A Discord Channel for AW chat?

[NoirSuede]

If you guy don't know what Discord is, it's a chat service like IRC with voice chat capability ala Skype (in fact their marketing revolves how they're better than Skype)

https://discordapp.com/

Seeing that IRC is a pretty old service that might go over some of the younger member's heads, maybe we can make a discord channel for AW ?

 

[AW Admin]

If you guy don't know what Discord is, it's a chat service like IRC with voice chat capability ala Skype (in fact their marketing revolves how they're better than Skype)

https://discordapp.com/

Seeing that IRC is a pretty old service that might go over some of the younger member's heads, maybe we can make a discord channel for AW ?

You would need to take that up with MacAllister.

 

[dpaterso]

Some of us IRC chatters have also tried Google hangouts and suchlike to talk live and wave to each other, but conversation pretty much died off because we were too busy writing and surfing in other windows.

That's the good thing about posting plain ol' text messages via dinosaur IRC, you can keep doing other stuff and only look at IRC if and when you have a spare moment, it doesn't require your live undivided attention.

Also, I type better than I talk. Uses a different part of my brain.

-Derek

 

[Sophia]

Discord doesn't have to be voice; it can be just text, too. The good thing about it is that the messages remain there for anyone to scroll back through, so you can respond to messages left while you weren't there. You can also set up the equivalent of rooms within it easily if you want to talk about particular topics, so it doesn't get unwieldy. Mods can be assigned to kick/ban etc. You can access direct message histories with others within it, and remain signed in and check in as you like. It's easy to use. I'm a fan, in case it isn't obvious.

 

[BenPanced]

Chat? Text?

 

[Snitchcat]

Discord is also free.

It's also easier to see who's AFK, offline, or online, and doing what. This means you get a better understanding of what's going on in the chatroom, especially because we're writers and we go silent a lot, and the reception doesn't feel as "cold", vs. IRC.

Visibility for mods / admins is good, too. As mentioned up-thread, Discord lets you keep the chatrooms in one place, which facilitates monitoring, and helps / allows users to jump between rooms far more easily. You can see who's in which room. Also, there's no need to remember or look up /join #channel etc., command lines; great for lazy people (me), and those unfamiliar with such things. Lots of right-click and double-click action.

You can post pics and links and vids much more easily than in IRC.

If we were to consider moving to Discord, I'd be up for that.

(Another Discord user; not fan, but... yeah.)

 

[zanzjan]

If you guy don't know what Discord is, it's a chat service like IRC with voice chat capability ala Skype (in fact their marketing revolves how they're better than Skype)

I'd also like to note that we have a number of regulars in chat who have significant technical impediments that would be problematic with any app with any more overhead, such as myself on dialup, several members who regularly check in who are frequently hospitalized and on mobile devices, one occasional member (that we know of) who is blind, etc.

It would, I think, be a significant disservice to the chat community as a whole if it got fragmented into multiple, non-interactional pieces. A wholesale substitution solution would need to be carefully looked-at in terms of bandwidth usage, accessibility, compatibility with assistive software, etc., to see if it would still meet the technical challenges of our users without dropping or significantly impacting our most vulnerable/isolated people.

 

[AW Admin]

It would, I think, be a significant disservice to the chat community as a whole if it got fragmented into multiple, non-interactional pieces. A wholesale substitution solution would need to be carefully looked-at in terms of bandwidth usage, accessibility, compatibility with assistive software, etc., to see if it would still meet the technical challenges of our users without dropping or significantly impacting our most vulnerable/isolated people.

And it needs MacAllister's approval.

 

[GoSpeed]

A good point about Discord is that it can run in a browser too. You do not have to install the app to use all the features.

 

[dpaterso]

So noted! So can mibbit, as mentioned in the sticky info threads.

-Derek

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

I've heard about Discord, but TBH, IRC does what I need it to do in a way I'm familiar with. Sounds like something that could be best utilised "as well as" rather than "instead of." That way, folks who want to voice chat could get on board with Discord, and those who just want text can stick with IRC.

