[Suggestion] Mega post on thread improvements

I was very happy when Discord introduced threads and we've been trying to max-out their usage ever since on our server. I definitely think that it's a big improvement over a situation without threads.

However I still think there's a long way to go before this feature gets close to reaching its full potential.

In our server's case we start a thread when it actually should be started only about 50% of the times. The other 50% is either a thread with 2 messages in it (so starting the thread actually took more effort than the value it brought) or a channel spammed with messages that should've been a thread but nobody expected that it should be created / bothered with the effort.

Here are some of my suggestions on how to improve the feature, all based on our team's hands-on experience.

1) One-click to start a new thread

Starting a thread should be as easy as a making a reply. One click of a button. Even from an already existing message.

This way you ensure that threads are used more often and to their full potential. If it takes a lot of effort and time to start a thread then people will use it infrequently & in the wrong places.

1A) Drop the requirement of giving a thread a name

This is related to the previous point of making it as easy as possible to start a new thread. Every time I'm starting a thread I'm forced to stop for a bit and think of 2-3 short words to describe this massive issue I'm trying to encompass in the thread. Yes, the name can be longer, but there's a ~25 char limit to what gets displayed in the channels list, so you're forced to make it short. That takes unnecessary effort and the result is typically not very descriptive anyways.

This is despite the fact that usually the 1st sentence of the thread (starter message) clearly describes the rest of the message. So not only it takes significant effort, it's also a duplication of something that I've already spent energy on.

I am aware that naming a thread is needed in order to support the rest of the threads feature, but we'll fix that a bit later in this post.

1B) Drop the thread archiving feature

Same as with the name:
When I'm starting a thread I have to stop for a bit & spend some time figuring out the ideal balance between having the thread active for long enough - but also not too long. Nowadays I tend to default to the longest archivation period (3 or 7 days) to avoid the extra mental effort when creating the thread, but that only means that I have to archive most of the threads manually once they get resolved otherwise they'd be cluttering the UI for several more days without any reason.

Here are few options that would be a significant improvement over the current situation:

Drop the need to archive entirely, or
Make it optional (and disabled by default), or
Add an "never" option which is selected by default

All of those are meant to significantly reduce the effort (and time) needed to start a thread.

Again, I am aware that archivation is needed in order to support the rest of the threads feature and that simply removing it would require users to manually archive the threads in most cases (which IMO is still better than being forced to manually set the duration up when creating the thread) but we'll fix that too a bit later in this post.

2) Reimagine the way active threads are tracked

The current primary way of tracking threads is to have them listed (by their name) in the channels list. Here are some of the reasons why I find the current situation a bit unfortunate:

It requires the thread to have a name (which is not great as described above)
It requires the thread to have an expiry (which is not great as described above) to prevent a massive UI clutter
Despite the previous point the list of active threads still clutters the UI quite a lot especially if you have several active threads at once
Not every thread needs to show up in this way

Here are some suggestions:

2A) Allow the users to collapse the list of active threads

I'm listing this point as a quick-fix which would solve some of the issues listed above and make the UI generally cleaner, but I hope you will only consider it as a temporary solution before implementing some of the other suggestions listed in this ticket.

With collapsable and expandable list of threads you could:

Have longer (or infinite) time before threads archivation because you could fit more of them in the UI
Have longer names of the threads and in turn make them more descriptive, or
Drop the "thread name" field entirely and instead rely on e.g. a 250 char snippet from the actual thread message.

2B) Replace "Archiving" with "Highlight"

There are tons of tickets on why the archivation feature is not great and I've already pointed some of the issues above, so I'm not going to repeat the tickets or myself. It unfortunately cannot be simply removed due to the fact that the rest of the Threads feature relies quite heavily on the ability to archive threads.

I'm therefore going to suggest a workaround: Replace archivation with an optional ability to HIGHLIGHT a thread. Here are some of the benefits:

Easier & faster thread creation. As opposed to the archivation feature there's no need to deal with the decision if you should or should not highlight a thread in the process of starting a thread. You can do that later.
Only some of the threads actually need to be highlighted. Currently everything is highlighted & therefore nothing is really highlighted. Only the UI is cluttered.
You can still post into a thread even if it's no longer highlighted. The highlight could last anywhere from e.g. 1 hour to infinity - but even if the highlight expires you can still contribute to the thread without the need of an admin to re-open it. (as opposed to an archived thread)
Bonus: Highlight could be managed on a personal level. If you personally deem a thread important you can highlight it (aka pin it) for yourself even if it's not highlighted for other people. You can't do this with archivation.

2C) Display the list of threads elsewhere

The left hand bar displaying the list of channels is already quite cluttered (and lacking enough space) as it is. You guys somehow managed to squeeze the list of active threads in there as well, unfortunately causing many of the issues I've described above in this thread.

I'd like to suggest a small adjustment to how the list is handled: REMOVE IT

Let me elaborate: Simply remove the list of threads from the left hand bar and instead only show some indication of how many active threads (or better yet as per my suggestion above - how many highlighted threads) are currently in the channel.

You already have this indication showing in the top right when user enters a particular channel - just make it more prominent.

Once the user clicks on either of those indications then you fire up a full blown screen with details regarding active threads. Not just this puny modal that you show now, but a full blown section of the screen similar to when user tries to search. I could even imagine a completely full-screen section.

If implemented correctly:

you can get rid of the archive feature - you get enough space to show more threads at the same time
you can get rid of the "thread name" - you get enough space to display a significant amount of characters from the starter message instead
Users can better access older threads, most recent threads, highlights etc.

3) Reimagine how the Threads are displayed in the channel

We're getting to the grand finale and I promise that this one is going to be short. It's more of a "nice to have" compared to what I wrote above.

We're now going to talk about how the threads are displayed in the actual channel among the other messages.

The "thread summary" (or whatever we want to call it) currently only displays:

[a person] started a thread: [thread name]. See all threads. [date of thread creation]
[thread name] [number of messages in the thread]
[a person] [about 70 chars from the latest message][date of latest message]

Here are some of the issues

NONE of the displayed info is as important as the content of the starter message
The [thread name] item is not very descriptive since I'm forced to make it super short when creating the thread (as described above)
The [thread name] is duplicated right on the next line of the UI which is completely unnecessary
The display of the latest message is not very useful due to the fact that it's super short - so I still have to enter the thread in like 99% of the cases
"See all threads" element is unnecessary - especially if the way how the threads are listed was improved as per the suggestions above.

Here's how to fix:

3A) Display the entire starter message right in the channel

This way you can drop the "thread name" item
It typically includes the most important points for the discussion anyways, so it's valuable if you give it enough space even if it's really long
If someone updates it then the starter message can act as a summary of what was discussed in the thread so newcomers don't need to read through the entire thing - in fact sometimes they won't even need to open the thread at all!
The UI will be much more consistent if even the thread is stylised as a regular message

Summary

I very much appreciate the effort that the Discord team is putting into improving the application. In many ways you're shaping the industry with your innovative approach and that's exciting. Sometimes however it's a better idea not to reinvent the wheel. Threads is one such feature where this is true very much.

Please consider

Displaying an entire starter message right in the channel
Enabling people to start a thread from an already existing message.
Proper section to display coherent info about the threads instead of trying to squeeze it into the channels list
Getting rid of the "thread name" item
Getting rid of the archivation feature
Replacing archivation with highlight

I'm more than happy to provide you with additional context / feedback - feel free to reach out to me anytime. We love your platform as a tool to organise our company and our community and I'm therefore willing to dedicate some extra time to helping you improve the app.