LFGSS Discord

I can’t stand it. If I need to read something that’s white on black I have to copy and paste it somewhere first

I did this at work to point out how shit MS groups are. You know you can create any private group and it creates an email address that appears in O365 lists.

So I create a helpdesk group or a support group or a finance group or ceoname group and all of a sudden I'm harvesting emails that were intended for someone else. It hasn't been fixed in x years.

waves

Teams "groups" aren't even consistently shit. You can't count on everybody in the group seeing an email message, so they're worse than useless but you may not realise for a while.

Darkmode all the things! I have this place dark too, the other way hurts my eyes.

M365 groups you have to 'follow' in your own Inbox for them to be any use

I've posted this on the Discord server for people to refer to, but Dee suggested also posting here for people who aren't really sure what it is and what it does. Hopefully it will be useful. It's written from the position of people who have joined up already so some things might not make sense but I've tried to edit it to make sense.

What is Discord and how Does it work?

Discord in general

Discord is a social media site that is made up of a large number of communities known as servers. There are servers out there for a wide range of interests, hobbies and groups. Channels consist of persistent chat rooms as well as voice and video channels that allow people to drop in and out at all times. A channel can host up to 250,000 members and this can be expanded if needed by contacting Discord directly. The Midjourney server is currently the largest with over 15,000,000 members.
Discord initially has users set up a centralised profile when first joining. Once you’ve done this, you can join and become members of servers.
It’s a pretty hefty relegation in terms of usability, user friendliness, personal privacy, style and control compared to here. However in the hope of trying to keep some form of that community alive, I’ve put together this FAQ/introduction to hopefully provide some form of guide to make the move across a bit simpler and smoother, and maybe this will just be a temporary life raft before moving somewhere else.
The server is very much still in its infancy and we’re all trying to work out how best to get it all set up. If you have any ideas or suggestions you can comment here or on the Discord channel #suggestions-and-requests

Profiles

Server Profiles and Nicknames

When you join a server, your main user name will be used as standard for your profile. You are able to have unique nicknames for each server that you’re a member of.
You can do this by:

1. Going to the server that you would like to change your nickname on.
   
2. Selecting the server name on the top banner or top of the channel list.
   
3. Select ‘Edit Server Profile’.
   
4. Change your server nickname.
   
   

Profile picture

It is possible to setup a profile picture on your main profile that will be used across Discord. It is also possible to have unique profile pictures for each server that you join, however you need to pay for Discord Nitro in order to do this.

Nitro

Nitro is the Discord premium option, it is in no way required. There are two levels, Discord Nitro Basic for £2.49 per month and Discord Nitro for £8.99 per month. Basic allows you to use custom emojis and stickers across different servers (non-paying users can only use them within the server they were created for) and share file sizes up to 50mb. The full nitro gives that, allows users to set separate profile pictures for different servers, 500mb file sharing size, 2 server boosts, HD video streaming and the option to add animations and other crap to your profile banner. Both also give you a little gem next to your name and the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with supporting a large corporation.

Notifications and Unread Indicators

Like most apps, Discord can provide banner and pop up notifications for things you follow and also indicators of new posts in conversations when you’re browsing a server in Discord.
To update your main notification settings on phone and desktop app to ping if you’ve been replied to or had a message, you can set things up by doing the following:

1. Select your profile.
   
2. Choose settings, likely just shows as a the little cog somewhere.
   
3. Find the ‘notifications’ section.
   
4. Set it up how you’d like.
   You can also change notification settings for each server that you are a member of, perhaps you want to be notified about things going on in the conversations you’re a part of on the LFGSS server, but you don’t want to be notified about things happening in the server relating to a podcast you listen to that you’ve also joined.
   
5. Go to the server you want to change the notifications for.
   
6. Click the banner at the top of the app or channel list.
   
7. Click notifications.
   
8. Setup notifications as you’d like.
   
   

Personalisation Settings and Privacy

I’d recommend having a flick through all of the settings options on your personal profile to set things up how you prefer, stuff like light/dark mode preferences, some privacy bits like who you accept messages from, accessibility, language and stuff.

