Thinkin' About Community: Discord etc.?

[The Other Dave]

So y'all have probably noticed, the forums are pretty quiet. Part of that is that we're a small community fundamentally and that's how active-user-versus-lurker numbers have worked in online spaces since antiquity, but I've been thinking that part of it may just be that online forums are kind of a - maybe let's be polite and say "unfashionable"? - way of communicating online in TYOOL 2025. Certainly we have many more people coming to monthly events than take part actively here, and we just had a thread from someone new to the forum who simply hadn't thought to check up messages here - I can't help but think that we may be missing out on connecting with some local players for similar reasons.

We do have a Discord that got a bit of use in Covid Times, but it was set up and administered by Karantu (who's moved on to other things) so I don't think any of us left have admin privileges to set up new channels and so on - but setting up a Discord server is fundamentally pretty trivial and being admin shouldn't be too onerus for a small community like ours (he said perhaps naively). So I was wondering if people think it would be worthwhile? Would it be easier to keep up with local events / chat about painting progress / theorycraft about game rules / just bullshit online with other local-ish hobbyists if it was on Discord rather than (or at least in addition to) on here? There's also the fact that this forum is (IIRC) costing Primarch money every month for not a whole lot of benefit to him personally to consider.

Thoughts? Ideas? Sound of crickets chirping as a reinforcement of the fact that people don't use this forum much?

[Jye Nicolson]

I'm pro Discord, it's my main online social space these days and you can share images directly there.

That being said I think it has a discoverability problem, you need some sort of surface to direct people there. So it's not a forum/website replacement, though it *might* be better at keeping a community engaged if it hits critical mass.

[The Other Dave]

Haha, crickets it is!

I threw up a simple discord server here: https://discord.gg/C2kvN6MK

I'll put the link up in a few of the busy threads and see what happens.

[Grantholomeu]

I'd recommend putting the DIscord link somewhere easily accessible here. But then what people often do is have a react required on the rules in order to open everything up. I've seen it where you must post in the introductions channel too, but that's rare. It's like you say, it's a discoverability problem, but if you make it too easily accessible, then we could get spam bots.

[The Other Dave]

Yeah, exactly. I popped it into the most-used threads here. I figured if people don't see this one they won't see another thread I post, although I guess "join Discord, yo!" might be more eye-catching than the contemplative title this one has.

I don't want to spam, so I'll leave it as it is for a bit and see who bites. I've got it set so members can send invites, so if you know anyone on discord who's a nagoya person feel free to drop them one.

[me_in_japan]

fwiw, I hadnt checked this forum this week just cos I was busy. By coincidence, I dnd every second saturday, and discord is our video chat vehicle of choice. So, I got Dave's invitation when I logged on this evening. All good, but that's cos I was already friended with dave on discord (why, i do not recall, but there ya go.)

So yeah. Discord at least prods you when you're expected to do something.

[The Other Dave]

I think we used it for voice chat when we tried the Star Wars MMO way back when!

[The Underdweller]

The link seems to have expired.

[The Other Dave]

The link seems to have expired.

Yeah, it's only good for a week as a spam filter thing. Here's a new one: https://discord.gg/E99XCvr7

[YellowStreak]

The link is dead again! It's a difficult question to answer, I recall a similar discussion when the facebook group was set up. Differing communication platforms do risk further fracturing an already small community. I do use discord, but can't say I'm a massive fan of it as, like alot of newer social media, it assumes you basically live and breathe there and i just ain't got the time these days!
I've been quiet here as work has been busy and i've been on 10 international on flights in the last 6 weeks, so not much time for myself! Discord is easier to use from my phone or ipad when travelling, so that's a plus.