This article provides a high-level overview of three popular online communication and community platforms Slack, Discord, and Reddit including what each is designed for and the core features each one offers. Use this as a starting point if you have heard these names mentioned and want to understand what they do before deciding whether one fits a personal, social, or coursework-related need.

Are Slack, Discord, and Reddit supported by IT?

No. Slack, Discord, and Reddit are not officially supported, endorsed, administered, monitored, or managed by The Community Solution Education System or by any IT team within the System. They are third-party consumer platforms that are owned and operated entirely by their respective companies, and any use of these platforms is at the user's own discretion and risk. The following points are important to understand before signing up for or using any of these services in connection with school activities:

• The IT department does not provision, configure, or manage accounts on Slack, Discord, or Reddit. Account creation, password resets, multi-factor authentication, and recovery for these platforms are handled by the platform vendors directly, not by the Help Desk.
• The IT department does not monitor activity, content, messages, posts, comments, voice or video sessions, or files shared on these platforms. Issues such as harassment, inappropriate content, spam, scams, or impersonation that occur on Slack, Discord, or Reddit cannot be investigated or remediated by IT and should be reported through each platform's built-in reporting tools.
• The IT department does not back up, retain, archive, or have any ability to recover data stored in these platforms. If a workspace, server, subreddit, message, or account is lost, deleted, or banned, IT cannot restore it.
• These platforms have not been reviewed or approved as official channels for institutional communication, file sharing, or storage of any school data. Sensitive, confidential, regulated, or student-record information should not be transmitted or stored on Slack, Discord, or Reddit under any circumstances.
• Help Desk tickets relating to problems on Slack, Discord, or Reddit (such as sign-in issues, missing features, broken notifications, or content moderation questions) cannot be worked by IT staff. Please contact each platform's own support resources for assistance.
• The institution's acceptable use policies and code of conduct still apply to any conduct on these platforms when it involves other members of the System community, even though IT does not administer the platforms themselves.

Note: When school-related collaboration, messaging, or file sharing is needed, please use the official, IT supported tools provided by the System (such as your school-provided email and the approved collaboration suite) rather than Slack, Discord, or Reddit.

What is Slack?

Slack is a messaging platform built primarily for workplace and team communication. It is organized around workspaces (a single team or organization) that contain channels for topic-based conversations, plus direct messages for one-on-one or small-group chats. Slack is commonly used by companies, project teams, and some student or hobby groups to keep ongoing conversations organized in one place.

What are the main features of Slack?

Based on Slack's own quick start guide, the platform's core features include the following:

• Channels — dedicated spaces that bring people, files, and tools together around a topic, project, or team. Channels can be public to the workspace or private.
• Direct messages (DMs) — one-off conversations with individuals or small groups that do not need an entire channel.
• Huddles — lightweight audio or video chats that can be started inside a channel or DM for quick discussions or screen sharing.
• Activity view — a single place to see mentions, threads, and reactions that may need attention.
• Files, canvases, and lists — ways to share documents, draft shared notes, and track items alongside conversations.
• Search — full-text search across messages, files, channels, and people in the workspace.
• Workflows and apps — automation tools and a marketplace of integrations for connecting other services such as calendars, video meeting tools, and project trackers.

Slack offers a free tier with feature limitations and several paid tiers that unlock additional capabilities. Slack is available as a web application, a desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

For more details directly from Slack, please refer to How to use Slack: your quick start guide.

What is Discord?

Discord is a communication platform that lets users interact through text, voice, and video. It is organized around servers, which are customizable spaces built for communities of any size, from small groups of friends to large public communities. Each server contains channels dedicated to specific topics or activities. Discord was originally popular with gaming communities but is now used widely for hobby groups, study groups, creator communities, and social circles.

What are the main features of Discord?

Based on Discord's own beginner's guide and related help articles, the platform's core features include the following:

• Servers — customizable spaces where a community gathers. A user can be a member of many servers and switch between them from the sidebar.
• Text channels — marked with a # symbol, used for written messages, file and image sharing, threads, and links.
• Voice channels — marked with a speaker icon, allowing members to drop in for voice or video chat and screen sharing without placing a call. Members can see who is currently in a voice channel and join at any time.
• Direct messages and group DMs — private conversations with one or more friends outside of any server.
• Roles and permissions — server owners and moderators can assign roles that control who can read, post, speak, or manage channels.
• Forum channels — organized topic-based posting available in Community-enabled servers.
• Custom emoji, stickers, reactions, and bots — personalization and automation tools that many servers use.
• Account connections — optional links to services such as Spotify, YouTube, Twitch, Xbox, and PlayStation for showing activity to friends.

Discord offers a free tier and a paid subscription called Discord Nitro that adds features such as larger uploads, custom emoji, and enhanced video quality. Discord is available as a web application, a desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and through console integrations.

For more details directly from Discord, please refer to Beginner's Guide to Discord.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a public discussion and content-sharing platform organized around topic-specific communities called subreddits. Each subreddit (for example, r/cooking or r/AskReddit) is dedicated to a particular subject and is run by volunteer moderators who set its rules. Members submit posts — text, links, images, or videos — and other members reply with comments and vote on what they find valuable. Reddit is largely asynchronous: conversations can unfold over hours or days rather than in real time.

What are the main features of Reddit?

Based on Reddit's own help center and getting-started materials, the platform's core features include the following:

• Subreddits — individual communities, each focused on a topic and governed by its own rules and moderators.
• Posts — submissions made to a subreddit, which can be text, links, images, videos, or polls depending on what the subreddit allows.
• Comments — threaded replies to posts and to other comments, which form the bulk of conversation on the platform.
• Upvotes and downvotes — the voting buttons that let members signal whether a post or comment adds value to a discussion. Voting affects how prominently content is displayed.
• Karma — a rough reflection of the upvotes and downvotes a user has received on posts and comments. Karma is split into post karma and comment karma, and some subreddits set minimum karma requirements before allowing new members to participate.
• Sorting options — feeds can be sorted by Hot, New, Top, Rising, and other options to surface different content.
• Chat and direct messages — private real-time chat and traditional direct messages between users.
• Profiles — each account has a profile page that shows recent posts, comments, karma totals, and any awards received.
• Reddit Premium — an optional paid subscription that removes ads and adds additional features.

Reddit content can be browsed without an account, but creating posts, leaving comments, voting, and joining subreddits all require signing in. Reddit is available through the web and through mobile apps for iOS and Android.

For more details directly from Reddit, please refer to Getting Started — Reddit Help.

How do Slack, Discord, and Reddit compare at a glance?

The table below summarizes the most important differences between the three platforms. Please note that this is a general overview only and that feature availability changes over time — always refer to each platform's official help center for current details.

Where can I get help with Slack, Discord, or Reddit?

Because these platforms are not supported by IT, all questions, account issues, and abuse reports must be directed to the platforms themselves. Please use the official help centers and support channels listed below:

• Slack Help Center: https://slack.com/help 
• Discord Support: https://support.discord.com 
• Reddit Help: https://support.reddithelp.com 

If a question or task can be accomplished using an IT supported, school-provided tool instead of one of these third-party platforms, please consider using the supported option, as the Help Desk is able to assist with those services.