Membership Opinions IM's offsite (such as discords, skype, etc)

[Jerriah 9]

What's your opinion on sites having IM's like discord and whatnot that are off-site?

 

I personally don't care for them because in my experience they just cause trouble off-site between members and then they come and complain to me about, and it causes the cbox on the site to be neglected (and I can't afford to pay to customize the widget and the default widget is funky looking on most themes lmao) but lately the RPing community seems to be very fond of them so I have a discord for my site because I get constantly asked "Do you guys have a discord?"

[Morrigan 1,826]

I actually need them. I like to rapid fire plot and even if the site doesn't have one I'll invite someone into a chat with me to discuss plots. Plotters/forums are too slow for developing ideas and general chats and cBoxes often get flooded and so information is easily lost! PLUS I can search a conversation to see things that I may have forgotten.

 

Overall, it's my preferred way to travel. I don't have Skype anymore. In fact Skype is so clunky and obnoxious compared to discord I don't know why I ever had it in the first place.

[Elena 546]

I like Discord, but it is not appropriate for all sites. I can't implement it on mine, because it would remain unused.

[CovertSphinx 710]

I love discord because it gives me an easy way to be apart of the site, without having to constantly be ON the site. Other than that, it's all 6 eggs vs half a dozen for me

[Huskerdust 625]

We have one but I never use it. Haha... I always forget it exists, tbh. I don't have any strong feelings about having one or not but if the majority of discussion happens on one, I won't know what's going on. That's on me, though. I'm old and shy. 

[Kazetatsu 263]

I like them. it makes for very organic plotting and brainstorming, and allows me to stumble on ideas that wouldn't be found via a plotter. I never use site chat-boxes cause I find them clunky, and end up missing things posted on them even when I'm online.  I have found discord more fluid and accessible, since I can jump between it and the site, or plot from my phone more easily.

 

I only endorse one chat for my site, and it follows the same rules of the site plus any additional conduct rules which come with live-time chatting. Any problems that happen there are treated as issues that happened on the site, with a few exceptions where a player can lose chat privileges but still play on the site. Trouble that happens outside of the site-endorsed chat is treated as outside of site bounds, and will be treated accordingly in most cases. I haven't seen any drama that wouldn't have shown up on a site anyway. 

[ChrisOwl 59]

I did not want to learn discord when I got my site open last October but one of the members was like "just try it", so I made one and now I looooove it. So much easier to use than PMing back and forth on site for plotting and we primarily use the cbox to welcome new members and those messages don't get lost. People don't have to use it. We have plotter pages and stuff that some do choose to use, but half of RPing for me is being able to connect with people I'm writing with so it's been really great for getting to know people. I cannot imagine having only the cbox now.

[Kittenmitten 40]

I often use discord for direct plotting rather than PM or shippers, but CW doesn't have a site-wide disco and I wouldn't want one. I worry about one or the other getting neglected, and if it's the site it looks like we're not active (and don't even talk to me about widgets because that's so out of my area that all you'll get is the text equivalent of a blank look and a "I have no idea what they're talking about but I want to at least seem like I'm following along" nod XD). I'm also old and fear change. So our cbox works for us ❤️ 

[Jaxx 317]

I use only a Discord embed on my site. Part of it is because I like that I can have channels for plotting, tagging, gif spam, etc in addition to the main chat. And another part is that I honestly hate having to have a bunch of tabs open for different sites' chatboxes when I can have all the Discord sites right there in one place. It helps keep my browser less cluttered, and I get notifications of new posts without a chatbox's little noise. 

[Sage 289]

I don't need a Discord or cbox or whatever to join a site, but I prefer one! Discord has grown on me especially, since it can have so many uses aside from just DMs and general channels. If you know how to use it correctly, it can be a major aid to your rp site! I love what @CovertSphinx said and that it allows you to be connected without actually being on the site. It keeps me engaged and less likely to flake!

 

You don't have to pay for a special embed for it either - there's Titan and WidgetBot (I lovelovelove widgetbot), which allow you to embed a discord box onto your forum for free and are far less clunky-looking.

[The Rebel 44]

I'm a complete discord convert.  Initially, I was very against the idea, though, some members had pushed for it.  My co-admin and I finally set it up and it has really taken off.  People chat, get excited about all the plots, it's good for motivation and our community is much more tight knit than it was prior to the discord.  At least on our board, it's definitely a case where the discord has just reinforced site plotting and activity rather than detracted.  We make sure to have plotting forums and such for those that do not wish to join, but all in all it's been really fun.  We use it to chat, plot, tag posts, put up character obituaries and the like.  We do not have it embedded on our site.  Instead we do have a cbox which is admittedly less active, but I like to keep that there for the guests and the few members who do not have/wish to join the discord.  As long as all options are available, I think it's a really nice addition to the site.  That being said, it would not have any bearing on whether or not I joined another site.  It's just happened to work out really well for us.  

[Shieb 47]

I get why people may not want a Discord. Depending on your players, they may stop just chatting on-site or posting, and then there's this whole effort you got to put into trying to force adjustment, because who wants to play on a site where all you do is chat about your day? The forum should come first, and the Discord server should be an awesome side-branch. I haven't been a part of that, but I get it.

 

I still personally like Discord. I like being able to have several 'channels' for different common topics, or being able to quickly back-and-forth for plots without having to wait for the forum mail or essentially talk over everyone in a standard chatbox. I'm not a master at code, but the widgets and bots I've found have a simple enough logic you can stumble your way through it (or ask a friend; they're useful). It's just all convenient and compact and nowadays you can still chat with guests without talking over them all the time, and that's really nice.

 

I get the concern about drama, but a lot of that has to do with the culture of the site and how an admin interacts with their people. Members are going to want to go to their admin when things get contentious, so yeah, they're going to complain when someone says something mean, and it's basically the admin's job at that point to say 'both of you sit down, talk it out, and keep it off my site'. Discord is a third-party chat, obviously, so it's not like you can do anything other than protect your own site. You're not responsible for how players interact with each other off-site, but if it leaks onto your happy-fun-times, then get rid of the responsible parties, same as anything else. I guess what I'm saying is... the Discord isn't going to stop or encourage the drama either way.

[Rune 1,099]

I prefer them to PMs and such, but I like Cbox in terms of site communication. They're easier for guests to jump into and I'm good at breaking things so I'd ruin a widget. 

 

You can't control what players do off site, and any site that refused to let me communicate with others off site would make me run far, far away.

[RaWolfe 43]

For so long I have used IRC with mIRC and xChat applications to communicate with the community. Forums were slow, to slow to get a direct answer on matters that needed attention. But the switch towards Discord made it so much easier and is devoted and customized towards the community you are trying to set up 🙂

Edited July 26, 2018 by RaWolfe

[Gothic 307]

I have to admit that like others. I was against discord. Now? I kinda love it and how I can easily chat on a lot of site's discords at once, along with be able to support sites I just don't have the time for. 

 

I've found some members see a PM through the site as being more formal. While a quick DM over discord is more casual. 

 

The cbox now is more of a place for guests to ask questions than for a member hangout these days.