Feature Request: Channel type text vs forum

[byeuji]

Hi there,

We've been using the modmail bot for four years now. In that time, Discord has really perfected their implementation of the Forum-type channel, which for those unfamiliar, allows the creation of "posts" instead of "messages".

There are several advantages to a forum-type channel for some kinds of things. In particular, it's useful for more granular, topical discussions, and allows tagging posts and does not grow the channel list for a user. Additionally, posts count as a message in terms of the API, so they don't appear visible to those without permission to see them when people use third-party clients.

In comparison to the current modmail setup:

• Users who use third-party discord clients are able to see the title of the channels the bot creates (usernames), where with forums they're only able to see the forum name (which would likely be something like "modmail")
• Posts are organized such that it would be reasonable to allow discord to manage the archiving of posts, meaning that unlike a common Dragory-configuration, you would probably default config to not delete a thread on close, and simply allow it to archive
• This archival functionality has a major advantage, in that it would not require a 3rd-party server to store logs on, and the archived posts would be searchable using Discord's built-in search function, and would persist as long as mods want them to

I looked around the github for options in the config for this, as well as discussion/feature requests in the issues (open and closed), and didn't see anyone mentioning these options.

I think the ability to create threads as posts in a forum, instead of channels in a category, would be ideal for most implementations. I'd be happy to provide more detail if this is an interesting direction for the bot, and please direct me to any config/conversation if I missed them before creating this post.

To add a little to this, because of the need to !close threads to keep the channel list sane, our staff have taken to utilizing a forum in just this way for documenting evidence about interactions with users.

We create a post in the thread for a given user, titled with their current discord ID, their username and their server profile name, and then post any evidence or conversations with have with that user in that thread (and avoid duplicates).

As a result of how useful this is, our staff have also taken to posting the !close'd thread link in the evidence thread after a conversation is complete. In essence, we're already using this mechanism, just without the ability for the modmail bot to interact in that thread directly (and manage creation of them for users we've never needed to interact with in this way before).

Allowing the bot to manage those forum posts, and have the user interactions in the same place as the evidence/mod discussions, would allow us to combine the best of both worlds in one place.

Thank you again for this incredible bot. Our community really could not function without it!

[EternalllZM]

Pretty good suggestion. For clarification, the bot and those with inboxServerPermission would be the only entitlements allowed to view the forum channel? Then, using !close would close the thread with the user and archive+lock the forum post (not delete)?

Users who use third-party discord clients are able to see the title of the channels the bot creates (usernames), where with forums they're only able to see the forum name (which would likely be something like "modmail")

anonymizeChannelName in config completely negates this, but your other two points are definitely not something currently existent and should be considered.

This archival functionality has a major advantage, in that it would not require a 3rd-party server to store logs on

Not only logs, but also attachmentStorage sending and receiving. They could exist in the post instead of local or requiring a dedicated discord channel.

Considering Discord made API limits for channel creation stricter back in 2022, this could prove useful on larger servers as well to ease up on these. Not that I believe those hitting 500+ guild channel creations a day aren't using some custom solution already, it can add up if you use a voice channel creation bot.