If they don't have forum account they won't exactly be contributing on the forum to add to the activity either. I see it as just a perk of joining the community versus lurking.
A limited number of folks did use that part, the Chatbox, as an informal place to post during badge sales. Chat area got way more activity that the Returning and Open Registration threads during the Live Sales. And forum members who participated even offered extra Registration advice, even as they ran their own groups.
In sales, the Chatbox, which still required you to sign in to view and add posts, could also be popped out as a separate window, "physically split" from the forum. No one could lurk the chat until they had already signed in.
We did try to archive Chat successes in the forum threads the last few years, to honor those contributions, though!
I found it lacking in activity in previous cons also not just this year. Like theres a big shift on how much posts there is pre con versus during con. With Discord there's a lot of active users during con since its just as easy as sending a text to get messages out. Maybe its just me but I found that people would post stuff as things are going on more in discord versus in previous years on the forum people would post after it already happened at con so you would still be missing out. Or you wouldn't see it before its too late. With discord you can set notifications to what you like and it will notify you if something pertaining to your interests shows up.
We set it up super last minute last year so I can see why that split happened and some were left in the dark. But I just think discord lends itself to rapid spread of information better than the forum can handle. Like the forum is great for long form discussion and searching for info but if you need something time sensitive sent out Discord is better. The Discord group had a lot of success when it came to the RSVPs and event tickets as the role notifications would tell everyone to get on and sign up. The forum would have it posted at roughly the same time and we had better luck getting tickets than those outside because its just easier to get notified with Discord and see something new is up that needs your attention.
It seemed that Chatbox was being used as a Messenger perk, for it's Live function, during sales. I think if previous Chat participants saw us using Discord more (and surviving it's learning curve), they'd feel more comfortable.
The issue I see with this is that it splits the forum. There will be people that never use discord. At best, now we have to monitor two sites. This was a problem during the last comic-con. I never looked at discord. Some posts made on this site weren't seen until later. I don't understand why making and reading posts on this website is so slow that we need discord. Messages show up instantly. It's quite common to have a real time dialog using posts.
May I suggest that instead of disposing of the chatbox, that it be re-implemented using discord as it's back end. It's possible to embed a discord discussion onto a page. That way, this site can still be the common place for all friends to meet.
Yes, a Chatbox or similar replacement will be needed for Open Registration, IMO.
Chat Messages posted Live results a lot quicker than forum thread posts. If Chat is moved to Discord, it may allow for Tapatalk users, and those on work-restrcted devices, to view all aspects of these sales during real time.
Forum threads have the drawback of a frequency limit of how often you can post in the thread, the "your last post was 30 seconds ago, please wait" problem. I'm also not a current Discord user, though I'm getting close to acceptance.
