Which is the best chat service for creating online community of developers?
I am trying to start an online community of developers who help each other learn by building stuff. You can read more about it here - How (and why) to start building useful, real-world software with no experience
I chose Slack to get started because I like the multitude of features that it has. But now as I grow the community, I am trying to re-evaluate my choice of platform:
- Which groups of people around the world already use it and which ones need to go through the signup/ download process to join the community (which I believe can bring down the joining rate)?
- Do people like using it outside of work environments?
- Does it allow me to do the basic stuff easily while also having features to do more complex tasks?
- Is it available for both mobile and desktop?
- <Some other factor that you want to weigh in>
So, amongst the variety of options available today - Slack, Discord, Gitter, Telegram group, FaceBook group (I am not too sure about this) or something else - what chat service would you recommend?
I believe you asking the wrong question... Its irrelevant what platform you use... In the end of the day the important thing is your community and your community values... If you have a great community even an old basic chat can work... Anyway, just pick the chat your community uses the most... :)
As big Slack user (might not be objective), I think it's a great tool and I use it outside of work almost everyday.
I guess every developer knows Slack, and the registering process is quite simple. Nowadays the first we do when we arrive in a new tech company is to sign in to their slack channels.
I use the larachat Slack almost every day to learn more about Laravel.
I don't know if you can build everything you want with it, but you can make customized chatbots for your channel only.
I have Slack on my mac, windows and android phone. Works perfectly.
I know telegram is super cool but I simply like the ability of creating channels and one-to-one chat inside Slack.
And finally, you can easily monetize your slack with tools like chatgroup.io
Thanks for taking the time Clément!
Even I like using Slack, especially how the fact that how intuitive its UI is.
Also, thanks for telling me about chatgroup.io. I had no idea that something like this existed. That being said, I think that as of now, monetising my chat group is way WAY far in the future for me (if at all) :-)