TLDR:
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- There's a Discord server for Quickbase Qrew members. It's run by Quickbase Qrew Members, not by Quickbase. It is a true Community-owned space.
- Quickbase employees participate as members of this community.
- Members of this space are online daily interacting with each other, helping with formulas, pipelines, and other product related questions.
- Quickbase Qrew Members can join here.
As Community Manager here at Quickbase, I want to make every effort to actually be in the Community as much as I can be. That's not easy. There are a lot of you. There is only one of me.
Part of the way we want to build more ways to engage with each other is to allow for more in person events via Qrew Groups. I'm excited to see efforts in Portland, Raleigh/Durham, and Boston coming along, and would expect to see a few more cities starting up soon as well.
But what about the rest of the time when there are no in person gatherings to attend? That's a lot of time. How can the Qrew connect in other ways beyond Qrew Groups and this Qrew Discussions website? Our Community Slack was created in 2020 to allow for a virtual space to connect during our first virtual Empower, but it's been missing a true community feeling for some time.
There had to be something else out there.
I can't remember the first time I met @Rosson Long. I want to say it was former Quickbase Community Manager @Evan Martinez who introduced us on a call sometime in late 2022/early 2023. I arrived on the call without much in the way of an agenda, and Rosson immediately launches into this platform called "Discord" to show us the community he's built in this space.
I'm googling "Discord" because I'd never used it. I'm not a gamer, clearly, otherwise I'd be very familiar with this platform. And Rosson is going from channel to channel talking about all the ways Quickbase community members could benefit. Rosson's passion for both Quickbase and this Discord space he's created are obvious. There's clearly value here, but I'm hesitant.
My interest was piqued, so I asked for an invite.
As an experiment, I decided I'd be a member of this small community inside the much larger capital C Community, and participate in Discord discussions when it made sense to. I've been doing so for the past six months, and here are my observations...
- If you love building in Quickbase and want to be around others like you, the Discord Qrew is where you want to be. It's not all work, it's some play. There's a #random channel where we recently went through our favorite lines from the movie "This is Spinal Tap". #thisgoestoeleven
- I witnessed someone share they had been let go from their employer and within days have a job interview and offer lined up. There's a #jobboard channel now as a result of this, members share openings in their org or post that they're looking for work opportunities. I was blown away watching this group come together to help one of their own find work.
- The knowledge is next level Quickbase. Some of the formulas, Pipelines jinja, tips and tricks being shared in this space are incredible.
- There are close to 200 members as of today, and there's always a group of frequent flyers in there daily helping each other out. I'd expect this number to climb steadily.
- Messages do not expire in Discord as they do in free Community Slack, which is a huge value add.
- It's very easy to pop into a room and demo a workflow or watch someone else demo a workflow.
- It's a very welcoming, extremely engaged, passionate group of Quickbase experts, and if you aspire to be a Quickbase SME one day, this is a good group for you to get to know.
Don't take my word for it...here are some quotes from Quickbase Qrew members on their experience in the Discord Qrew...
@Amanda Thomas wrote "This community helped me solve a problem yesterday without even realizing it. I was typing up my question and all the things I'd tried and just thinking about how to explain what I needed made me realize I had another option!"
@Rosson Long wrote "The Discord community gives me an outlet to connect and talk with other Quickbase developers in real time about common problems and solutions. It also creates fun opportunities for humor and brings a light hearted mood to what can otherwise be a stressful and demanding job experience."
@Allan Heaps wrote "The Discord community has been a key element in my comfort with and ability to move from a long career of educational technology and instructional design to database development and data analysis. I am the only one of my kind at the extended studies unit where I work. This Discord community gives me a group of capable mentors and peers who like to interact and learn together. I love that the conversations here cover archived questions and tips, opportunities to meet and show problems, and occasional conversations and demonstrations about who we are as humans in our lives beyond what we do at work."
For those looking to join the Discord Qrew, here's a link to join.
