About the Triptych Continuum's Discord server · 12:01am Jun 26th, 2020
I've mentioned it before. It's an empty room. I'm the only person who has the server code. (I'm not even sure how to detect or paste the server code. I usually get into the server by typing in the first two numbers of its location into the URL bar.) There are no member, no channels -- don't ask me how you go about setting up channels -- and not a single word has ever been posted there.
It's the place online where I go to be alone. As opposed to, y'know, turning the computer off, which would make a lot more sense.
I initially created it as a joke. Discord servers? Well, since everyone else on the planet has one, let me just get that little requirement for modern existence out of the way! Plus 'Discord server' and yes, I am perfectly aware that I'm the last person to that joke. Discord does not serve. He mostly lurks and makes you wish he wouldn't. And you never want to take a close look at the refreshments.
But... some people have noticed that I haven't been in FIMFiction's server for a while.
I walked out on an argument, and I'll be honest about what it was. I had a tendency to use chat as a place to point and groan when something truly horrible reached the New column: some partial transcripts from those times have reached blogs before. It was a way of venting, along with a location to safely do so. I was told that I was being cruel to those writers, and I stepped away. Part of this was because I was trying to avoid getting into a full fight, and the rest was because I wanted some quiet time to consider whether the other side had a point. Because I was pointing and groaning a lot, and let's face it: you did just see me say that it was a means of venting. So... time to reflect.
I'm very good at walking away from some things, at least of the Internet variety: I'm putting that qualifier in so y'all won't start the list of lost causes I've been known to chase. But I don't have a lot of skill at going back. Absence has its own inertia: I initially gave myself a month, and it's been more than that just because a month had passed. That made it easier to add time.
The TC server predates that departure by several months. (I'm fairly sure there's a founding date on the page. Somewhere.) So it's not a case of where I created my own as a nyah-nyah: you were mean to me, so I'm going somewhere else so I can be bashed by the people who regularly do that in the Comments anyway! However, the departure has made it even harder to open up to anyone else, because that's probably how it's going to be seen. Additionally, Discord servers are one of those cases where I feel like things have already reached critical mass: how many does any one person need to be on, anyway? I would, if the server was opened, expect a quick peek of curiosity and then a slow trickle out. Let's face it: there's only so many things to discuss, although the bashing opportunities are more or less unlimited.
That's why part of why I haven't offered access as a Patreon reward: it feels pointless. It's also slamming up a paywall. I did occasionally talk about chapters and stories-in-progress in the FIMFic server -- which means that was a sneak preview on content. So in the event that happened again, it's now locked behind a gate.
On the other hand, fully open access lets the hardcore antireaders in. I can only kick people so quickly, at least once I figure out how banning works at all. And yes, someone who doesn't delete comments is fully prepared to permaban on Discord. Take your First Amendment violation claims and inject them into your veins for a quick self-righteousness high: I don't care. If you're on the attack, then I have no obligation to be nice to you. You feel I've violated my principles by blocking you out just because you said I was the worst writer on the site and could only improve the world through leaving it? Then you can tell everyone that you feel I violated my principles. Somewhere else.
But with no traffic, that's not exactly a current problem.
I haven't really looked at how to set up channels within the server. There doesn't seem to be any need: as said, initial peeking, then departure. Plus I probably shouldn't have one called #TerrorsOfTheNewColumn. In order to prove my cruelty, there would need to be at least three.
Deletion of the server seems to be just about as pointless as its existence. And I don't currently feel comfortable with going back into the main FIMFic server. But most of that is inertia, and I'm not looking for sympathy there. It's possible that the other side had a point, and groaning about what washes up in the New column is a hard habit to break.
Ultimately, I don't know what to do with the thing. It feels like the Internet version of an appendix: no matter what I do, the only reason anyone might remember it is for inflammation and rupture.
So for those of you who have your own Discord servers... what do you do with them? How well are they holding up? What are some of the problems you've run into?
