Discord!

[alias_sqbr]

The irc-like chat program Discord is the new shiny fannish social media. One advantage over irc is that it shows all messages posted, not just the ones you're there for, which makes for a better ongoing conversation. The advantage over tumblr etc is the ability to have private-ish, moderated, communal conversations. The advantage over message boards and mailing lists is that it's new and shiny.

I quite like it but it can be tricky finding servers (eg chat rooms) relevant to my interests. Currently I'm only a member of public ones, so I can share the links freely. Here are all the ones I know about.


Servers I am on:

• Femslash Frivolity
  
• Imzy
  
• Dragon Age LGBT writers
  
• Mass Effect LGBT writers
  
• Twine/Interactive fiction
  
• Fail Fandom Anon I have notifications muted and don't post, but lurk a little. Having the ability to hide annoying channels, and mods to boot annoying people, makes it a calmer experience than meme.
  

I was on a Shirayuki Hime server but they were all like 18 and I don't actually have a lot to say about the manga. Since then akagamins took the link down due to a troll, but said if you ask they'll give you an invite.

Note that unless you do something tricky with multiple browsers etc Discord will sign you in as the same person on every server, you can change your username on each server but people can still click through to your profile and connect the dots.

There's a Discord application but I just use the browser version and that works fine.

I enjoyed it much more once I learned to (a) mute channels I find annoying (b) Accept that most conversations will pass me by, especially given my time zone. I mostly lurk, only popping in from time to time.

I've not yet done much with "friends" and am not sure what the features are but you guys are welcome to friend me anyway if you like :) My username is sqbr#4312.

Comments

[hebethen]

>The advantage over message boards and mailing lists is that it's new and shiny.

Hah!

My two main beefs with Discord are 1) lack of threading and 2) getting channel notifs when someone you've blocked posts. Wherefore this Need For Speed, O modern social media ;_;

[torachan]

After hearing so much about it on FFA, I finally joined the other day and took a look around, but I don't think I'll be using it that much. I just am less interested in real-time chat. It's nice that the history of all the messages is there, like you said, but the format doesn't make it easy to backread. I'm going to keep it bookmarked for times I'm really bored, but I'm usually behind enough on reading meme that even on my days off I have plenty of stuff to read (and that's even taking into account I'm not interested in the fannish discussion stuff and only there for politics and wank).

[wolfpurplemoon]

Yay discord! The Imzy community Let's Grab Coffee has a good server too (a little bit of overlap with the Official Imzy one though!)

I have the desktop app and the mobile app, using it in-browser seems irksome (also I'm a moderator in some servers and am the admin/creator of a few private servers so the apps are a must in order to easily access all the moderator options).

[bunny_m]

Huh.

I didn't know it did all that.

Several online friends use it for it's voice-chat, in much the same way we use Ventrilo or some others use Teamspeak.

[moonvoice]

I've had Discord for ages now (it's the new hip thing, lol, but we were looking at it back when desktop Skype was awful), but I've only just considered using it as an actual feature.

I like the community features, they remind me a lot of Slack, especially the options to have different pages etc.

I think it helps that lurking in communities is pretty much perfectly normal. But I'm enjoying it! I feel like chat/text programs have been lacking something like this for a while. Thank you for posting the links!

[alias_sqbr]

I'm glad this was useful!

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, afaict the text features mostly flew under the radar until recently, when a bunch of people realised they suited their nerdy needs.

[alias_sqbr]

What I like about using the browser is I can pop in and out easily. Most of the time there isn't much conversation going on when I'm online because of timezones, so I mostly use it as a static webpage to check than a chat program per se.

[wolfpurplemoon]

Which time zone are you in? The LGC discord server has Europeans, Asians/Aussies and the usual USians and Canadians so there's usually someone to chat with 24 hours a day!

[alias_sqbr]

Meanwhile I quite frequently run out of meme and like having even more to read. I have a lot of time to kill :)

[alias_sqbr]

Ooh, that's bad design, I haven't blocked anyone but that sounds annoying.

[alias_sqbr]

+8UTC, I think: same as Singapore etc. Sadly I never fully clicked with the imzy discord people, they seem very nice and make for good cheery conversations to read when I need distraction but I don't generally feel much pull to speak up even if I'm around while it's active.

[trs80.ucc.asn.au]

Yeah, UCC now has a Discord that's linked to the IRC server, and I'm in a few others. People can't see which servers you're on unless they're on them too.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, the odds of someone joining the dots tend to be low, but it's still good to know depending on how important it is to someone not to cross the streams.