Roles

Admin and server controllers are able to set up roles on servers, this is a way to manage allowances across the server and things, if there was a specific area of the forum that should only be accessed by certain people, a role can be introduced to do this. It can be set up to be automated when attaching to other sites and apps for people who pay for a premium element or similar.
Currently LFGSS only has standard roles and Admin roles. So this isn’t really something to go into further. If they are introduced in any manner this can be updated with more info.

Now that you’re all set up, I’m sure you just want to jump in and start showing off your new 50k watch, so how do you get to the watch thread?

Categories, Channels, Threads and Conversations

Channel List

When browsing a server, you will likely first browse through the channel list, this is the list on the left hand side of the app, browser and discord client and is where you’ll see all of the areas you can interest with listed. It is mostly made up of Categories, Channels, Threads and Conversations.

Categories

The top level categorisation within a server are categories.
The categories can only be created by a server admin, and really only act as a way to organise the rest of the server with headings which contain…

Channels

Channels are the next level down from the categories and are the things that you’ll see marked with either a # or a speech bubble. Again they can only be made by an Admin of the server. There are different types of channels and they are:

• Text Channel
  
• Forum Channel
  
• Voice Channel
  
  

Text Channels

A text channel is signified by a ‘#’ in the channel list. This is probably the most basic channel and once it has been set up, users are free to start sending messages through it. There are a number of text channels available already. You can also post pictures and gifs in these channels. A text channel allows users to create threads within them which we’ll come back to later.

Forum Channels

A forum channel is signified with a little speech bubble. Again a forum channel can only be created by a server admin, however they do allow users a bit more freedom to create posts than text channels do. To start a forum conversation has nothing to it other than an empty board, however users can create conversations, which we will also return to later.

Audio/Video Channels

Discord was first set up and used with gaming in mind, and due to this there are also persistent ‘Voice channels’. If you click on one of these you’ll join the channel and be able to talk to any others who are currently in the channel. I think pretty much every new discord user has clicked on this by accident and shat themselves as they are immediately entered into an open call.

Threads and Conversations

As mentioned above, the channels are setup by Admins, however within the channels, users are then able to create places themselves to control and post. The two main options are Threads and Conversations.

Threads

Threads are created within ‘Text Channels’ they are ‘temporary’ text channels that ‘disappear’ after a pre-determined time. They don’t actually get deleted though, they can still be found in the thread list of a text channel, they’re just not shown in the channel list anymore.
To create a thread in a text channel:

1. Go to the relevant text channel for what you want to talk about.
   
2. Click on the banner at the top of the window.
   
3. Click the bobbin logo for threads.
   
4. Click the ‘create thread’ or plus.
   
5. Type in a thread title and first message.
   
6. Select post.
   You’ve now made a thread that other people can message in. There will be a notification in the body of the parent text channel that you’ve made a thread so people will surely flock to it.
   
   

Conversations

Conversations are made within Forum Channels and are provide a space for longer more significant discussion than text channels and threads (functionally they’re all actually pretty similar, they just act more like a traditional forum setup).

1. To create a conversation in a Forum Channel:
   
2. Go to the relevant forum channel for what you want to talk about.
   
3. Click the ‘create conversation’ or plus.
   
4. Type in a title and first message.
   
5. Select post.
   You’ve made a conversation post and people will reply to you or ignore you completely.
   
   

Thread and Conversation specific settings

As the creator of a thread or conversation, you do have some control over them. To see what, go to one you’ve made, click the banner at the top and then select the settings cog.

Pinned Threads, Conversations and Messages

People who control each of these things can pin certain things if it’s important or useful, so other users can easier navigate to those messages.

Events

Events can also be created within Discord, however again only by Admin currently.

Finding and Following Stuff

Now that you know what all the different things available on discord are, it’s time to start curating your channel list. You currently might not be able to see much on the channels list on the left, or there might be a massive list with a load of stuff you’re not interested in. If so, at the top of the list select 'Browse Channels' this will list all of the channels currently available on the LFGSS server. You can choose which to show and which not to show in your channel list by using the tick boxes. You can always come back to this too.
When new channels are made there’ll usually be a new category pop up at the top of the list titled ‘suggested’ with the new channel noted as well.
Once you've selected some things they'll show on the list and you can click on them to then see Threads and Conversations that are within these channels where people are talking. Hovering over the list on the browser also shows some more of the sub-threads that have been created.
The search can also be quite a good tool to see if a post already exists to follow.

