Have a Discord Server

[Moonlight_Eevee]

So, I know that this has been shot down multiple times

 

Unofficial Discord

 

TJ should open up a Discord Server. Before you mods close this off, I have a few reasons as to why a DC Server should exist OR create much more attention to the already existing Discord

 

IRC

• Not Mobile Friendly (Hence I avoid it like the plague)
• If you exit out of a tab, you cannot read past messages and have to ask if anything happened while you were away.
• Does have multiple 'tags' but you have to input a code to get to them
• it became outdated
• A lot of people forget/doesn't know this exists and has very little activity as of recently (according to the people here)
• Very difficult and confusing to use

Discord

• Can be easily started up by TJ and can appoint mods of his choosing (just like IRC)
• You can see previous comments if the person (especially if the someone @ you) and if you switch chats for a bit or go offline
• It can easily have different tabs to hold different conversations
• You can PM certain people without the worry of them being offline
• Mobile friendly (Discord is the first thing I check in the mornings)
• Is always up to date
• Would probably encourage new and inspiring artists to post their artwork in the art chat section of Discord and get feedback quicker
• Can bring users together to get to know each other better and we can grow as a community
• There can be a private chat that regular people can't view except TJ, the mods, and the artists for private dragon request art
• Accessable through browser and still has more features than IRC but not as much as the downloaded Discord (and you don't really have to install it)
• Features Voice chat where users can chill and listen to songs of their choosing from a bot

For those who are missing out on their chat fix as a result of the expired link, Discord's functionality is quite comparable to that provided by the official IRC chat. You can join multiple channels if the primary channel (#dc) doesn't fully meet your needs.

 

Not to try and argue with the boss himself, but this simply is not true.

If it were true, people would not be trying over and over to get an official discord channel. :c

 

Discord has emotes, avatars, message history, proper channels, image uploading, mobile and browser support, etc. It's just better.

 

Things do change. DC has been using IRC for a very long time (I've been here seven of those years) and IRC hasn't changed at all. There's no entering and scrolling up to view past messages, if you really need to talk to someone in there, you either have to wait or PM here in the forums. If they don't have forum account, then you're out of luck.

 

Discord doesn't have those problems

 

While I give complete support for this request, I'd like to bring up another issue that TJ pointed out with Discord.

 

He has his own server that the IRC is hosted on and runs off of. If an outage occurs, he can very quickly solve the problem or inform us what's going on. The concern that he has voiced is that Discord is an external service that he can't control or be responsible for if it goes down.

 

While I understand that, I haven't had any trouble with Discord yet in the two years I've had it. If Discord does go down that would be a major issue that I think they would try to resolve rather quickly.

 

Edit: The newer members coming in aren't going to know about the IRC chat unless they actively search for it. It does have its own thread but seeing how inactive everyone is and why they can't find previous activity is going to maybe deter them

 

Discord servers that frequently suffer with outages are those with ~20k+ members and constant activity. I don't think DC is close to that. There is sometimes maintenance and server issues but it's quite uncommon for Discord.

 

While we're at it, a proposal for how to handle channels such as #arts:

 

Although it's possible and easy to just have another channel that users can mute if they're not interested, you can also assign roles to users and allow only people in those roles to view certain channels. There are bots that allow you to create self-assignable roles, and then users just need to give a command in order to view certain channels.

 

For example, if you wanted an art channel only to be accessible to those with a role, you'd create a role with those permissions, set up the bot, and then have users type (for example) ".iam artist" to be given permission to view that channel.

 

Or you could just allow everyone to access it.

 

Actually, there are a lot of things you can do with the roles that aren't available in IRC.

 

Regarding the ability to see previous messages; besides getting art critiques, you wouldnt have to worry about or find yourself accidentally butting into some important conversation, or any sort of delicate tension-filled situation filled with nothing but silence and no one responding to your inquiry of what was going on. Since you can see the previous conversation (even in its entirety) you can make an informed decision of what to do without having to beg someone else to tell you what went down. You'd feel more involved. You'd know what's been happening recently with other users without having to pry, and carry on accordingly. It'd feel more like a community.

 

Unless you don't particularly care, and would go about yourself without regard for others anyway, which the IRC format lends quite easily to.

 

Some quotes from people (including the big boss)

 

What's a Discord without:

BANNERS!

