Summary
The central question is whether Email Geeks should stick with Slack or switch to Discord, and how to best access older content. Current sentiment leans towards staying with Slack, citing its suitability for the community and existing infrastructure, as well as the perceived difficulty of migrating 7,000 members to a new platform. Discord is recognized for superior voice quality, community moderation tools, and suitability for gaming and open-source projects. Slack excels in professional environments with file sharing and Salesforce integrations. To access older Slack content, users can star messages, utilize search operators, or employ third-party archiving solutions. Slack's free plan has limited message history (90 days), while Discord retains messages indefinitely. Slack's paid plans offer data export. Expert opinions from within Email Geeks suggest Slack is the better option after internal research. However, external sources indicate a decline in Slack usage, prompting the consideration of future platform options.
Key findings
- Slack Preference: Email Geeks community leans towards remaining on Slack due to existing infrastructure, familiarity, and suitability.
- Migration Challenges: Migrating a large community (7,000 members) presents significant logistical difficulties.
- Discord Strengths: Discord offers superior voice quality, community moderation tools, and suits gaming/open-source projects.
- Slack Strengths: Slack is strong in professional environments with file sharing, Salesforce integrations.
- Slack Access: Older Slack content can be accessed via starring messages, search operators, or third-party archiving.
- Content Retention: Slack free plan: 90-day history. Discord: indefinite retention.
- Slack Export: Slack paid plans allow data export.
- Internal Research: Internal research at Email Geeks favored Slack over Discord.
- Usage Trends: External sources report a decline in Slack usage, signaling the need to consider future platform options.
Key considerations
- Community Needs: Prioritize a platform aligning with the community's specific requirements and preferences.
- Management: Consider the management overhead of Discord vs. Slack within a professional context.
- Infrastructure: Factor in the time, cost and disruption in moving to a new platform.
- Technical Requirements: Assess features needed: file sharing/integrations vs. voice quality/community tools.
- Archival needs: Determine requirements for accessing older data: is paying for Slack or 3rd party tooling worth it?
- Platform Trends: Monitor long-term usage trends when considering long-term platform decisions
What email marketers say
9 marketer opinions
The question of accessing older content in Slack and whether Email Geeks should use Slack or Discord elicits varied responses. Accessing older Slack content can be achieved through starring important messages, using Slack's search operators, or employing third-party archiving tools. For long-term access, especially beyond Slack's limits, consider third-party archival solutions. Regarding platform choice, Discord is favored for its superior voice quality, flexible permissions, and strong community features, making it ideal for open-source projects and gaming communities. Slack, on the other hand, is recommended for professional environments due to its file-sharing capabilities and integrations, particularly for companies already using Salesforce products. The suitability of each platform also depends on the ease of management in a corporate environment and the primary use case (professional collaboration vs. community engagement).
Key opinions
- Slack Archiving: Older Slack content can be accessed via starring, search operators, or third-party archivers.
- Discord Strengths: Discord excels in voice quality, permissions, and community features, preferred by open-source and gaming communities.
- Slack Strengths: Slack is better suited for professional environments due to file sharing and integrations.
- Migration Difficulty: Migrating a large community (e.g., 7,000 members) to a new platform poses significant challenges.
Key considerations
- Archival Needs: Evaluate whether the need to access historical data justifies the cost and effort of third-party archiving solutions.
- Environment Fit: Consider whether the target environment is better suited for a professional setup (Slack) or a community-focused one (Discord).
- Feature Needs: Determine which features are most important: file sharing and integrations (Slack) or voice quality and community tools (Discord).
- Management: Assess the difficulty of managing Discord within a corporate setting versus the established structure of Slack.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit suggests starring important Slack messages to quickly find them later. Starred items are easily accessible in a dedicated section of the app.
30 Jan 2025 - Reddit
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks points out the difficulty of migrating 7,000 members to a new platform.
26 May 2024 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
6 expert opinions
The discussion revolves around whether Email Geeks should continue using Slack or switch to Discord, and how to access older content. The consensus leans towards sticking with Slack, primarily because it's deemed more appropriate for the community's needs. The high value and unique content generated on the Email Geeks Slack channel is also noted. Discord was considered but ultimately rejected after research. One consideration brought up in an external article is that Slack usage is declining, so future platform decisions may need to consider that.
Key opinions
- Slack Preference: Slack is currently favored for Email Geeks due to its suitability for the community.
- Content Value: The Email Geeks Slack channel generates valuable content, potentially worth a significant amount.
- Discord Research: Discord was researched but determined to be less suitable for Email Geeks than Slack.
- Slack decline: Slack usage is declining, which may impact future platform decisions.
Key considerations
- Community Needs: Prioritize a platform that aligns with the specific requirements and preferences of the Email Geeks community.
- Platform Trends: Stay informed about the evolving landscape of communication platforms and adapt to changing trends.
- Long-Term Value: Assess which platform offers the best long-term value, considering factors like cost, features, and community satisfaction.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Slack could be paying them for the content they produce, estimating the channel's worth at $50k/month, adding they are fortunate that Slack has provided them with a home. Also mentions that Microsoft competitor has a limit of 300 members on the free version.
8 Jul 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks advises to look at the actual rejection messages rather than just the shallow overview provided by your ESP.
21 Dec 2021 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
The documentation highlights key differences between Slack and Discord regarding message retention and data access. Slack's free plan limits message history to 90 days, while paid plans offer full archives and data export tools. Discord, on the other hand, retains message history indefinitely unless deleted, and its API allows retrieving past messages, though rate limits apply. Both platforms can accommodate large communities, but their approaches to data retention and access differ significantly.
Key findings
- Slack Retention: Slack's free plan provides 90 days of message history; paid plans offer full archives and data export.
- Discord Retention: Discord retains message history indefinitely unless deleted.
- Discord Scalability: Discord servers can accommodate large numbers of members.
- Slack Data Export: Slack's paid plans allow data export for archival purposes.
- Discord API Access: Discord's API allows retrieval of past messages, subject to rate limits.
Key considerations
- Data Retention: Consider the importance of long-term message retention and whether indefinite storage is necessary.
- Budget: Evaluate whether the cost of Slack's paid plan is justified for access to full message archives and data export tools.
- API Access: Determine whether programmatic access to message history via an API is required and if Discord's API meets those needs.
- Community Size: Confirm that the chosen platform can adequately support the size and activity level of the community.
Technical article
Documentation from Discord explains that Discord servers can accommodate a large number of members, making it suitable for communities of various sizes. Although the practical limit depends on activity and moderation, Discord is built to handle large communities.
14 Oct 2024 - Discord Support
Technical article
Documentation from Discord details that Discord retains message history indefinitely unless the messages are manually deleted by users or server moderators.
20 Jan 2022 - Discord Support
