLI app last year. It works well enough for a first attempt. I like Obsidianâs use of the file system as the source of truth, but if I was doing it again I leave Obsidian out of the equation and use an SQLite database to save local notes. (Iâd also use Go instead of Ruby for the app, just to make it easier for people to install.)
Well, theyâre a small business, pretty transparent, with reasonably priced services (sync, publish), and a strong community of plugin developers and users. And since everything is based on local markdown files, thereâs no worry about platform lock-in. I like open source, but thereâs room for companies between there and Big Tech.