Join our Discord server!


~~Old message below~~

I've been thinking... How much interest would there be in a Discord server?

For those not in the know: Discord is a persistent chat application. Much like IRC, but allows multiple chatrooms in one community, and keeps the chat persistent so you can pick up where you left off at any time and not miss anything.

I've noticed that there is real potential to revive communities through the Discord chat application, especially small ones like ours. It certainly got things a lot more active and lively in another small community I moderate (telefang.net), and I've heard the same from people in other niche communities.

The nice thing about Discord is that it's accessible anywhere (including a web version), and it allows for quick sharing of not just chat messages, but also images and files. It's basically a really integrated, friendly system, and it really encourages interaction more, with both old and new members. (Also markdown support in chat is nice)

But I don't know the community's stance on setting up something like Discord for Sphere. It took a little while before I myself was convinced, but thinking about it, this would be a really nice way for the community to keep communicating, especially since we have almost no new people coming to the forums anymore.

This looks pretty good to me! I guess it's like a gamer's version of slack.

It sounds like an interesting idea, and I'm on Discord for other communities, but I'm not sure if this one would have much of a use for it.

I don't know. I can't help but feel this would be a good fit, to be honest, since it's a little more 'live'. I've encountered random curious people stumbling into a discord community and sticking around as they really got to know the people and what it's all about. Especially when it's properly advertised (clear links on the website and social media).

I might set one up soon just to test, even if it might see little use at first. We'll see.

While I'm taking a break from the Discord communities I frequent (for mental health reasons), I'm down for this.

looks like a good idea to me

I'd love to have a discord, since it'd give a good place to chat about stuff that can feel a bit too whimsical to commit a whole forum thread or post for.

Sounds good to me. Forums are pretty old school at this point!

All right! I don't have much experience managing a server, but I made one! There are a few basic channels to get started, though we probably won't need many.

Note that I set a requirement that your account needs to be verified and exist for more than 5 minutes before you can chat, just so we don't get spammers. So if you're new to Discord, you're going to have to wait a few minutes before you can join in!

Moderators will be able to manage users/spam as well as add/modify channels and custom smileys, so whoever's interested in that, lemme know!

 I'll be putting some links to this in a few more places now.

I agree with Radnen, but prefer Slack tbh -- as that's what pixelart communities like pixelation use
@Casiotone Don't however agree with considering forums as outdated, as they're great content aggregators if designed properly
Can't say I agree with the current site design tho, do prefer the old one but will certainly adapt to the change if necessary

Can't say I agree with the current site design tho, do prefer the old one but will certainly adapt to the change if necessary

Any particular feedback? The theme itself is just ElkArte's default as I'm very slowly working on a custom theme myself (based on the current Spherical front page), so any suggestions will be welcome.

One thing about forums is they need to be well designed, PHPbb doesn't cut it anymore unless you have a thriving community! 
Xenforo has become the most popular bb software as of 2017, IP.Board is still also a great choice, I myself chose xenforo.

I personally prefer discord over slack but that is just me

I do like Discord, but does it seem like it kind of killed forum activity? This wouldn't be the first time I've seen this happen to a community.

I do like Discord, but does it seem like it kind of killed forum activity? This wouldn't be the first time I've seen this happen to a community.

I don't know, the majority of the discord activity has been me and Rhuan trying to figure out bugs and stuff, back and forth conversations that don't really lend themselves to the bulletin board format anyway.  We've had lots of people join the discord channel, but none of them really talk, so...

It's more that we don't have that many members to begin with, I think, and they all have lives outside of Sphere.

There's usually a cycle of increased and decreased activity, usually relating to the status of projects and how many people are excited for them. I definitely don't help the problem, since I usually just lurk, but this sort of cycle is pretty natural in the Sphere forums.