Staffing Managing your game's discord

[saltwaterwitch 18]

A little background: I’ve run boards before so I’m comfortable with managing that aspect but this is the first time I’ve run a game with a discord. So far I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying it because I use to hate AIM, Skype, and IM in general but still getting use to how to manage it from a staff point of view so I thought I’d ask around to see how others manage their discords.

 

Is it for players only or guest friendly?

If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board?

How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag? --- This one’s been on my mind, I worry about over using it/annoying people

How many channels do you typically have?

Any method for keeping track of who is who? Or does it matter? – In the case were alias/handle doesn’t match the discord username

[Jaxx 317]

Is it for players only or guest friendly? Mine is guest friendly, because I use the Titan embed instead of a chatbox. 

If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board? Though I haven't run into this problem, I would kick users that haven't joined within a month. Players will ghost, and it sucks, but sometimes you have to say, "You don't even go here!" 

How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag? I would only use this for rule changes, plot updates, new staff, site announcements, etc. Only something that you think people really need to know so that they're up to date with what's happening in the game. 

How many channels do you typically have? I have four categories that each have channels in them, but only the text channel category is visible to guests. Text channels - announcements, questions and suggestions, general chat. Plotting - plotting, tags, wanted ads, mini plots. Factions - basically a place where plots or threads that only affect a certain membergroup can be talked about without clogging up the plot channel. And OOC chatter - books and comics channel, movies and shows channel, music channel, spoilers channel, and gif spam channel. 

Any method for keeping track of who is who? My site rules ask that your Discord username matches your OOC name on the board. That makes it easier to match Discord accounts and board accounts. As a member, I wouldn't care, because I can just ask people who they are on the site. But as an admin, that makes it easier to see if people who cause trouble on the board are doing the same thing in Discord, or vice versa. 

[Sage 289]

Is it for players only or guest friendly?

Honestly I prefer a mix of both. Letting guests into your discord allows them to gauge the community and see all the fun things, but having members-only areas is nice too. That way they don't need to worry about scaring newbies off or discussing things that may not be kosher out in the public. It gives everyone a little bit of a safety net.

 

If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board?

I don't actually care? You can create groups in the discord and sort all the active members into it, that way you know who's a member and who's not. Sometimes people just like to pop into chat from time to time to compliment the game. Every few months, I'll go through and sort people out of the active members group, but I usually won't kick them from the server.

 

How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag?

I only use this for important announcements. You don't want to bombard people with notifications, and what sorts of things are you posting that everyone needs to see? I usually pair these tags with jcink push notifications/alerts. And only then for major site updates, changes, plot elements, etc.

 

How many channels do you typically have?

It really depends on the community! I usually have 3 categories - one for guests/general, one for members only, and one for staff - and various channels within. You can get creative with channels, and create them to respond to your community's needs. That's not really helpful, but every rp discord I've done or been a part of has had the perfect amount of channels for that community.

 

Any method for keeping track of who is who? Or does it matter?

You can change your nickname on each particular discord server! So that it matches your alias on the site. In my opinion, it should always be a rule that it matches, to ease confusion. You can also add your own private notes on people's profiles so you remember who they are, who they play, etc. 

[Kazetatsu 263]

Is it for players only or guest friendly?

- absolutely guest friendly, titan isn't quite set up yet on mine, but the general chat is often used to field new member/guest questions among other things.

 

If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board?

- there is a member role for non-rpers and sometimes we'll purge the chat of members who haven't participated in over a month, we give members fair warning and a chance to speak up if they want to stay in the chat.

 

How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag? --- This one’s been on my mind, I worry about over using it/annoying people

- @ everyone and @ here is blocked from public use to prevent spamming of pings, but staff and chat moderators can use it for public announcements and important news, things like site updates, events, incoming purges, and so on.

 

How many channels do you typically have?

mine seems to have 16, divided 4 groups, Personally I go by the less is more standpoint where I start with the basic ooc channels, 1-2 plot related channels, and a staff room, and prefer to add more only as the site-base, and chat-usage style demands

 

(ooc)

- rules, chat info  and links to the site

-announcements

-site-related bug report

- general chat

- spammy games and memes

-member-made art show off

 

(ic-plotting)

-general plotting

-specialized plotting x3 (on mine its sorted by locations, but it could be by group or other things)

 

(rp)

-wanted ads (link or post in chat)

-worldbuilding (for public setting development guided by staff)

- open threads, (so members can link their threads)

- casual rp. (for character testing, and rp that doesn't really work on the boards)

 

staffing

-(hidden) staff-chat

-(hidden) targeted discussion (for talk about specific development-related topics which we bring members onto)

 

Any method for keeping track of who is who? Or does it matter? – In the case were alias/handle doesn’t match the discord username.

- members say who they are, either clearly, in name choice,  or based on who they play. members can also be given roles in chat, such as prefered ic-location, character type, or so on. name colors are partially for fun too, as members have ended up being memed into funny roles based on inside jokes.

