We just deleted our 35k-member community Slack

Written by Knut Melvær

Yes, we did it. We deleted our Sanity community Slack workspace with over 35,000 members.

It wasn't an accident. It wasn't done in rage. On the contrary!

We deleted the Slack workspace because we love the Sanity community and we wanted to give it a better home.

After seven years of building connections, solving problems, and growing together. It wasn't a decision we made lightly (in fact, we have been contemplating this since 2020), but it was the right move for our community's future.

If you haven't already, you should totally join now.

Slack is not community software

Slack has served us well since we started. It's where many of you first connected with us (some of you even joined our team after meeting us there!). The community feedback, bug reports, feature requests, and problem-solving that happened in our Slack workspace became the soul of our developer experience.

But Slack was never designed for growing communities like ours. Slack was always designed for workplace chats. Throughout the years, the free plan keeps getting more limited, and we needed better tools for community management. And it didn't make sense to pay thousands of dollars every month for software that doesn't really solve what we need it to solve.

Meanwhile, Discord has evolved from a gaming-focused platform to the go-to place for developer communities. Most popular frameworks and services have moved to Discord over the past couple of years. It's not perfect, but it's definitely more appropriate.

What's better about Discord?

• Purpose-built for communities: Discord offers moderation tools, forum-like functionality, and better ways to organize discussions.
• No message limits: Say goodbye to lost conversations and knowledge.
• Better discovery: It's easier to find the Sanity community also within the Discord app.
• Rich collaboration: Screen sharing, video, and voice channels create more ways to connect.
• More fun: Emotes, custom reactions, and community events make Discord a more engaging place to connect. Plus, we can host swag giveaways and special events that are only available to Discord members.

What to expect in our new Discord home

If you're new to Discord, it might feel a bit different at first. Give yourself time to get acclimated to the interface and organization. We've organized our Discord server into several categories to help you navigate and find what you need:

Community Spaces

Stay connected with channels like #announcements for Sanity news and #introductions where you can meet fellow community members. Share your work in #showcase and get an instant serotonin boost by checking out the #pets channel.

Support and learning

Get help in the help channel, explore #getting-started resources, or dive into #deep-dives for advanced topics. In #ask-ai that has access to all of our docs as well as previous community conversations. We also have full time community support engineer that helps out in these channels.

Product and features

Discuss specific Sanity features in channels like #functions, #canvas, and #blueprints. Here you'll often meet our product managers and engineers, who will both ask for feedback on new updates or help out when they have time.

Technology and ecosystem

Connect with others using your favorite frameworks (next-js, svelte, etc.) or discuss specialized topics like ecommerce integration. The Sanity community is blessed with folks who often have deep knowledge and a lot of experience with these technologies.

Events

Join live discussions during Sanity events or participate in virtual community meetups.

What's in it for you?

Beyond the warm fuzzy feeling of being part of an awesome community, here's what you'll get from our Discord:

• Direct access to Sanity experts: Get your questions answered by the people who built the platform
• Peer-to-peer learning: Connect with other developers solving similar challenges
• Early feature previews: Be the first to know about and test new Sanity features
• Career opportunities: Network with agencies and companies in the Sanity ecosystem
• Fun: Yes, we'll have community events, challenges, and the occasional meme thread

Whether you're a Sanity veteran or just getting started, our Discord community is the place to level up your content engineering skills.

Community !== Discord

One important thing to remember: while we've moved to Discord, our community isn't defined by the platform it lives on. The Sanity community is about the people, the knowledge sharing, and the connections we build together, wherever it happens.

The platform is just the venue: You are what makes the community special. Whether you're asking questions, sharing solutions, or showcasing your latest Sanity-powered project, you're contributing to a knowledge base and culture that extends far beyond any chat platform.