Wholesome places to discuss tech away from Twitter

Published on by Andy Bell

It may seem like it, but Twitter isn’t the center of everything for tech. Here’s some places you can hang out away from Twitter that are very good.

Tech Twitter can get a bit…much…sometimes, so I thought I’d create a little post on where you can hang out away from there, while still keeping up to date with tech stuff.

I’ll keep updating post this as I find more spaces, but to start, here’s some of my favourite chat-based communities.

Discords and Slacks

I really like chat-based communities: especially when they are well-moderated and maintained. Over the last couple of years, they’ve really taken off and become the cornerstone of some great tech communities. Here’s some I’m either a member of, or know that they are very good.

Piccalilli Discord

Of course I’ll recommend this one! If you are a Piccalilli Supporter, you get access to a private Discord that is full to the brim with extremely lovely people. It has an enforced code of conduct and is frankly, my favourite community on the web right now.

Shop Talk Show Discord

Chris and Dave host the Shop Talk Show podcast. Their friendly, approachable tone is very much the bedrock of their Discord which Patreon supporters get access too. It’s a lovely place.

Brighton Generator Meetup Slack

If you like creative spaces: this is the place for you. It’s got lots of really nice members in there who all make extremely cool stuff for the web (and beyond).

11ty Community Discord

I’m a big fan of Eleventy—I even made a course about it. The community Discord is a great place to hang out with folks who also like this brilliant static site generator. Zach—as you can imagine—runs a very tight ship too.

Party Corgi Discord

This is another well-moderated, friendly space. This Discord is great if you like a buzzing place, full of people.

Design System Slack

If you want to see how to run a community, then these folks are the ones to watch. Jina has built this place up from scratch and considering how massive it is, it’s one of the nicest, safest communities there is.

Array Freelancer Community

Again, this is another one I run, specifically for freelancers. It’s very tightly moderated and very friendly. We’ve all got each other’s backs in there.

Recommendations

This is an ever-updating post, so if you are a member of a great chat-based community or forum, send me a link or drop a comment and I’ll check it out. I’m always up for joining nice spaces!