I have very mixed feelings about this. Discord is popular and widely-used among those who like video games, but from what I've seen, most of the communities that have implemented an official Discord channel have severely reduced forum activity (I think Syx's forum, VGR, Minus World, and SMW Central all fall into this category). That might not be so horrible if total activity (forum activity + mainsite activity + Discord activity) increased as a direct result of creating an official Discord channel, but I'm not aware of any of those communities seeing a huge increase in games or art or other content being made.
I'm speaking hypothetically here, but if we did decide to make an official Discord, here's what I would recommend:
Purpose: The Discord needs to be able to do something that the forums can't do (or can't do well). Encouraging MFGGers to stream games or set up online multiplayer games would be a good thing (although even in those cases, you can facilitate those things with a forum account).
Structure: I don't have a strong opinion on the number of channels we should have. We'd want to experiment with this.
Rules: A lack of clearly-defined rules - and scant or inconsistent enforcement thereof - has been a contributing factor to the death of most of the previous unofficial chat groups. Obviously, setting appropriate boundaries is important to the success of a large, fast-paced Internet chat group full of strong personalities. What I have in mind: MFGG Discord rules would be the same as the forum rules, but enforcement would be somewhat more lenient because of the quicker pace and less permanent nature of a chat group.
Staff: Anyone who's currently an admin or forum mod should have a staff role on the MFGG Discord. I'd be cool with giving Discord moderator roles to QC members if they want them. It may be necessary to give Discord moderator roles to some other people as well, especially since we may need someone who can cover the "night shift". Discord-specific mods should probably get a badge on the forums.
Bans: This is another thing that needs to be decided on in order for a Discord to be successful. I believe that the forums and Discord should be regarded as separate entities. Bans on the forums shouldn't be enforced on the Discord, and Discord bans shouldn't be enforced on the forums. Unless I'm mistaken, Discord doesn't have a way to show a user's IP or e-mail address, and besides that, it's super-easy to create new accounts without being detected if you use Tor or proxies.
Controversial content: I'm strongly opposed to having a #controversial or #arguments channel - it's a bad idea to have a channel with the express purpose of encouraging people to argue (especially if politics are involved). I'd like to think that things wouldn't get as heated as they have in Hotel Delfino, but that depends on who's in the group and how it's moderated. MFGG is a Mario fansite, and Mario games are about bringing people together - and Internet political debates are a fantastic way to drive people apart. Personally, I'd love to have no political talk period, although that's probably asking too much. Having a #controversial channel is just asking for trouble.
Discord member groups: We'd have separate member groups for staff and MFGGers. I was also thinking of separating "MFGGers" and "Guests" member groups. MFGGers would be people with verified forum accounts - they could PM us on the forums to confirm that their Discord account is really them, and then they'd be moved from Guests to MFGGers. People in the MFGGer group would get some kind of small extra privilege. This would be an incentive to get newly-invited members to join MFGG - and since it's easy to make a forum account, I don't see any risk of stratification or elitism setting in.
I see what Mit is saying about a Discord being a possible "gateway" to new members joining the forums. It is easy to invite people to join a Discord group, and it literally takes one click to become part of the group. That said, it's also pretty easy quick and easy to register a forum account, and I'm not aware of many (if any) new people who joined one of the unofficial MFGG chat groups and then became active on Real MFGG.
Mit wrote:
Lurking in the boards is easier than lurking in chat
I'm not sure if I agree with this. I'm now in 15 different Discord groups, but I hardly post in any of them. Because it's so easy to join a Discord group, it's also easy to join a Discord group where you have no interest in participating regularly (if at all).
Personally, I think having an official Discord group is the wrong strategy for MFGG. I think we would be better served by focusing on continual improvement of our current forums, mainsite, and social media channels, rather than creating a chat group that has a high risk of choking out the forums.