[The Rebel 44]

• Anyone can join our site discord.  The link is available on the board.  I think it's a great way for guests to check out the community.
• In regards to guests not joining, well it kind of depends on the situation. If it is someone active and chatting but hasn't made a character (even for months) then I'd probably just leave them.  If the person has never spoken in the chat, they are usually dropped when I do a bit of cleaning so we have a good idea of who is actually participating.  I always make sure to leave the message that people are more than welcome to rejoin.  It's really just housekeeping.  
• I rarely use the everyone tag.  I think I might have once or twice with board updates, but overall pretty sparing.  
• We have a general chat and plotting channel.  We used to have one for specific plots by region etc, but those generally are not used.  We have a site updates channel, a who's who channel for players to post their chars, a tag channel, and then some just for fun such as a char confessions channel where members can privately message and I'll put up an image in secret with the character's confession.  These are used less often.  Then my co-admin and I also have a hidden staff channel as well to discuss things.  I think right now it's at 10 total channels.
• For who's who we just have the thread on the board, and the same on the discord for people to post and say who they play.

It's all been quite useful/fun!

[RaWolfe 43]

Most has been said already here, but I give my own two cents:

1. Customized it towards your own taste that profiles your group the best.
2. Create roles that corresponded with that of your community team (mine is Star Trek so the administration is Command) 
3. Create a general area for guest to come that welcomes them. They see a short explanation of what your community is, why it is there and what the rules are (most pref a no write zone). 
4. Then new guest can go towards the general area to introduce themselves if they like 🙂
5. Create channels that reflect your community theme (Mine, as said before, is Star Trek. Specifically Cardassian and SCE. So there are channels that reflect that theme 🙂 ) 
6. Private channel for the administrators
7. Maybe private channels for your members to chill in and🙂 announce area!

[Rhindeer 217]

Is it for players only or guest friendly?

Guest friendly!

 

If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board?

Let them be? I welcome lurkers. If you're a good bean, you can come hang with us, that's really all I ask. If you just wanna chill and read threads but don't want to participate yourself, I see no harm in that. Maybe one day you'll decide you wanna thread with us, too? 8D But no pressure either way.

 

That said, I don't get folks who are anti-lurker. A lot of my members were lurkers for YEARS before they ever made a character. ❤️

 

How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag? --- This one’s been on my mind, I worry about over using it/annoying people

Pretty rarely--really only when we have news to announce.

 

How many channels do you typically have?

As many as we want! SotE has 22 channels currently, plus 4 voice channels. RotE has 17 channels plus 1 voice channel. RotE only has fewer channels because some of those channels are staff/private channels, and the folks that use them are members of both games so we just use SotE's channels by default. xD And yes, all those channels get used.

 

Any method for keeping track of who is who? Or does it matter? – In the case were alias/handle doesn’t match the discord username

It doesn't really matter. We generally figure out who's who because people just ask. Sometimes for my own sake, I add a note to people with who they are, but that's only viewable from my end. People can use the notes feature on their own if they need it.

[saltwaterwitch 18]

On 7/25/2018 at 9:17 PM, Kazetatsu said:

@ everyone and @ here is blocked from public use to prevent spamming of pings, but staff and chat moderators can use it for public announcements and important news, things like site updates, events, incoming purges, and so on.

 

I never thought about that, so far it hasn't been an issue but it's a good idea to prevent possible future abuse of the alert tags in areas they don't need to be/shouldn't be used.

 

On 7/25/2018 at 10:05 PM, The Rebel said:

For who's who we just have the thread on the board, and the same on the discord for people to post and say who they play.

 

Ahhhh, wish I had thought of that sooner. If I had my time back I would have set up an intro channel for that purpose....hmm, might still set one up as it could help new people coming into the discord & game.

 

Thanks for all the feedback from everyone, it's been super helpful!

[Rivfader 76]

Is it for players only or guest friendly?

Guest-friendly!

 

If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board?

So I have two roles set up in the server (admins & members) and both are colour coded. I don't add new people to the members role until they have had a character approved and are active. This way I don't have to bother kicking people from the server to keep track of who's a member and who has ghosted/never taken part. They can leave it themselves if they want. But sometimes I don't understand why a few don't. Are the notifications, even if muted, not annoying? Lol. 

 

How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag? --- This one’s been on my mind, I worry about over using it/annoying people

Not sure how you could use it too much unless you're constantly making announcements. I only use it the odd time if there's some sort of important update or an event people need to know about. 

 

How many channels do you typically have?

Nightborn has 6 at the moment: general, announcements, general plotting, questions, tags & subplots. 

 

Any method for keeping track of who is who? Or does it matter? – In the case were alias/handle doesn’t match the discord username

Haven't yet had anyone use different aliases between discord and the forum but if it does happen I'd probably ask them if they could change their server alias to match the forum, just to prevent confusion. 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Rivfader