Discord Server Suggestions

[MethodicalSlacker]

Specifically for #voice and #spoilers, but there are some other adjustments that could be made.

#voice:
- used primarily for songtest
- also for general music things
- existing channel could be renamed to #songtest, new #voice text channel created and moved down to the Voice Channels tab in the channel list

#spoilers:
- often used for general V7 talk in non-spoilery contexts, but conversations bleed from one to another fairly easily
- also a place where spoilers for non-related media show up despite the topic description forbidding it—nobody reads that, guys!
- renamed existing #spoilers to #v7discussion or something along those lines
- create a new #mediadiscussion channel for people to talk about other works

Miscellaneous:
- rename #chat to #general
- create a read-only #rules channel like Mini's with the Code of Conduct listed, as well as other rules/reminders about certain content if they need to be added/reminded of
- potentially, #v7discussion and #critiques could go under the same header separate from other channels

[Slam]

#voice
- I concur with renaming it #songtest because that's what it's used for at the moment.
- No reason we can't make another text voice channel either.
- If songtest's ever fall out of favour, we can just delete the channel. No fuss, no muss.

#spoilers
- I'd say go more along the lines of #SOTF-Discussion, rather than going with v7 specific since I've seen chat from all versions go along there.
- I think it's better keeping #critiques separate for now since it serves its function quite well when requests don't get lost in other conversations.

[Espi]

I agree with having a #Songtest. We could theoretically include Mafia too, though we don't get much of that. Having a media discussion as well as an SOTF discussion seems reasonable. We could subdivide it into like, wrestling, video games, other media, but I don't know if that's necessary.

I dunno if we need to call it 'general', I think just using it as the main chat is fine. A Rules section would be useful as a shorthand for new people.

[Grand Moff Hissa]

I am neutral on #songtest vs. #voice but only because nobody really uses #voice for its intended purpose anyways nowadays as voice chats seem quite rare. I wouldn't mind it at all, though, and it could even be tucked away in the Voice Channels section like so:

...I guess I've talked myself into it being a good idea.

I agree on keeping Critiques and general SOTF talk different. I prefer a version-agnostic SOTF chat. I also don't think we really need any sort of non-spoilers SOTF chat zone because it's brutally hard to discuss SOTF without spoilers given the nature of the game and site. Mmmmaaaayyyybbbeeeee when final ten secret rolls/Endgame is going on, but until then any current version discussion is effectively spoilers anyways.

I'm neutral on #MediaDiscussions just because I guess I feel like it could/often does go in the general channel. If stuff's getting overwhelmed or buried, though, it doesn't hurt; I don't super read the general channel a lot of the time so am not the most informed. Now that there's a spoiler feature, a special spoiler zone seems less necessary.

By "Header" I think MS isn't proposing merging the channels, but making them their own little home a la Text Channels vs. Voice Channels, like "SOTF Game Channels" or something.

re: Mafia talk, I actually think that one is maybe better to skip just because as part of its rules mafia discourages external discussion so having an external discussion zone could get confusing for people in a hurry/lead to unfortunate incidents.

Rules zones are cool. I'm not sure how often they're used but if they cause clutter you can always mute 'em and enable muted channel hiding.

[MethodicalSlacker]

By "Header" I think MS isn't proposing merging the channels, but making them their own little home a la Text Channels vs. Voice Channels, like "SOTF Game Channels" or something.

Yup, that's what I meant by this. Sorry if the wording is confusing here

[Yonagoda]

Maybe allow handlers to submit their own emojis for staff to approve to add to the server?

[RC~]

add

#v1
#v2
#v3
#v4
#v5
#v6
#v7

to discuss about older versions

[RC~]

add #suggestions channel

(not my idea but a good one)

(p.s.: realised the old version channels wasn't my idea either and a good one too)

[Brackie]

As an addendum to RC's suggestions, I'll elaborate my own POV on said suggestions/paraphrase what I already said on the Discord about them:

--

re: #v1-7: I know there's always a concern about dead channels with no discussion taking up channel space, but...c'mon. There's 8 channels total in the Discord as it is, and it took years of asking (and the creation of this thread, even) for there to even be added that 8th one, and even then it's a shared purpose channel, as is pretty much every other one. And even then, this is a different case to other servers and their occasional dead channels - so what if #v1 doesn't get any posts in it for six months? v1 is a part of our site history - we're a reading site, at some point someone is always going to go back and reread parts (or all) of v1. Channels that cover parts of the history and core of the site don't /need/ to *stay* active constantly, they can just...exist, and occasionally be used. There's no harm in that.

Another concern is that people constantly do readthroughs of old versions - there is, in fact, one going on right now via one of our active members. And even if that idea is contended, hosted Read-A-Thons exist and will continue to exist well into the site's future. But every few months the subject comes up of exactly /where/ these readthroughs should be, because what works at one point will stop working at another point - do new members want to have talk of their very first pregame discussion halted so some people can talk about a version that started before they even began elementary school? Having specialized channels for our past versions helps that because not only do people not have to guess or fear interrupting discussion just to talk about their reading, but now they know exactly where the readings can go.

--

re: #suggestions - this, wholeheartedly this. I know *waves at entire subforum* this, exists, but the thing is that posting stuff on the board like this is intimidating, no matter your age or how long you've been on the site (hell, I've been here since 2009 and even I still live in constant terror of MurderWeasel deconstructing an entire suggestion post of mine). Who wants to risk posting a suggestion only for everyone to reveal they hate it and staff prepare three separate posts debunking it and slam dunking it into the trash? That's why so much discussion about hypothetical suggestions happens on Discord, because it's very easy to gauge public opinion very quickly that way and find out who exactly is down for your ideas, but the problem comes when that idea never gets transmitted staffside.

Well, having a direct line of suggestion to staff like this circumvents both of those things - a channel just for suggesting stuff means people can hash out ideas in real time /and/ it goes straight to staff as well, and they can discuss it with staff much quicker. I probably wouldn't have every single suggestion function take place in a single channel (since that's just asking for dogpiling/heavy discourse shifting), but some fine tuning along the lines of the idea couldn't hurt.

This would also just be for Discord stuff, like emotes/channels/bots/functions/roles/etc - SOTF-as-a-whole related suggestions would still be in this subforum.

--

Anyways, those are just my 2am posted $0.02, take of them what you will

[Namira]

If older versions had their own channels they could also be in their own category, which would be easily collapsible to spare the potential of channel bloat.

[RC~]

here's why I think version-seperate channels should be added:

-each version has a different vibe
-each main version is very large already, some main version being even larger than a mini universe
-past main versions are constantly read due to being tied with the universe. It has a higher readership than mini and therefore larger discussion potential
-this isn't mibbit anymore and there is a lot more activity going on, chat is a lot about reading the backlogs and commenting on stuff that has been written in the past than like in the mibbit days where there was no history, just chatting with whomever was online
-it doesn't hurt to have more channels. I like things being organised and discord has lots of useful functions so why not use them
-what namira said
-what brackie said re: dead channels

might add more arguments if I can think of any

[Melusine]

That kinda slays tbh