Answer Overflow
Hey there! I have some great news:
Introducing @Answer Overflow indexing to The League!
Tl;dr: Check out the blurb in the embed below, then click the button if you're cool with it.
What is this? Answer Overflow (https://www.answeroverflow.com/) is a new bot/app for Discord servers that automatically exports messages to a public search-indexable webpage so that anyone, whether they're a member of Discord, this server, or not can find and use the wealth of information that has been accumulated. The tool lets us share the many answers to questions that can be found in this server with everyone!
š https://www.answeroverflow.com/c/732325252788387980 š
How does this further the goals of The League? A long long time ago, in a Discord server with a really really long name, we debated the best way for the knowledge of this community to be accessible to everyone. Discord is great, if you like Discord, but it's not for everyone and it can be challenging to find existing information in a large server. Often the same questions are asked repeatedly, and the same answers are given. We have always wished for a way to improve this experience, but some of the obvious ways are tricky. Start a forum? Driving people to adopt a new platform is tough. The Wiki? It's great, but writing good articles isn't easy and you can't cover everything. Early on, we experimented with a bot that would export conversation to KaKaRoTo's Discourse-powered forum he had set up for The Forge. Unfortunately, it was cumbersome to use (this was before a lot of modern Discord API features) and didn't get a lot of traction. With Answer Overflow, we hope to accomplish what we set out to do all those long handful of years ago, and share our knowledge as broadly as it can be shared.
Wait, are you even allowed to do that? Great question! Discord has a lot of rules regarding privacy, and those are important. In order to make messages available outside of the server, to users that aren't members, we have to get consent from each user. This is simple to do for new members: We have added it to the server onboarding process. For certain channels, it's also simple: We have added a disclaimer to certain new forum type channels indicating that by posting in them, you are okay with the messages being publicly available. For the rest of the server, we ask that existing users click the button below this message or the one posted in #rules-and-guidelines to opt-in to this feature. For any user that doesn't opt-in, messages from them will not appear on the Answer Overflow website, only a blurry placeholder box will appear, directing users to join our server in order to see the message.
New channels you say? That's right, we are introducing new forum style channels in each of the main sections of the server. This includes #other-topics for general chatter, #package-development for all your typical development related questions, #system-development for things related to the development of particular systems, and #workgroups which is for creating new threads for discussing long-term and collaborative projects.
Why do we need new channels? What's wrong with the old ones? Nothing! And all the existing channels are sticking around, but one thing that's difficult with Answer Overflow, is that search indexing a massive channel with hundreds or thousands of conversations means... well there's no topic or clear start or end to things. That means that older channels, while still available on the Answer Overflow website, aren't search-engine indexed. Forum threads on the other hand are easy to index, and will make it easier for people to find answers since the conversations are better organized.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread! Finally, I want to say a big thank you to Rhys, for creating this amazing tool!
Want results from more Discord servers?
More PostsAbout: #package-development**This thread is not for discussions about Foundry package development, but for discussing the purpoGood callIt's more reliable to enter the directory.Follow-up questionsFor Foundry v10+ here is the essential info for module integration as I gather you might want to loaIntegration of Vino Behaviour on TheatreSome time ago I had updated the module VINO (https://github.com/p4535992/foundryvtt-vino), the modul