Indexing this Discord server on the web

One of the biggest downsides of Discored compared to websites / forums is that its content cannot be found by search engines. So if people google "PauseAI gamififcation" they won't find our discord topic in here.

Now there is a solution for this problem, called AnswerOverflow. I think this will be huge pretty soon.

If we do this as PauseAI, it will have pretty big implications:

Everything discussed here will become a bit more public, because it can now be found on the web.
It will be harder to remove stuff

I've already linked this discord to AnswerOverflow, and I've indexed only the Projects channel. I haven't toggled public availability.

The service has a paid option (kinda expensive at 125 EUR a month), which would allow us to host on

discord.pauseai.info

discord.pauseai.info

or something. Otherwise we'll have an ad-supported version for free.

Share your thoughts

Would it be better if the content here is available on the web?
Are there better alternatives?

awake-maroon•8/5/25, 4:03 PM

My only objection would be that members might not want to be findable by their name but it seems like they offer anonymization which solves this

awake-maroon•8/5/25, 4:05 PM

oops

awake-maroon•8/5/25, 4:05 PM

fixed it

colossal-harlequin•8/6/25, 5:21 AM

Hmmm.

Wil it backfill once make public?

Does it even work in general, in terms of making the Google index?

E.g.

https://www.answeroverflow.com/search?q=superintelligence

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aansweroverflow.com+superintelligence

Search Results for "superintelligence" - Answer Overflow

Search for answers to your questions on Answer Overflow.

🔎 site:answeroverflow.com superintelligence - Google Search

Ccolossal-harlequin Hmmm. Wil it backfill once make public? Does it even work in general, in terms...

awake-maroon•8/6/25, 7:39 AM

it does fetch existing messages if that’s what you mean

yucky-gold•10/30/25, 6:44 PM

Any update on this idea?
Once again, I love the search filter option "posts before [tomorrow date]" so I see EVERYTHING posted across the server (on the recently rare days when I can get Discord to actually work for me).
Would be nice to feed all of that feed into an AI that would make weekly summaries of everything happening on PAI last week. With links to discussions AI deems important/worthy.

hurt-tomatoOP•10/31/25, 12:17 PM

We have a channel here, but I'm afraid it's not really working as intended. I've tried linking the #local-communities-

to the page, but its not being indexed properly. @Pato maybe you can take a look at it?

sacred-rose•10/31/25, 6:07 PM

i'll look into it

Aawake-maroon My only objection would be that members might not want to be findable by their n...

sacred-rose•11/1/25, 1:46 AM

anonimization doesn't anonimize @s

sacred-rose•11/1/25, 2:08 AM

ok, i found the main reason why i think the forum doesnt get indexed:

Google's crawler (Googlebot) acts just like a logged-out, anonymous visitor.

If a post is hidden from you (when logged out) due to user privacy settings...

...it is also hidden from Google.

Google cannot index content that it cannot see. If the content is locked behind a privacy wall (or a login screen), it is invisible to search engines.

sacred-rose•11/1/25, 2:15 AM

i changed a setting that should change all messages from the selected channels to public by default

sacred-rose•11/3/25, 7:11 PM

Fixed!

hurt-tomatoOP•11/3/25, 7:15 PM

Nice!

Hhurt-tomato Nice!

full-green•11/3/25, 7:24 PM

Another option is to use discourse.org forum. Many tech companies and projects use it.

full-green•11/3/25, 7:25 PM

Twitter and discord encourage low value chatting shit posting etc. A forum encourages higher quality

Ffull-green Twitter and discord encourage low value chatting shit posting etc. A forum encou...

hurt-tomatoOP•11/3/25, 7:29 PM

It's true that discourse / forum tools lead to higher quality posts, but engagement drops too much. The main goal of this discord is to coordinate action and have a sense of community. Discussion is of lesser importance than vibrance.

I'm a software entrepreneur who made discussion forums - I deeply value high quality, structured discussions. But IMO we already have that with LessWrong / AlignmentForum. Those were places that needed nuance and longform content. We now need something else: rapid, engaging, welcoming. I think Discord really nails that.

Hhurt-tomato It's true that discourse / forum tools lead to higher quality posts, but engagem...

full-green•11/3/25, 7:31 PM

Lesswrong explicitly discourages discussions of US politics or of pause AI

full-green•11/3/25, 7:32 PM

I agree a forum will have less engagement. One way to grow it is to start with initial seed of a few high quality writers. Ideally not all from the same organisation

full-green•11/3/25, 7:32 PM

Like lesswrong started off with posts of Hanson and Yudkowsky writing to each other

sacred-rose•11/4/25, 6:26 AM

should i add more channels?

Ffull-green Lesswrong explicitly discourages discussions of US politics or of pause AI

colossal-harlequin•11/4/25, 12:58 PM

Citation on the latter? Is that new?

Ccolossal-harlequin Citation on the latter? Is that new?

full-green•11/4/25, 4:57 PM

Oh, that lesswrong discourages discussions of pause AI activism?

full-green•11/4/25, 4:57 PM

Go make a short form comment about your activist plan, be it social media content or organising protests or whatever. Chances are high you’ll get downvoted.

Ssacred-rose should i add more channels?

hurt-tomatoOP•11/4/25, 4:58 PM

yes if that's allowed. Do make sure we don't have to change our policies on publishing stuff

Ffull-green Go make a short form comment about your activist plan, be it social media conten...

full-green•11/4/25, 5:48 PM

I'd call that implicit discouragement, rather than explicit, but yeah, I encounter that myself.

The amount of disagreement expressed often depends on how well you can weasel your ideas through using rationalism-speak / matching their aesthetic.

Hhurt-tomato yes if that's allowed. Do make sure we don't have to change our policies on publ...

sacred-rose•11/4/25, 5:55 PM

I don't really know what you mean by policies on publishing stuff

Ssacred-rose I don't really know what you mean by policies on publishing stuff

hurt-tomatoOP•11/4/25, 6:06 PM

Well, Idk to what extent we need to show to our users that we're making this seo-able. I'd assume a notice on discord is at least sensible.

Ffull-green I'd call that implicit discouragement, rather than explicit, but yeah, I encount...

full-green•11/4/25, 8:28 PM

Oh dang
I have not tried this
Maybe I will next time

Ffull-green I'd call that implicit discouragement, rather than explicit, but yeah, I encount...

full-green•11/4/25, 8:37 PM

Then do you support having a separate forum for pause AI?

full-green•11/4/25, 8:38 PM

(If required, I can help with moderation and contributing some content. But launching a new forum is a team effort, need multiple good writers to seed content.)

full-green•11/4/25, 8:47 PM

I don't have opinions about that and was just responding to the one point. (Sorry to barge in.)

full-green•11/5/25, 6:37 AM

No need to apologise! More feedback is good

Indexing this Discord server on the web

Share your thoughts

Similar Threads

Similar Threads

Similar Threads