And for the group: is there anything which I should do with this one?
Is there anything which can be done?
I dunno. Maybe kicking out the Hatedom would substitute for point-and-groan.
Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to be cruel.
New review set soon, and I know it's late. The funeral threw everything off.
The roadside going up was littered with dead deer. The road back had a corpse every other mile.
I kept waiting for someone in the extended family to ask what I was doing to earn money. Never happened.
I had been darkly considering, for the worst-case scenario, unleashing my best Dan Avidan imitation. Right down to the hysterical choking laughter.
"There are magical talking ponieswhich I write about for a living!"
I made one for myself and a few friends.
...Then gave them Admin Powers and let them do what they will.
Working well so far. I've only really had to prune the roles they made.
~Skeeter The Lurker
For what it's worth, we miss you in FIMfic.
Entirely fair - but for what it's worth? You are missed, and that point is brought up semi-frequently.
This is the prime issue on most fronts for me. I'm in... seven right now, and four of those are 100% muted (and one hasn't had anything said in it since mid-February). Without a critical mass of people, it's dead 90% of the time. And even when they're not dead, what's the draw? Who really needs to follow fifteen different #general chats?
Just to explain the Dan Avidan/Game Grumps reference:
The chaos starts (or rather, begins to reach a head) at 2:05.
NSFW: cursing.
I'm old
I've never been able to log into the Discord chat room, never mind figure out how to log into someone's chat room
Old fart ranting & raving
When my father was born, Science Fiction didn't exist yet. Gernsbeck hadn't invented the word. They were Scientific Romances
When my parents got married , HG Wells was still alive
When I was young, they were still using slide rules to navigate starships. (Starman Jones (Heinlein) a subplot was that they couldn't navigate their starship because they'd lost the book of logarithm tables
I remember when dial telephones were invented
So, no, I'm NOT good with computers & the -ING Internet. You ever need to use a card catalog, THAT I can help you with
I made a discord server to put images to link in a different forum. It's a lot easier than screwing around with various websites (and you get less spam). It's also useful for testing things to be posted in other discords, especially if you're playing around with formatting and embedded links and trying to figure out what exactly discord is going to show. A private sandbox can be useful.
Discord is actually fairly easy to run. I have a few servers I help maintain, and it can be a good place to chat with folks. Heck, I know people who decided to make a fifty page entirely original tabletop game made to be played over discord because they met from there.
Got sidetracked. My point is, Discord can be easy to use and maintain. I wouldn't have an issue with a spot to talk about your work / read your rants outside of the comments pages.
I have a server I run just for a group of friends to do pen and paper games in. We have a Starfinder game and a Pathfinder game running currently. It’s pretty easy to set up different sets of rooms and roles to get people on the right areas and out of other ones.
Discord is pretty easy in the moderation side from my experience, though I haven’t worked in any large servers.
You could have a general chat and a lore room where the verbal shankings over every little mundane detail of the ‘Verse gets mercilessly theory crafted over.
Oh, and a The Secret room, for rational and measured discussion on that topic.
Totally fun!
I have one for a setting I write in frequently. The setting is essentially the lovechild of Pokemon and Monster Musume that's dating Monster Hunter and dabbles in Dungeons & Dragons.
I have a small group of fans there, mostly friends, but it's a place that makes me happy.
I don't even now what a Discord server IS!
I barely even know what Discord is (aside from the chaos-dude), and I read Aragon's blog!
(Also, glad you were able to make it to the funeral, from the sounds of it; grim though it is, it's something. Got that to deal with yet, its a couple of weeks away.
Today was the first time I went to the house on my own since she died. Got all the old cars out that I used to play with (that were my uncle's originaly); nearly made a book fort and took pictures, but I didnt think there were enough books that I remembered using. Seriously considered hiding the knitted Mr Plod the Policeman (y'know, from Noddy) symbolically. I always used to immediately hide him whenever I went to Nanny and Bampy's so that he couldn't arrest me. Bare in mind I was always a pretty stunningly Lawful child, so why I felt that was necessary is questionable, other than maybe Noddy taught me that was what policemen did - arrest people.)