 

[URL=https://discord.gg/raFSFqf][IMG=http://i.imgur.com/uJHvdjg.gif][/URL]

~Made by ii

 

[URL=https://discord.gg/raFSFqf][img=http://i.imgur.com/gWmMvRv.gif][/URL]

~Made by Mage

 

[URL=https://discord.gg/raFSFqf][img=http://i.imgur.com/5e0nrBM.png][/URL]

~Also made by Mage

 

[URL=https://discord.gg/raFSFqf][img=http://i.imgur.com/gAZufMU.png][/URL]

~Made by Kanaye

Edited May 31, 2017 by Raptor of Dragons

[irrelevantindigo]

Thanks for opening this. c:

 

This has my full support. We need something more user friendly and up-to-date. And discord is free and much less buggy than Skype.

 

ETA, it's also a good place, not just for arts, but for chat in general.

Not everyone lurks around the CPA-- I want to get to know some of ya.

 

ETA 2.0, I also know of many other spriting-oriented forums that have discord chats-- it works well and creates community.

 

We don't have to scrap IRC to create an official discord as well.

Edited May 29, 2017 by irrelevantindigo

[Forever_Monee]

This has my full support as well. I also tend to forget about the IRC, but I use discord quite often for other gaming-related things and it would be nice to have all my gaming chats in one place.

[Guillotine]

I agree with all the points mentioned. IRC just isn't as user-friendly as Discord is, and that's a big deal.

 

And yeah, there's no need to scrap the IRC for Discord. You can have both.

[TehUltimateMage]

Having both seems like it would split the userbase, and checking both seems like overkill. Last I checked (which was a while ago, admittedly), not many people were on the IRC, either.

 

That said, I do prefer Discord since it keeps all my rooms in the same place.

[irrelevantindigo]

Having both seems like it would split the userbase, and checking both seems like overkill. Last I checked (which was a while ago, admittedly), not many people were on the IRC, either.

This is true.

 

A main flaw of the IRC is you can't see chat history, so even if it was active 5-15min before you stopped by, you would never know. And that's a problem because is really hinders the activity of IRC.

Edited May 29, 2017 by irrelevantindigo

[Moonlight_Eevee]

This is true.

 

A main flaw of the IRC is you can't see chat history, so even if it was active 5-15min before you stopped by, you would never know. And that's a problem because is really hinders the activity of IRC.

I have that under the list of the IRC. I can't think of a positive thing IRC has that Discord doesn't

[TehUltimateMage]

Plugging in a couple other topics for discussion's sake:

 

The big boss did say that IRC does everything that Discord offers. While things might have changed in 6 months, seems like staff prefers IRC.

 

Unofficial Discord link for those who want to take a look, and here's the attached topic. Again, shot down.

[Sundew]

Yes, full support. Discord has emotes, avatars, message history, proper channels, image uploading, mobile and browser support, etc. It's just better.

[Paradisiske]

i would love for there to be a discord server honestly. it would work much better for me

[irrelevantindigo]

Plugging in a couple other topics for discussion's sake:

The big boss did say that IRC does everything that Discord offers. While things might have changed in 6 months, seems like staff prefers IRC.

Unofficial Discord link for those who want to take a look, and here's the attached topic. Again, shot down.

↓

For those who are missing out on their chat fix as a result of the expired link, Discord's functionality is quite comparable to that provided by the official IRC chat. You can join multiple channels if the primary channel (#dc) doesn't fully meet your needs.

Not to try and argue with the boss himself, but this simply is not true.

If it were true, people would not be trying over and over to get an official discord channel. :c

 

ETA:

Discord has emotes, avatars, message history, proper channels, image uploading, mobile and browser support, etc. It's just better.

Bolded what Discord has that IRC, inarguably, doesn't have. (Though I could be misinformed.)

Edited May 29, 2017 by irrelevantindigo

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Plugging in a couple other topics for discussion's sake:

 

The big boss did say that IRC does everything that Discord offers. While things might have changed in 6 months, seems like staff prefers IRC.

 

Unofficial Discord link for those who want to take a look, and here's the attached topic. Again, shot down.

Things do change. DC has been using IRC for a very long time (I've been here seven of those years) and IRC hasn't changed at all. There's no entering and scrolling up to view past messages, if you really need to talk to someone in there, you either have to wait or PM here in the forums. If they don't have forum account, then you're out of luck.