Server Individualisation - Bots, Stickers, Reactions, Boosts

Discord has quite a lot of options for creating stuff unique and specific to each channel and also plugins and bots that can be used for random stuff. Again there’s not any of those on the server currently so not worth going into.
I will say though DON’T BUY BOOSTS FOR THE SERVER. There’s no point as it only adds more of this unused stuff and gives money to discord.

Tips, Notes and Other Crap

Collapsing areas so only freshly posted things show up

If you click on the area subheader it will collapse so no channels show unless someone posts a new comment. Cleaning up the channels list a little bit.

@ing users

It’s possible to @ people if you want to ping them in some way on a post, they will get a notification depending on how they’ve set things up.
A useful one to know is @admin which will contact anyone with the admin role. Admins can also use @everyone which pings all users, so if you can’t see something specifically to you, it’s probably an admin note somewhere.

Linking to channels

You can link people to different channels, threads and conversations by typing # followed by the name of where you’re linking.

Waow. That's a lot of levels/options to wade through for a notech bro like me.
Thanks!

^Thanks for posting this

+1

Cheers.

I need to read it again when I'm not half cut, coz I still don't know what sub-categorthreadtopic the audax thing is.

Big thanks dude

when I'm not half cut 🤔

Nice one!

I notice that the Discord has been organised to look like the current forum layout, but the difference between the Discord categories/channels/threads structure (and privileges) mean that's a bit of an illusion.

On this site, creating forums and subforums require privileges, but anybody can create a thread. On Discord, mods have created categories to match the common top level forums, and below that there's an inconsistent mix of forum channels and ordinary channels. But all an ordinary Discord user can create is posts (within forum channels) or threads (within normal channels but not forum channels). The result is that there are are things on the Discord that look like the LFGSS layout but can only have been created by mods, where on LFGSS they were created by ordinary users. On here, the BTOB thread was created by an unprivileged user at the top level of the General forum area; couldn't do that on Discord so a mod must have created the existing channel. There's nowhere appropriate (or at least equivalent) for me to recreate the "Musk is a cunt" thread and I don't have the privileges to create such a space. "Musk is a cunt" doesn't need to be at top level, far from it, but right now my only option would be to make a thread in an ordinary channel and there are no appropriate ones.

I think some of the current layout needs a rethink, at least. It's getting very little use at the moment, but if it does then these will become issues. The Discord can't be organised the way the forum is - the basic rules are different - but that means the current layout needs changing.

Yeah I do think it needs a bit of a overhaul, and as there's not much use of it at the moment it would be better sooner rather than later if it is to become something of a holding space for the future as things can't be moved around once created.
I think the issue is there aren't as many layers on Discord so it's difficult to get something as useful as it is here.
Potentially with fewer categories at the top level, that just cover an announcements section, rules section, new users section and then main 'forum' section. The first three can be quite static and only updated by admin/mods when needed then the main section will have Forum Channels set up to mirror the Sections available here on the Front page. Then users are able to create conversations at their will within those areas like they can here. That's the closest I think it could be at the moment without going into additional allowances by user within certain categories and stuff.

I'd initially think that it could work something like this using examples of forums and threads on here -

New Members Category:

• Read Only Welcome Text Channel
  
• Read Only Info Text Channel
  Announcements Category:
  
• Mod Comment Only General Announcements/Updates Text Channel
  Rules Category:
  
• Mod Comment Only Rules Text Channel
  Main Forum Category:
  
• General Forum Channel (Created by mod/admin, but anything within this is now user made)
  * Bicycle Tag Conversation
  * Spotted...
  * Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?
  * Ways Not to Lock Your Bike
  * Doping
  * etc.
  