I have very mixed feelings about this. Discord is popular and widely-used among those who like video games, but from what I've seen, most of the communities that have implemented an official Discord channel have severely reduced forum activity (I think Syx's forum, VGR, Minus World, and SMW Central all fall into this category). That might not be so horrible if total activity (forum activity + mainsite activity + Discord activity) increased as a direct result of creating an official Discord channel, but I'm not aware of any of those communities seeing a huge increase in games or art or other content being made.
I'm speaking hypothetically here, but if we did decide to make an official Discord, here's what I would recommend:
[b]Purpose:[/b] The Discord needs to be able to do something that the forums can't do (or can't do well). Encouraging MFGGers to stream games or set up online multiplayer games would be a good thing (although even in those cases, you can facilitate those things with a forum account).
[b]Structure:[/b] I don't have a strong opinion on the number of channels we should have. We'd want to experiment with this.
[b]Rules:[/b] A lack of clearly-defined rules - and scant or inconsistent enforcement thereof - has been a contributing factor to the death of most of the previous unofficial chat groups. Obviously, setting appropriate boundaries is important to the success of a large, fast-paced Internet chat group full of strong personalities. What I have in mind: MFGG Discord rules would be the same as the forum rules, but enforcement would be somewhat more lenient because of the quicker pace and less permanent nature of a chat group.
[b]Staff:[/b] Anyone who's currently an admin or forum mod should have a staff role on the MFGG Discord. I'd be cool with giving Discord moderator roles to QC members if they want them. It may be necessary to give Discord moderator roles to some other people as well, especially since we may need someone who can cover the "night shift". Discord-specific mods should probably get a badge on the forums.
[b]Bans:[/b] This is another thing that needs to be decided on in order for a Discord to be successful. I believe that the forums and Discord should be regarded as separate entities. Bans on the forums shouldn't be enforced on the Discord, and Discord bans shouldn't be enforced on the forums. Unless I'm mistaken, Discord doesn't have a way to show a user's IP or e-mail address, and besides that, it's super-easy to create new accounts without being detected if you use Tor or proxies.
[b]Controversial content:[/b] I'm strongly opposed to having a #controversial or #arguments channel - it's a bad idea to have a channel with the express purpose of encouraging people to argue (especially if politics are involved). I'd like to think that things wouldn't get as heated as they have in Hotel Delfino, but that depends on who's in the group and how it's moderated. MFGG is a Mario fansite, and Mario games are about bringing people together - and Internet political debates are a fantastic way to drive people apart. Personally, I'd love to have no political talk period, although that's probably asking too much. Having a #controversial channel is just asking for trouble.
[b]Discord member groups:[/b] We'd have separate member groups for staff and MFGGers. I was also thinking of separating "MFGGers" and "Guests" member groups. MFGGers would be people with verified forum accounts - they could PM us on the forums to confirm that their Discord account is really them, and then they'd be moved from Guests to MFGGers. People in the MFGGer group would get some kind of small extra privilege. This would be an incentive to get newly-invited members to join MFGG - and since it's easy to make a forum account, I don't see any risk of stratification or elitism setting in.
I see what Mit is saying about a Discord being a possible "gateway" to new members joining the forums. It is easy to invite people to join a Discord group, and it literally takes one click to become part of the group. That said, it's also pretty easy quick and easy to register a forum account, and I'm not aware of many (if any) new people who joined one of the unofficial MFGG chat groups and then became active on Real MFGG.
[quote="Mit"]Lurking in the boards is easier than lurking in chat[/quote]
I'm not sure if I agree with this. I'm now in 15 different Discord groups, but I hardly post in any of them. Because it's so easy to join a Discord group, it's also easy to join a Discord group where you have no interest in participating regularly (if at all).
Personally, I think having an official Discord group is the wrong strategy for MFGG. I think we would be better served by focusing on continual improvement of our current forums, mainsite, and social media channels, rather than creating a chat group that has a high risk of choking out the forums.