Wow, the tone for the day is set.
I have two kinds of Discord servers. One is just a chat room for contest judges that I hold onto for the next contest, because there's no sense in throwing it out if I'm just going to make a new one. The other is the Oversaturated World Discord, which is pretty much dead, since I don't get on Discord much. (Nor have I done much with the OW lately.) On the off-chance someone does say something in there, it can be a week before the response, and that's because I get on a friend's server for D&D sessions.
The good news is that you probably won't encounter my problems. The bad news is that I can't meaningfully advise you on the ones you will.
As for what to do with your channel, that's really up to you. Discussion, speculation, Q&A, the stuff about the New column you don't dare say on the Fimfic server... There are a lot of possibilities here. And if you don't to bother, one of the possibilities is not bothering.
Understandable that the funeral was disruptive. I can't imagine the roadkill helped. Thanks for sticking with us.
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The roadkill almost reached the point of comedy. Part of that was what felt like a ridiculous quantity, and some was because most of it seemed to have been there for a while. I had to use several fairly major highways to get there and back: maintained roads. Ones which generally get cleaned off every day -- and yet there were dual classes in decomposition rates being hosted along shoulder and divider. Things had been building up, and I have no idea why clearing had stopped. Maybe that wasn't considered essential work by the state.
There were a few dark jokes on the day, which included ToiletQuest. I was trying to avoid having my mother's urinary issues rear up during the funeral. (Incidentally, Vibro-Bladder is on. I haven't scheduled the sessions yet because there's six of them over a three-week period and I need to examine the calendar closely before booking. The Ko-Fi goal has been adjusted accordingly.) So the first order of business upon reaching the cemetery was to find the adjoining funeral home or guest facilities, then check their bathroom accessibility and have her use it before everything started. Just in case.
Not so fast. We were the first to arrive: no other cars along the path. (It's one of those cemeteries which exists without a parking lot: just a single-lane loop around the center graves. You leave your vehicle on the grass. Also possibly on top of someone.) And that let us discover there was no building of any kind, at least not when it came to indoor plumbing. Enjoy your maintenance shack.
So back out of the cemetery we go, because it's at the edge of a residential neighborhood and there are no bathrooms available from knocking on doors. With most businesses closed, you can't rely on begging for retail help, I hadn't seen a gas station for the last ten minutes... it took a while to find the supermarket and by the time I basically begged her to decide on which pretzels she wanted, we had to scramble back.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the coffin lowering system. There were two thick fabric straps stretched across the grave and wound rolls of the same material to the sides, resting on wooden planks. (Several people had to walk on those planks in order to place the coffin, and that part nearly caved in. Twice.) Once the mass is in place, its weight pushes against the straps, and the reels slowly play out through high-friction narrow gaps. The coffin majestically sinks into rough-dug earth.
The problem is that they need those straps back. And the middle is now trapped under a coffin.
So while the religious figure of choice was reading from the ceremony book, there were two cemetery workers crouched directly behind him. Making plenty of noise and, in the name of matching, putting in absolutely no effort in pretending they weren't there. Tugging at bright green fabric because that color goes so well with every coffin, trying to work it out from underneath without actually going into the pit, shifting and sweating while looking like a Three Stooges routine which was waiting for the one with the book to step backwards, trip over them, and start up a second funeral.
The dignity of death.
I use mine as a place to store interesting bits of fan art that I would otherwise forget about. Sort of the digital equivalent of a desk drawer stuffed full of miscellaneous papers that you might want to be able to find again at some point
I call it the "useful space"
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't'aint funny, McGee. 't'aint funny!
I use Discord to conference with and play online games with my adult children. This is pretty minimal usage, so I can’t really help you with channels and such.
I know how to make servers with channels and stuff. I can help you if you need.
Ah, road kill. If anyone is planning a trip to Australia, make a zoo visit the first thing on your itinerary. It’s best to see our wildlife up and moving. Unfortunately the first encounter most tourists have is spotting roadkill. Or, if they are particularly unlucky, causing it. As a consequence of marsupials being an evolutionary steppingstone between reptiles and mammals, Kangaroos manage to be uniquely dumb.
With regards to Discord, I am not fond of chat. I’m a lousy typist. I much prefer to luxuriate over a slow and steady forum post. If you opened yours up, I’d probably register, and lurk. Posts would be few and far between.
Discord is a place I go continually hoping for entertainment while finding nothing but disappointment.
And a few dev groups I follow do feedback there, so it has its uses. :B
FimFic has a Discord server?
5293970 Every funeral I've been to around here has the Wilbert vault in the grave already, along with the metal lowerer thing before the family and the deceased even show up. The service is at the church, the pallbearers put the coffin into the hearse, everybody follows out to the cemetary, the pallbearers put the coffin on the metal lowerer thing, everybody gathers around for the inevitable 'few words' and then returns to the church for the post-funeral lunch, while the people who own the truck and the vault do their thing once nobody else s around. My mother served at I don't know how many funeral lunches, because the Lutheran Ladies Aid always put them on (or assisted at any other church with a funeral), and she was a member for all of her life. We always knew when a funeral was upcoming because That Dish was in the fridge, and nobody better open it up Or Else.
I run two Discord servers and am a moderator for two others, including one for another Patreon group. I'm currently part of (checks) 33 Discord groups, the vast majority are World of Warcraft or X-wing miniature community related. I'd be happy to help you set up your Discord.
You can message me with Sky_Paladin#7635.
Some general tips:
1 - Have moderators! You can't be online 24/7 keeping out the trolls. Appoint people you trust, or at the very least, people who frustrate you the least to help keep an eye on things.
2 - You need rules to help guide your moderators to correctly enforce your will. Rules can be as vague or as clearly defined as you like, it's up to the moderators to check with you if they're unclear. As an alternative to rules, you can also provide a statement of purpose, such as "This is a safe space for fans of Estee to discuss stories written by the author."
3 - Channels for specific purposes greatly help manage traffic. For example, here is a channel listing for the Warcraft server I manage:
wipeitup.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Capture2.png
The first tab, social, is the default tab that anybody who joins up for the first time sees. This includes random people who just typed the string in to their web browser and just found it, as well as anybody who joined using a generic invite link. The Welcome channel should be the first channel anybody sees. Here you should show your rules/purpose and name your moderators so that people who need help know who they can go to if they have questions, rather than directly ask you for everything. You should also include a link to your Patreon and Ko-fi here, as well as explaining what TC is in case people genuinely came here not knowing what My Little Pony is. You never know when that random clicker is going to become a new fan!
4 - Have clearly defined roles. Discord allows you to assign ranks to members, and you or your moderators can tightly manage what ranks are able to do. This includes visibility to specific channels, permission to edit or delete other people's posts, or even if they're allowed to post images. In the screenshot linked above, social players can see the Guild and Raid channels, but they can't post in them. Meanwhile, Guild ranked players can see everything except the officer channel, and they can post in the appropriate raid channels. Raid ranked players can do basically everything. The officers (my moderators) can actually do everything except kick me from the server.
5 - Mute high activity channels. In the link above, keystone-weekly-affixes, wowhead-news and wow-news-beta-and-ptr are greyed out. This is because they update frequently and the constant beeping became distracting. You can set your channel notifications by right clicking on the channel and selecting the appropriate notification - for me, it was 'mute until I say otherwise'. Your time is valuable.