 

[Shadowmoo]

I prefer the idea of discord because it has text to speech capabilities, the chat is persistent even if you log off, you can get an understanding of the topic at hand without having to wait, it has toast notifications of chat if you are in another window, the mods can delete problematic posts, it has in-app photo uploading capabilities and loads the cliffnotes of a website if someone posts a link. I primarily use discord and have the mobile app on my phone. Personally I think it would be a much better service than the limitations of IRC.

 

[Creep]

Or a SLACK would be cool. Slack is pretty easy to use. I can't seem to find the IRC channel anywhere, where's the link I'm missing?

 

[AW Admin]

I can't seem to find the IRC channel anywhere, where's the link I'm missing?

It's in the IRC FAQ I sent you. Right at the top.

 

[Creep]

It's in URL I sent you. Right at the top[/URL].

Ah, so that works for some people? Am I in the wrong country or something? Hah.


Forbidden
You do not have permission to access this document.

Web Server at starchat.net

 

[dpaterso]

Problem solved, I gather, since you are now in AW chat.

-Derek

 

[Creep]

Problem solved, via some other link. Still get FORBIDDEN on the ones mentioned above.

Maybe a java issue? Shrug.mov

 

[dpaterso]

<mutter mutter> You could have said you meant in another thread lol.

Yeah I get a fail from http://www.starchat.net/chat/?chan=Absolutewrite also but that's in a 7-year-old post, so who knows what's changed since then. http://www.starchat.net is certainly there but when I click on some of the offered channels I get that Forbidden message also.

Many AW chatters seem satisfied with Mibbit and there's also Chatzilla and IceChat, still working fine and supported.

-Derek

 

[Melanii]

I actually just deleted Skype to start using Discord - as apparently it's way more lightweight.

I can't tell if it is or not, though.

 

[Cernex]

I've been using Discord for some time now. It's all right, but it tends to suck memory by the bucketload after long periods of time, unlike irc -unless you're saving each and every chatlog-.

So for that reason, I'm sticking with irc for the time being, if only out of both practicality and the fact everybody's there already.

However, since I don't want a 16-ton safe to fall on my head, if one day everybody decided to jump ship to Discord, I could and would follow without too much ​hassle.

 

[draosz]

I think it's unnecessary to extend this community to a primarily gaming chatter platform. It takes time to run it, and yields no profit. This site isn't run without expenses. I think IRC has everything required for occasional real time communication. In Discord, it would only be lots of people chattering, switching from games, or being around 24/7, and the more, the worse waste of time.

I'm fine with status quo.

Edit: You can run your own writing community in Discord.

 

[Sophia]

Discord is a useful alternative for the reasons shadowmoo and others have already said. I don't see any reason why it would be a waste of time, if IRC chat currently isn't. Conversations about gaming could be either against the rules, or restricted to a room for that purpose, and it's not obligatory to have voice rooms. I've only ever used it without a mic, and it's a way of keeping up with communities specifically without having to be there 24/7, as the text is preserved. And since when is AW IRC chat run for profit?

 

[mccardey]

And it needs MacAllister's approval.

To be fair, we all need MacAllister's approval.

 

[read2live]

Many AW chatters seem satisfied with Mibbit and there's also Chatzilla and IceChat, still working fine and supported.

-Derek

I actually use Pidgin even. At least on my computer

 

[Magnificent Bastard]

The two main things that bother me about current chat are
a. it kicks me out whenever I switch between apps (I tend to have Chrome and Scrivener open in full screen, and swipe between them — although sometimes it also likes to just kick me out for no reason), and
b. it doesn't show chat history, which makes it harder to follow conversations (or participate in them — especially combined with that first issue). This latter issue is a major one for me, basically the main reason why I'm never actually around in current AW chat.

Re: Discord, it's pretty good, and not hard to figure out (although it might be a bit overwhelming at first, I admit). I'm in a few Discord servers. I only ever type, despite the voice chat thing, and I'm not a gamer at all — bottom line, it's basically what the participants make it to be, so there's no reason for it to become a gaming voice chat if it's filled with writers who want to type-chat about writerly stuff.
Personally, I'd find it way more comfortable. Not seeing chat history doesn't work well with how my brain's wired :/

Just my two cents c: