Thermal Imaging Discord

[Vipitis]

A few of your have already got a PM from me about this. For those who already know Discord, you can find the invite link at the bottom.

Discord is a chatting platform initially marketed towards gamers, but now there are many other communities on Discord. It works by having users on a Server with different channels(chatrooms), it also allows for voice communication. I am fairly active on Discord in servers about 3D printing, esports betting, photography, cinema cameras, games as well as a few small groups of direct friends. By pure chance I met another forum member and flooded a borderline related chatroom with a discussion about thermal cameras. The idea was born to start a Discord dedicated to Thermal Imaging. While there is basically nothing on there yet, gaining users will bring structure and new ideas to the Discord server.

This is not an attempt to replace this forum 1:1 and the general idea is that it is two different entities. But there are a lot of advantages Discord has I would like to note: chatrooms offer fast and direct communication and discussion, it is easy to share files and images (you get up to 8MB with the free account and up to 50MB with the voluntary subscription),emotes ,a great search feature, private instant messaging, voice and video calls, works from mobile and desktop(client or browser), many other communities to Discover.

You can learn more about Discord on their website. Should you be interested about the technical side of things behind all of it I recommend the blog.

To join you simply follow the link below. I would love to get a few users from the forum on there. I will also reach out to other communities about thermal imaging soon. You can target any questions at me directly or post in this thread. Also share suggestions here so we can discuss them. All opinions welcome.

Invite link: https://discord.gg/JSFcJSd
 

[Spirit532]

Just checking in - I created the server after talking with Vipitis, who suggested it.
It would be nice to have a more generic active conversation going on in the chat, while the forum is more suited for structured topic-based discussion with thought-out answers.

A few people have already joined, so I'm looking forward to see how many are interested.

[Bud]

Discord is such a stupid name for a forum platform. Let's see what definition the Cambridge Dictionary gives to the word:

:  the state of not agreeing or sharing opinions
: a lack of agreement or feeling of trust between people

Merriam Webster Dictionary:

: lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas
 : a harsh or unpleasant sound

[Spirit532]

Discord is such a stupid name for a forum platform.

Sure, that doesn't stop it from having over 130 million users though.

[ROG Solutions]

Has anyone been to check on the Discord lately?

Seems to be full of friendly bots now.

[DaJMasta]

I ended up leaving after no posts aside from bots in months, but it's not like I was a talkative one either.  Do I remember hearing right that no one on it currently has administrator privileges?

[Vipitis]

hey, as far as I remember Spirit lost their account and they were the owner/admin. So it's just a dormant server now... someone tried to start something else but nothing happend there either. It just seems like there isn't too much of community overlap.

Plus the great part about an actual forum is that it's indexed by search engines and findable on the open web. So much information and discourse is hidden in Discord (and likely sold for language model training due to also being annotated by server and topics etc). It's a big loss for online information.

[ROG Solutions]

I could not agree more for the last part.

I guess it is a bit silly to assume that the more public facing forums, like this one, aren't also scraped for AI training, but I guess at least we know Dave isn't (more directly) profiting from the scrapings? (sarcasm)

Long live niche forums with high quality content!

[TheVisitor]

Here this Discord server is at least live and no bots.  Being super niche topic not many posts but they respond at least. They also have discounts on thermal imagers just ask the owner in PM.     https://discord.com/invite/GwsnAbwp7n

[Bud]

This link require registration to just view it, so it can go to hell. 

[TheVisitor]

Discord requires registration.  Same as any social media platform or Forum...    You did not have to register to this forum? 

[IR_Geek]

You did not have to register to this forum?

Bud was just pointing out that this forum is open and free to view.  Of course to post you have to register.    I read this forum for years before finally joining.  The same cannot be said about the Discord

[gamerpaddy]

theres a invite-only discord server for thermal imaging thats fairly active. but a closed community
it has its place because
there are no bots and people that dont belong there (advertisers, spammers, people with bad intentions etc)
and stuff posted can be more personal and open than in a forum which every crawler bot can read for years to come, with your name attached to it.

if a user is worthy, he gets invited. that keeps the noisefloor down.

[ROG Solutions]

I like the idea of being "invite only" for reducing spam etc, but I still would suggest not getting personal on Discord. While it might prevent the odd individual creep from identifying you, it won't prevent the overarching tech feudal lords from compiling your data for sale.

To each, their own, however. I am sure this forum has had its fair share of spam, and I only made it here via LLM web scrapings that were probably taken without proper consult with the original posters, I am glad it is still a bog standard, semi decentralised, net forum, and I wish you all the best with the invite only, or any other Discord forum that crops up.

P.S, I also dislike that it requires sign in to just view the info on there, makes sharing more difficult, just as the previous poster stated.

[DaJMasta]

if a user is worthy, he gets invited. that keeps the noisefloor down.

I can understand the wanting to keep bots out, but that stuff can be solved with pretty reasonable amounts of moderation in a small community, and that reads as really gatekeep-y.  It sort of goes against the spirit of freely sharing information places like this are founded on.

While I'm not against discord, especially for certain kinds of communication, I'd +1 the availability of information on a forum, blog, or article format.  The community surrounding technical equipment has always been closed, and the availability of information on it online has really opened some doors to me, personally, which I wouldn't have otherwise had.  Public sharing in a semi-permanent place is going to be of the most use to the most people and is likely to get the most attention from people with some answers if none are immediately available.  If a thermal imaging community can perpetuate long into the future, the one that is open and visible is going to have a lot better chances with other factors the same.