08-07-2018, 06:02 PM
Alright, since no one else dares say it here I'll start off with the obvious:
The Discord is completely ridiculous.
I have never, ever been part of a chat that has so many fights over practically nothing nearly every single day like this. It is baffling that this is even possible! By "practically nothing" I mean things that are so inconsequential I can't even begin to remember what they even are.
This is truly, at its core, the main problem with the Discord. I'm not sure anyone who actively watches what goes on can disagree, but if they do, I'd be really interested in seeing what they have to say about it not being a problem somehow.
I have a few other minor problems with the Discord that may or not be related that I'll air out while I'm here.
First of all, its relationship with the forum I don't believe benefits it. There are some major differences between the forum and the Discord, of course, but it feels like the Discord just follows in the forum's footsteps. I think this is detrimental to both the forum and the Discord. Some channel names because they stick so closly to the forums confuse members about what goes in there- #dev-showcase is the biggest offended with someone suggesting we add a "#dev-discussion" channel every now and then because depsite the discord channel being for both, the forums different setup doesnt line up with the channel setup. I propose we rename every channel that has a forum equivalent, at the very least, to curb confusion. In addition, the Discord having the same staff as the forum I think is a problem too. Much like the wiki is pretty much independent from the forums, I think the Discod should go the same way and only have staff who are actively interested in participating and moderating it. I may have made sense to mirror the staff at one point, but I think with the activity level of the Discord it kind of needs to be treated as its own entity. Also #space-junk-galaxy just needs to go. While its an OK board on the forum, there's too much chaos in the regular channels, no need to have an additional one that encourages chaos.
Secondly I don't really think it has a purpose. It just feels like it's there to uhh, copy Minus World I guess? MFGG has been doing a lot of following in Minus World's footsteps lately (I'm sure anyone who's been paying attention can easily list of a bunch of examples); there are a lot of good ideas on Minus World (many contributed by me, the Discord not being one of them LOL), but just doing it for the sake of it is pretty ridiculous. I don't really see the issues with having community-ran chats on the side if people are interested in that. I just feel like when I go to the Discord server it doesn't really do anything to justify its own existence.
Thirdly, meta discussion. There's too much chat about MFGG itself in the #general and #off-topic channels especially and I think it'd be in our best interest to keep that regulated to #feedback or a dedicated #meta channel. I just don't think it's very appealing for someone to join a site's chat and see most of the general discussion be about the site (especially about moderation, that's very offputting!) itself. You don't join MFGG to talk about MFGG I don't think? People don't join YouTube to discuss YouTube layouts, people don't join reddit to talk about reddit, etc. People come here for mario fan games, I'd hope, and seeing healthy discussion about other topics are fine, but it just seems like some kind of weird cult when you join a site and it seems like its obsessed with itself. I'm not saying having meta discussion at all is bad! I think it's great and healthy to have it. Like most things though, it has its place, and everywhere on the Discord isn't it LOL. Meta discussion was one of the biggest issues with the old #mfggirc and part of why it became unofficial- we have multiple channels now we might as well take advantage of that and not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Anyway, I have a few different solutions in mind to try and make the Discord work:
These are not comprehensive solutions, just a few ideas to get those brain cogs working so we can try and make the Discord a fun place to be.
""We choose to go to the [Suggestions board] not because it's easy, but because it's hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
- John F. Kennedy"
- gothgirlgangblastermaster
The Discord is completely ridiculous.
I have never, ever been part of a chat that has so many fights over practically nothing nearly every single day like this. It is baffling that this is even possible! By "practically nothing" I mean things that are so inconsequential I can't even begin to remember what they even are.
This is truly, at its core, the main problem with the Discord. I'm not sure anyone who actively watches what goes on can disagree, but if they do, I'd be really interested in seeing what they have to say about it not being a problem somehow.
I have a few other minor problems with the Discord that may or not be related that I'll air out while I'm here.
