Because the announcement channel can have only so much detail before it's a wall of text, I wanted to open a thread that goes into more detail for the changes to offer more context - please bear with me, this thread will remain locked until I get all the details posted. 🙂
#Full details of the server updates - 2025 March
river halo
📑 New Resource category
Along with the new category came improved Resource pages on the Server Guide - channels that appear as Resource pages in the Guide are hidden from the channel list and cleared of most messaging UI to look clean. All of these channels except find-support are in the Server Guide listed at the top of the channel list.
- #community-resources is where helpful links will be hosted. Currently there are [Helpful Links](#community-resources message) (links which are often used and shared within the community), [Related Discord Servers](#community-resources message), and [Related Communities](#community-resources message). I am always open to feedback on what else can go in here!
- #best-posting-practices used to live in what is now called #find-support - it was hidden in a thread that was not very easy to find or link to. I have deleted that thread in favor of this updated version and channel. You will find that I have moved the instructions on how to search Discord to this list and made it the #1 item - this used to live within the START HERE threads.
- #find-support was formerly find-a-channel - feedback from new server members sparking conversations with the frequent visitors of the server inspired this change. It was described as too vague, and now the channel has a very clear purpose for new members. This channel also has had all of its content stripped and put into the Channel description threads to reduce the overwhelming amount of text the channel had. However, the #1284976732428046461 continues to live in that channel.
- #creator-network was built to help the members of the Network have all of their links in one place. This will be updated as more creators are onboarded and if current members need any changes done.
✅ Updated channel names
These changes were chosen after several conversations with community members and colleagues. The goal here was to make the channel names significantly more clear on their intended purpose. I recognize this will cause a little more confusion for a bit, but believe me when I say it was necessary.
- #1284966617670881350 was originally the merged channels of the Related Tech category which was sunset with the September changes. After conversations with my colleagues and the community on what fit in there and what was missing, the decision was made to narrow the scope of this channel to only protocols we support or build (aside from networking). In talking with Marcel, our Matter lead, we decided that removing the Thread tag was a necessary change because Thread works over Matter; if you have an issue with Thread, please select the Matter tag moving forward.
- #1284966540617449515 was formerly installation - while the original intention of the updates in September was to align better with Home Assistant's documentation, it now makes more sense to change this to configuration and align it with the way support is handled on the Discourse forums. Most people don't have an issue with installing HA, but instead configuring it. The tags for Analytics and Networking are now in this channel.
- #creator-connection before was the creator vault - a failed attempt of mine to build a channel meant for connecting with the Creator Network from the former HA podcast channel. There seems to be general consensus that the new name is more clear in the channel's intent.
✨ New Channel description threads
One massive pain point to having a lot more information in the server with the September change was that there was now information spread across several spaces - between #find-support, the forum channels Posting Guidelines, and the START HERE threads in each support channel, finding the right information was kind of like a scavenger hunt. I believe I solved this by creating Channel description threads in each support channel - all of which are now linked to in #find-support. In these threads I merged details from all 3 sources into one, pulling the tag descriptions and useful links out of the Posting Guidelines and into a post that can be easily linked to. Posting Guidelines now point to the #best-posting-practices and the channel's specific description thread.
Because there has been a lot of time spent explaining the Community channels, a new #1351254100112707605 message has been made to allow people to easily find what each channel's intent is.
👀 Read Only last message updates
I hope this one is pretty self-explanatory. There was feedback that the final messages in the archived channels needed to be updated - this has now been done. Please let me know if I missed one, though!
Merging of the integrations and add-ons channels
This one I feel is going to be the biggest change here. There's always been confusion around what's an integration and what's an add-on - sometimes add-ons have integrations! To reduce confusion about where to post, I have merged these 2 channels. If someone posts a thread with the wrong tag, rather than asking them to move to an entire new channel, we can now adjust the tags to properly reflect the issue at hand.
There are some integrations and add-ons that have their own dedicated server - we offer support as best as we can here for those but if you ever hit a roadblock with someone and the item you are troubleshooting has its own server, please feel encouraged to point people to the best place to get help! You can find those servers in the #community-resources channel.
The thread is now open for discussion! 