6 - You can designate channels as 18+ or NSFW. When you mark a channel using the channel permissions as NSFW, users need to click an 'I approve' button in order to view the contents. You might want to use this if you have channels designated for memes or artwork. You may also wish to have a blanket "No 18+ or NSFW on the server", in which case, put it in your rules.
7 - It's OK to ban people. This is your virtual house and despite what Internet people may think, the Discord terms of service don't include 'The host has to be friends with everybody.'.
8 - When you create an invitation link, you can specify the link expires after a certain time frame (default is 24 hours) or a certain number of uses. I've never had reason to specify a certain number of uses, but the 'certain time frame' prevents trolls from sneaking back in.
9 - Consider touch-to-talk mandatory on voice channels for all ranks below moderator. Voice comms can get out of hand very quickly, and there's always somebody with loud music playing while they go to the bathroom and let the group hear a very graphic audio display of a healthy diet over several minutes. You don't want this. I don't want this. Nobody wants this.
10 - If all else fails, burn it all down. Discord servers are meant to be a fun lighthearted area for you to flex your conversational muscles, or to get feedback/commentary on something that you're working on. If it becomes a burden or you're always avoiding it, then get rid of it.
I hope this helps you to explore the world of Discord a little more, and maybe even open up your server to some individuals. I, for one, would be happy to join.
I feel like your hatedom must have something better to do with their time than insult you. The sheer amount of self-deprecation you do makes them redundant, to say nothing of how much more clever your insults are than anything they can come up with.
Despite what some idiots may think, "Congress shall pass no law" is not equal to "a site, forum, or chat administrator shall make no rule". In fact, there is at least one rule that fully authorizes people who've carved out a little corner (or subcorner, under the people who run, for example, Discord) of the internet to make and enforce rules. So yeah, should you ever decide to open it up to people who enjoy your work, you can remove any jerk you want and they have no legal grounds for filing a claim. (Also, if you do, I'll likely add it to the list of servers I go to myself.) But if you decide to keep it your own private oasis, that's cool, too.
I haven't made one, myself. I have even less idea what I'd do with it. Post every time one of my Square Root of Minus Garfield strips goes up?
I personally own 2- one that I use for as a way to transfer images easily between my phone and pc and various other apps, and a more developed one that I use to house and run a few ttrpgs between me and my personal friends. Other than that, I have belong to a fair few more which basically break down to being a group of servers lossless arranged around a main “irl” person server for people I know and then larger ones for content creators/communities that I mostly lurk in and steal memes from. As far as the creation of a ‘verse server goes, I wouldn’t mind it at all- although my personal tendencies would mostly confine me to lurking in it. I feel the best way to handle the running of such a thing would just be to delegate- at this point you’ve got enough of a following to pull a few trusted individuals from to act as moderators, and although you do have some existent form of hatedom, the truth of the matter is that this site and your stories particularly are niche enough that it wouldn’t probably lead to a unmanageable flow of bile spewing morons. In my honest opinion, the worst case scenario for a ‘verse server is that outside of a few initial bans, it’s populated by people that enjoy your work and discuss around it for a few weeks before eventually dying a quiet death-and if so, at least some people got to enjoy it while it lasted
No idea what the best thing for you to do with it is, sorry; I'm still not on Discord at all.
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it's weird for me to hear how Fimfic's Discord server is so close-knit and happening. I'd forgotten I'd even been a part of it. I just looked at it again now thanks to the reminder, and I remember why I left. It's not that there's any bad behavior, it's just that I don't know any of the people posting, and don't get the context of what they're posting about. I would join an Estee channel though.
I’ll say it again, I honestly think you should have a Patreon Discord. At least try it out. Making it patreon-or-invite-only at first should let you get a grip on things and maybe get a mod or two in before opening it up more. Setting up roles and channels is almost self-explanatory, and I'm sure there's a few friends around here willing to help.
I've got a server for my tabletop group. Having a single group chat to coordinate meetups instead of the old “everyone serial-texts everyone else for two days straight” routine is great, as well as giving you a place to dump any incidental bits of lore, do out-of-session shopping, and more.
