During the recent downtime, the suggestion of a Conclave Discord server came up, at least as a back-up route to talk to people if we did suffer another site failure.
I'm not completely certain about the idea, as I am concerned that it might simply eat the relatively little traffic we get anyway. On the other, it's possible that it would actually promote more community activity.
So I'm opening it up to you for thoughts. What do people think about this as a suggestion?
Do it. See if we can't summon up some people from the past.
No names.
But folk from the past... =
I'm certainly a hell of a lot more active on Discord than I am here
Although I am fairly new, I see Discord as a double edge sword. First off A Discord Server would encourage more real-time interaction, even could be baked into virtual games of Inquisitor. However, I have found Discord more of a stream of consciousness medium. That is there is no formality and clear compartmentalization like you see on a forum.
All I would say is that if you do make a discord server, try to limit the number of channels as to not water down the purpose and function of this forum.
I kind of agree with Snarf, maybe a little selfishly as I don't Discord.
If it gets more talking going, especially hooking back a few old faces, that's a big positive though.
Well, ideally I'd like to establish the rules/etiquette that while it is open for more casual chat or quick questions, it's not supposed to be an outright replacement for the forum.
My general thinking is that if you post a new character on the forum, then it would be okay to chat about it on the Discord, but it's then only polite that you come back to the forum and say "Following discussion on the Discord, I've changed X, Y and Z", for example.
Similarly, quick questions about what colour to paint a character's hair is fine, but it shouldn't be the only place you're providing project updates.
It does of course have the potential to eat traffic from the forum, but when it comes down to it, the objective of The Conclave is to support the Inquisitor game, not to support a forum. If we can develop a stronger community, then we need to look at how we can improve.
And, in any case, a larger active community will benefit the forum, even if not everything happens on the forum.
I'll start looking into it, but I'll need to do some thinking.
I'd quite like it for gentle accountability nudges. Doing that in real time will be a real benefit for me.
-Ben
To keep people updated, I am working on this as an idea.
I am however a little new to setting up Discord servers, so I'm trying to make sure I'm dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's so that it works as intended.