• Miscellaneous and Meaningless Forum Channel (Created by mod/admin, but anything within this is now user made)
  * Star Wars Appreciation Spoilers Ahead
  * Owning Your Own Home
  * Films
  * Wordle
  * Musk is a cunt and Tesla are shit
  * What are you Listening to?
  * Video Games
  * Etc.
  
• Social Forum Channel (Created by mod/admin, but anything within this is now user made)
  * North Drinks
  * East Drinks
  * West Drinks
  * South East Drinks
  * One off Events
  * Etc.
  
• Mechanics & Fixin' Forum Channel (Created by mod/admin, but anything within this is now user made)
  * Transmission database - for all your crank / bb / bottom bracket questions
  * Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered
  * Wheelbuilding / Wheel Building / Wheel build help
  * Chain Waxing
  * Etc.
  
• Current Projects Forum Channel (Created by mod/admin, but anything within this is now user made)
  * Disc Brakes are dead
  * Etc.
  
• Rides and Races Forum Channel (Created by mod/admin, but anything within this is now user made)
  * The Rapha Festive 500
  * Pro-cycling thread
  * Ultracycling
  * Audax Rides
  * Etc.
  
• Etc.
  Cities and Places Category
  
• City Request Text Thread (so people can ask a Mod/Admin to make a new forum channel for a place that doesn't have on yet)
  
• Manchester Forum Channel (users can then create what they want within using conversations)
  
• Newcastle Forum Channel (users can then create what they want within using conversations)
  
• Brighton Forum Channel (users can then create what they want within using conversations)
  
• Etc.
  
  

The New Members, Announcements and Rules could even be rolled into one Category like it is on here, with some Categories, Forum Channels (with Categories) and Text Channels (with Threads) open for testing and welcomes and stuff as well as the read only stuff.

The problem is, there are some sub-forums within these on LFGSS that we just can't replicate I don't think. 'Covid-19' exists within the Miscellaneous and Meaningless forum and the Classifieds has sub forums for 'Components and clothing' seperate to 'Complete Bikes and Frames & forks' for example. Another one is the 'Cities and Places' on LFGSS that has sub-forums for each place within that, as I've noted above, this would maybe need to be a seperate category, with mod created Forum Channels that then Users create the conversations in, I think that's how it is here.

It's clear from various postings you don't like Discord - but do you have any alternative platform suggestions for LFGSS if the continuation plan for here doesn't work out?

This was a constructive observation, not more criticism.

Ok I just don't see many practical suggestions in there apart from "needs a rethink" at the end and the "layout needs changing"

It might not be the exact same as the forum in the future, can you accept that, and see that having something ready to go which can be improved iteratively as time goes on (rather than having everything exactly perfect the way that it is here) is better than nothing?

And still curious to hear any other alternatives

Ok I just don't see many practical suggestions in there apart from "needs a rethink" at the end and the "layout needs changing"

Ironically, it's half of a conversation also going on in the Discord (although at snail's pace, because almost nobody is actually participating there as yet), besides which I didn't know if there would even be a response or if there was already a plan. Hence some practical observations on what a plan would need to be founded on, but not a pamphlet on the subject. So I think

It might not be the exact same as the forum in the future, can you accept that,

is out of order.

Potentially with fewer categories at the top level, that just cover an announcements section, rules section, new users section and then main 'forum' section.

That simplifies some things, but I think the "moderators for each bit of the top level" suggestion you made on the Discord is an essential idea and would work better with more LFGSS-style categories, despite needing more moderators, since it's probably easier to find motivated moderators for specific rather than vaguely general categories.

Given volunteers for the moderation, a basic template of "Top level category, a couple of normal channels (named something like 'general' and 'admin') and pretty much everything else within the category organised as forum channels" would probably do pretty well without overthinking it.

The problem is, there are some sub-forums within these on LFGSS that we just can't replicate

For sure. Discord is deliberately designed to be more constrained and moderator-dependent, which matches its typical use case. As long as it's familiar enough and also has a structure that approximately allows the spontaneity this site does, that would give it a better chance of gaining engagement. The most important thing right now, I think, is that the Discord has that core of volunteers and they find the time to agree on whatever template works for them and get it ready.