First of all, its relationship with the forum I don't believe benefits it. There are some major differences between the forum and the Discord, of course, but it feels like the Discord just follows in the forum's footsteps. I think this is detrimental to both the forum and the Discord. Some channel names because they stick so closly to the forums confuse members about what goes in there- #dev-showcase is the biggest offended with someone suggesting we add a "#dev-discussion" channel every now and then because depsite the discord channel being for both, the forums different setup doesnt line up with the channel setup. I propose we rename every channel that has a forum equivalent, at the very least, to curb confusion. In addition, the Discord having the same staff as the forum I think is a problem too. Much like the wiki is pretty much independent from the forums, I think the Discod should go the same way and only have staff who are actively interested in participating and moderating it. I may have made sense to mirror the staff at one point, but I think with the activity level of the Discord it kind of needs to be treated as its own entity. Also #space-junk-galaxy just needs to go. While its an OK board on the forum, there's too much chaos in the regular channels, no need to have an additional one that encourages chaos.
Secondly I don't really think it has a purpose. It just feels like it's there to uhh, copy Minus World I guess? MFGG has been doing a lot of following in Minus World's footsteps lately (I'm sure anyone who's been paying attention can easily list of a bunch of examples); there are a lot of good ideas on Minus World (many contributed by me, the Discord not being one of them LOL), but just doing it for the sake of it is pretty ridiculous. I don't really see the issues with having community-ran chats on the side if people are interested in that. I just feel like when I go to the Discord server it doesn't really do anything to justify its own existence.
Thirdly, meta discussion. There's too much chat about MFGG itself in the #general and #off-topic channels especially and I think it'd be in our best interest to keep that regulated to #feedback or a dedicated #meta channel. I just don't think it's very appealing for someone to join a site's chat and see most of the general discussion be about the site (especially about moderation, that's very offputting!) itself. You don't join MFGG to talk about MFGG I don't think? People don't join YouTube to discuss YouTube layouts, people don't join reddit to talk about reddit, etc. People come here for mario fan games, I'd hope, and seeing healthy discussion about other topics are fine, but it just seems like some kind of weird cult when you join a site and it seems like its obsessed with itself. I'm not saying having meta discussion at all is bad! I think it's great and healthy to have it. Like most things though, it has its place, and everywhere on the Discord isn't it LOL. Meta discussion was one of the biggest issues with the old #mfggirc and part of why it became unofficial- we have multiple channels now we might as well take advantage of that and not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Anyway, I have a few different solutions in mind to try and make the Discord work:
- First off, the nuclear option. Gotta get this one out of the way first, it's the most obvious one. We shut it down and maybe try again later when we have a solid plan and feel like we really want it. I don't mind going this route if we've exhausted all other options, I think it'd let a lot of us rest at ease.
- Locking down specific channels when things get too heated. This is an old feature of IRC. You can *kind of* do this with Discord permissions, though it's not really the same. This is a good way to stop chaos in its tracks. This can't be the only solution to a problem, as just stopping it for a bit means its surely going to brew up again, but in a pinch this can be a great first step.
- Being more liberal with kicks. IRC had kick messags which were great, apparently Discord doesn't? Weird to go backwards here. Kicking people who are going to far gets them immediate feedback that they need to reconsider what they're doing and briefly gets them out of the problem area. Kicks should always come with a direct message and the rule they were kicked for cited. If they come back and cause the same trouble again, I don't think there's any issue with banning them. This does not mean banning someone who comes back to discuss their kick in the #feedback channel- I think open and healthy discussion about moderator actions not only makes a better community, but shows we respect members enough that even if they did something bad, we can talk about it and try and resolve it for the future.
- Because Discord lacks some basic IRC features, it might be worth considering some kind of moderaiton bot. I'm thinking something that can DM users with a kick or ban reason and then kick or ban them, maybe something that can tell them how long their ban is as well. It might be good for auditing who did what as well. Nothing too fancy; I don't want a robot moderating the channel or anything, just a bit of an assitant to make everyoen's lives easier.
These are not comprehensive solutions, just a few ideas to get those brain cogs working so we can try and make the Discord a fun place to be.
Interested in web development? Check out Super Mario Web Development. Wahoo!
""We choose to go to the [Suggestions board] not because it's easy, but because it's hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
- John F. Kennedy"
- gothgirlgangblastermaster
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