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The first reference I ever saw to a Discord server was in the mlp subreddit.
I was confused.
Pretty much the only reason I got on discord was to coordinate when a forum went down, now I use it just about everyday to stay up with a few close friends. My own discord is just IRL friends and a very select few online people I know. Every huge discord I've joined to stay up with various topics and games ends up being a huge mess and I don't participate that much. Even now I've let a couple of people I don't know super well into my discord and I'm already slightly regretting it.
I'm old and forums are more my jam, not Reddit though, extremely dislike Reddit.
There are methods of dumping someone into a closed channel and then approving them. Not sure how well you'd handle stalker types that just want to harass you though, that's a constant headache for anyone involved in creative side of fandoms.
Edit for fat thumbs.
Find 2-3 people you trust to help admin. Good admins make all the difference of a functional discord or a mess.
You can set it up so people have to read a rule page and react to get access to the rest of the discord.
Be Ruthless!! With enforcement. One warning at most then ban.
I'm glad you were able to make it to the funeral. If one or more of the gravediggers had fallen in, that would make a story everyone would remember until their deaths. "Hey, remember when that guy fell into the grave at Aunt Esther's funeral? That was hilarious."
As for Discord -- never used it. I'm on a dinosaur computer, but that may be changing soon.
I have one set up with a few people from the roleplay community I'm in, we gripe and groan about things in the group we aren't comfortable griping about on twitter, vent about our writing, proofread each other, and in general chat about our days
Otherwise I use discord to keep in touch with other writers who want to plot, the one I ship with being the one I send jokes and fluff to, and as a means of contact within the group. I'm in a few other servers but mainly remain silent and use those as a means of keeping tabs on in-game non-discord server uptimes
But I can say I'd join an estee server, I do enjoy your writing and discussing in a chat setting is more comfortable to me than a comment section
I made mine because I was jealous that a peer had a bunch of people talking about their writing in his, and I wanted some of that hot action too. Over time my biggest fans joined, some stayed, and now I have a core group of editors and readers that just use the server as a general social hangout. We play games, talk about our lives, share porn, and I have a specific quarantine channel for politics where we can all get pissy at each other and still be friends outside of it. We don't talk about my writing that much because most of the people that actually talk shop have access to my drafts anyways and leave their comments right on the gdoc. Aside from the core group, we have a few peripheral floaters that mostly come in around updates or whenever they happen to catch up, and it's always nice talking to them about my writing or other things they've read, asking for opinions, suggestions, etc.
Moderator-wise, I keep it very casual. I've never had to kick or ban anyone. A couple times I'll mute someone for 10 minutes if they get a little too unruly. We have a nice little community.
An interesting note about Patreon: I find people will pay for things just to pay for them. I used to let anybody who came in read my drafts, and even advertised that fact in my blogs, but got very few takers aside from my usual editors. As soon as I slapped a price tag on them, though, I had multiple people sign up and even start taking part in the drafting process. I imagine you'd have plenty of people willing to pay for something like that, even if only because they want to support you.
Anyway, I'd join your server if you started one. I can moderate too, as long as you have your rules written somewhere. You were one of my favorite parts of FimFic #writing-help and honestly, more and more of the authors I enjoy talking to have left that place until I very rarely feel like ever opening it these days. I'd recommend making nurturing yourself a server. It's nice to have your own space like that.
Honestly? There is so much in the new column worthy of point and groan that arguing against it seems pointless.
This site collects quite a few very bad stories. That's fine, but part of publishing is that the public gets to react to your work.
Even if that reaction is thrown produce and mockery.
Was on... briefly in around 2017 I think? Sat through jokes by staff members about my ethnicity, fights just kinda kept cropping up due to huge life stress and a tendency to run at the mouth a bit. Walked out and washed my hands of it and kinda became a bit of a recluse in general. Might enforce my silence a little more firmly...