Reply To: Discord vs. Channel Memberships: What’s better for building community?

Choosing your community platform is a major strategic decision.

Short Answer: Neither is inherently better, as they excel with different types of community formats. Discord is superior for high-volume, real-time text and voice chat, while Channel Memberships are best for offering exclusive, on-platform content formats.

The optimal choice depends on the specific content formats and the level of interaction you want to facilitate.

Each platform is built around different core content formats. Firstly, Discord’s strength lies in its real-time conversational formats; it allows you to create numerous organised text channels for specific topics and host live audio chat rooms, which are formats that YouTube does not offer for persistent community interaction. Secondly, YouTube’s Channel Memberships specialise in integrated, on-platform content formats that reward financial support, such as custom emojis and loyalty badges that members can use in your comments, as well as exclusive members-only video and text formats delivered via the Community Tab. A common and highly effective strategy is to use both, leveraging the Memberships feature as the paywall that grants access to the more dynamic chat formats within a private Discord server, giving you the best of both systems.

Cheers,

Jeff