If authentication is a problem then just let users login with their discord/twitter/reddit accounts?
Is it the lacking of "one-click setup" forum services?
They all have the same issue of a Network effect[1] to overcome. Sure, I can whip up or take over a dead forum today and dictate the direction, but I will likely struggle to get a dozen users in a month, let alone a dozen comments. Meanwhile, there are probably 12 new sign ups for reddit as I type this message.
There's dozens of reasons why this is hard to overcome, but to put it bluntly: people don't leave if they are comfortable with what they got. if Reddit works for someone, why search out for some forum that doesn't show up on search to find maybe 12 comments abut something, when reddit has hundreds of posts to read? Users are metaphorically lazy, and the biggest sites feed into that.
[1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/10/1...
> Is it the lacking of "one-click setup" forum services?
I'm a bit biased (since I run a tiny managed service provider) -- would you create a forum if it had one click setup?
Services like Discourse and NodeBB do offer this kind of service, so it seems like the option is there.
The only reason I'd be hesitate to create a forum is that I think people (not me) might actually prefer Discord and I'm doing a disservice for them. So it's like Catch 22.
Slack/Discord/Mattermost/Matrix is great for frenetic conversation and water cooler chat, but it just feels like history and long term knowledge doesn't get built easily there. It's like the difference between old school forums and IRC -- people generally didn't expect much from ephemeral conversation on IRC.
The one exception might be Zulip -- their threaded chat model is actually a blend and is very effective at creating enough mass around a single conversation (i.e. a thread) and making it trackable. That said, I still think forums are a different beast.
It's impossible to follow a discussion in discord because when you arrive it may be over and they are talking about something else, that doesn't happen in a forum you can just post and add your take. And managing knowledge is easier in a forum, I can still find my 15 year old replies, or access all the news I created back when I was a mod.
I think you may have misread my earlier comment, it says "Discourse" (as in the forum software[1]), not Discord.
Discourse: https://www.discourse.org/ <- a modern-looking old school forum thing
Discord: https://discord.com/ <- a modern-looking chat thing
Note to self: wake up before replying.
Compared to traditional forum systems such as vbulletin or ipboard, discourse is a pain in the ass to use.