Guilded As A Forum/Community Site?

[KensonPlays]

Have any of you checked out Guilded? It's a free Discord alternative that offers twice the channel types that Discord does, for free with no paywalls.

Things like:

• Emotes
• Uploads (500mb for all)
• Role Icons
• Custom Invite URL

Those are things that are paywalled one way or another on Discord, but on Guilded, everyone gets them for free.

I've been considering using Cloudflare (my registrar) bulk redirect rules to redirect things like /forum to my Guilded forums group, /news to announcements channel, etc.

It wouldn't have optimal SEO via web URLs, but it would cut community hosting expenses considerably. You don't have full control over the data on your server, so if you host sensitive info, you may not want to use it for that, except in staff-only areas.

For me, as long as the documents, channels, etc, can be found on Google, they may eventually be ranked high enough to be found. I don't need "result #1" - as long as people can find it, I'm happy.

Especially since I'm in a rough spot right now, being unemployed for over a year now, and can't afford good, high quality web hosting myself, and my community is public anyway.

If I were to move my community from XenForo to Guilded, I wonder, honestly, how bad would that be?

 

[PGen98]

I don't think you'd see much growth on Guilded, you'd likely get a few regulars and that would be it. There's nothing wrong with that, Guilded is a great platform and a solid alternative to Discord, but it feels niche, segmented. I think you'd have a hard time making it work as the sole means of communication for your community.

 

[KensonPlays]

I don't think you'd see much growth on Guilded, you'd likely get a few regulars and that would be it. There's nothing wrong with that, Guilded is a great platform and a solid alternative to Discord, but it feels niche, segmented. I think you'd have a hard time making it work as the sole means of communication for your community.

Unfortunately, I can't afford more than cheap hosting, like 3-4/mo really. And most of those hosts have given me issues with Xenforo's Jobs system. Errors showing up in ACP a few times a day with 'scheduled jobs not running' no matter if I select activity based or scheduled via cron...

So I'm having to look at alternative options like this.

 

[PGen98]

Unfortunately, I can't afford more than cheap hosting, like 3-4/mo really. And most of those hosts have given me issues with Xenforo's Jobs system. Errors showing up in ACP a few times a day with 'scheduled jobs not running' no matter if I select activity based or scheduled via cron...

So I'm having to look at alternative options like this.

Understandable, and we've all been there, there's no shame in that. I'm sure there's a host out there that would be able to handle XF and would fit into your price range. But looking at alternatives is a great idea, as well. I'm not sure Guilded is the right fit for a community, but there's no harm in trying!

 

[KensonPlays]

Understandable, and we've all been there, there's no shame in that. I'm sure there's a host out there that would be able to handle XF and would fit into your price range. But looking at alternatives is a great idea, as well. I'm not sure Guilded is the right fit for a community, but there's no harm in trying!

A2Hosting was apparently a recommended host, but honestly, I'm not happy with them.

 

[PGen98]

A2Hosting was apparently a recommended host, but honestly, I'm not happy with them.

I'm not too familiar with them, my go-to is KnownHost, very happy with them 🙂

 

[KensonPlays]

I'm not too familiar with them, my go-to is KnownHost, very happy with them 🙂

Tried going with them, over 2 weeks on a ticket and they didn't respond until AFTER I said I went with A2 lol

 

[PGen98]

Tried going with them, over 2 weeks on a ticket and they didn't respond until AFTER I said I went with A2 lol

Ouch, I'm sorry to hear that, I've never had any issues like that with them.

 

[Cedric]

If you can’t afford hosting and still want to build a community - may be worth to stick with Facebook groups. Or Discord. Reddit is even a good alternative to a free community.

If none of that sounds nice. Check free forum hosting.

 

[Carlos X]

Tried going with them, over 2 weeks on a ticket and they didn't respond until AFTER I said I went with A2 lol

Sounds like no real urgency.

I am currently with A2Hosting, its got some quirks, but they're small. Small ACP errors, but the best part is their security. I was with LiquidWeb, but I left because of their hidden fees. I was paying almost $300, and cut costs by 50%.

On LiquidWeb the emails that are sent are a bit insecure to the point of spoofing is possible, since moving to A2Hosting, those emails are gone. Now its between legitimate emails and spam, which is CLEARLY being sent to spam once you mark it as such.

Blazing fast pageloads, lower deciprency on files.

Now every time I back up my "network." Its down to just the files. Not the bloat.

 

[KensonPlays]

Sounds like no real urgency.

I am currently with A2Hosting, its got some quirks, but they're small. Small ACP errors, but the best part is their security. I was with LiquidWeb, but I left because of their hidden fees. I was paying almost $300, and cut costs by 50%.

On LiquidWeb the emails that are sent are a bit insecure to the point of spoofing is possible, since moving to A2Hosting, those emails are gone. Now its between legitimate emails and spam, which is CLEARLY being sent to spam once you mark it as such.

Blazing fast pageloads, lower deciprency on files.

Now every time I back up my "network." Its down to just the files. Not the bloat.

The thing I'm not happy about is the Cron limitation doesn't work optimally with xenforo. Xf recommends once a minute but every 5 mins could be ok.

They don't let you go faster than 15 unless you pay thru the roof for a VPS, which is out of the question for me. Can't do more than like 5/mo.

 

[Cedric]

The thing I'm not happy about is the Cron limitation doesn't work optimally with xenforo. Xf recommends once a minute but every 5 mins could be ok.

They don't let you go faster than 15 unless you pay thru the roof for a VPS, which is out of the question for me. Can't do more than like 5/mo.

What cron is so important that it needs to be ran every 5 mins instead of 15?

 

[JoelR]

f I were to move my community from XenForo to Guilded, I wonder, honestly, how bad would that be?

Are your members mainly gamers?

 

[KensonPlays]

Are your members mainly gamers?

Most of us, yes. Entertainment & Gaming based.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think Guilded is great, better than Discord even. I think it works better as a community platform than Discord does for sure, but at the end of the day it's up to you. To me research communities thrive better on forums than on chat clients like Guilded and Discord. Why go through Discord when you still have to use websites like Google Docs to keep track of information, when a forum can do that and you don't have to have your members go offsite to a Google Docs form? As for chatting communities, Discord and Guilded are fine.