 

Discord doesn't have those problems

 

Edit: I think TJ and the mods need to realise DC could be a much more better community if they open a Discord. It would bring people together. Not to mention that maybe at least a good bit, if not all, of us actually have a Discord.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Raptor of Dragons

[Jazeki]

I remember TJ posting in another thread that got moved that we have IRC already and there's no need for both. Not sure how he feels about a complete replacement. Remember, you don't really have to install anything extra to run IRC that you don't already use to run your browser of choice.

 

 

(I have a discord, so I wouldn't mind if this was implemented. Just pointing things out)

Edited May 29, 2017 by Jazeki

[Sundew]

Remember, you don't really have to install anything extra to tun IRC that you don't already use to run your browser of choice.

Discord is accessible through the browser. You don't need to install anything to use it.

 

If you want extra features (linking accounts to Discord, showing what games you're playing), then you need the desktop app, but it's entirely unnecessary for use.

Edited May 29, 2017 by ab613

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Discord is accessible through the browser. You don't need to install anything to use it.

 

If you want extra features (linking accounts to Discord, showing what games you're playing), then you need the desktop app, but it's entirely unnecessary for use.

And frankly, Discord is free to install on your PC is you choose to download it

Edited May 29, 2017 by Raptor of Dragons

[Jazeki]

And frankly, Discord is free to install on your PC

It's not that it's free. It's that you have to download it if you want those extra features. Not all people want to download extra programs or apps for their phone to be able to chat.

[Sundew]

But the features are totally optional. The browser Discord still offers more features than any form of IRC.

[irrelevantindigo]

Discord is accessible through the browser. You don't need to install anything to use it.

Really? Huh.

I only got discord a short while ago and I didn't know that. Neat.

 

ETA:

It's not that it's free. It's that you have to download it if you want those extra features. Not all people want to download extra programs or apps for their phone to be able to chat.

Thing is, the IRC is pretty inactive most of the time. I don't the addition of an official discord will harm chat.

No one is forcing anyone to download discord if they don't want to.

Also, you can't satisfy everyone, however, a large group of people can and would be satisfied by an official discord.

Edited May 29, 2017 by irrelevantindigo

[Vrack]

While I give complete support for this request, I'd like to bring up another issue that TJ pointed out with Discord.

 

He has his own server that the IRC is hosted on and runs off of. If an outage occurs, he can very quickly solve the problem or inform us what's going on. The concern that he has voiced is that Discord is an external service that he can't control or be responsible for if it goes down.

 

(It was something like that at least. I don't know if someone wants to find a quote or something.)

 

Edit: Spelling and spacing

Edited May 29, 2017 by Vrack

[Moonlight_Eevee]

While I give complete support for this request, I'd like to bring up another issue that TJ pointed out with Discord.

 

He has his own server that the IRC is hosted on and runs off of. If an outage occurs, he can very quickly solve the problem or inform us what's going on. The concern that he has voiced is that Discord is an external service that he can't control or be responsible for if it goes down.

 

(It was something like that at least. I don't know if someone wants to find a quote or something.)

 

Edit: Spelling and spacing

While I understand that, I haven't had any trouble with Discord yet in the two years I've had it. If Discord does go down that would be a major issue that I think they would try to resolve rather quickly.

 

Edit: The newer members coming in aren't going to know about the IRC chat unless they actively search for it. It does have its own thread but seeing how inactive everyone is and why they can't find previous activity is going to maybe deter them

Edited May 29, 2017 by Raptor of Dragons

[irrelevantindigo]

It does have its own thread but seeing how inactive everyone is and why they can't find previous activity is going to maybe deter them

I know it deterred me.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

I have been constantly adding to the front page (including quotes) between the IRC and Discord discussion

[Sundew]

Discord servers that frequently suffer with outages are those with ~20k+ members and constant activity. I don't think DC is close to that. There is sometimes maintenance and server issues but it's quite uncommon for Discord.

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

I fully support this. The IRC chat kinda scared me a little when I tried to use it haha, but I feel overall Discord would be much more functional and suitable for the website.

[Sundew]

While we're at it, a proposal for how to handle channels such as #arts:

 

Although it's possible and easy to just have another channel that users can mute if they're not interested, you can also assign roles to users and allow only people in those roles to view certain channels. There are bots that allow you to create self-assignable roles, and then users just need to give a command in order to view certain channels.

 

For example, if you wanted an art channel only to be accessible to those with a role, you'd create a role with those permissions, set up the bot, and then have users type (for example) ".iam artist" to be given permission to view that channel.

 

Or you could just allow everyone to access it.

 

Actually, there are a lot of things you can do with the roles that aren't available in IRC.