[Discussion] Discord Chat and MADA Chatbox

[Flint]

Recently there has been a huge surge in activity for the MADA Discord chatbox. As such, the regular MADA chatbox is seeing lack of users as many are opting for Discord. This wasn't an issue when we made the Discord chatbox originally, only in the past couple of weeks has it seen a huge spike in activity.

I don't think completely removing the Discord chatbox would be the best course of action. I wanted to create this post to hear what everyone else thinks about this and what they might think is the best course of action. Fortunately it hasn't stopped threads being made, although it's become an issue for the forumotion chatbox.

[Earth Guardian (Zolfo)]

even though i'd hate to see discord go... I think it would be best to remove it.
PS. i think this post could use a poll.

[α27theDemonKnight]

This post does not require a poll imo.
But rather discussion of what we should be doing with our Discord and why.

I've been told by a lot of people, especially people who have worked as staff in various academias, that Discord chat is the no.1 thing that killed off their academy.
That tis the most regrettable curse they unleashed upon themselves.
Entropy

Due to lack of activity in the main forumotion chatbox. This means less people visiting the site veryday, less activity logs and hits on the site.
Which turns really bad and slowly this academia might actually die out in the end due to lack of activity.

We can keep our Discord for Staff Meetings only or something.
I've also heard from a microscopic minority of members about Skype groups and Discord groups being more convenient and organized for them while also being easier to access.

We'd really like to hear your serious thoughts on the matter regarding our Discord.

[mimgrim]

I mean if members want to creat their own little groups in Skype or Discord das fine for them to do. Same if staff wants to use that kind of thing for more private meetings. But it shouldn't be the main chatbox of the site, as the site already has that, and by being the main goto place it will just end up killing the site much faster.

That or you should put some kind of incentive on the  discord chat to visit the main site.

[Kiernan]

Thing is Forumotion's chatboxes are extremely limited in what they can do and are as a result less appealing. Additionally, with DN down, for the time being our new member intake has been limited to those who stumble across the site, which isn't really all that many, and more often than not they're not necessarily quality additions to the forum to begin with.

That said, it could be just as effective to do away with the MADA chatbox altogether and move strictly to Discord for chats. Discord has way more advantages than the Forumotion chat does. Ideally, of course, members should be using both indiscriminately so as not to ward off prospective new members (those few genuine ones, that is.)

There's not really a whole lotta ways to persuade people to do that sadly. Mimgrim's idea of providing incentive could work, but the issue with that is there's not a whole lot that can actually be offered as incentive. MC? At a certain point, you end up with more than you know what to do with.

The most decisive conclusion is to close one chatbox or the other and make the other the main method of chatting-- but doing either will also result in the most public outcry. There's not much that can be done in the way of compromise, in all honesty. And those methods that would seem to provide compromise will likely fall apart, then returning us to square one.

I'm all for keeping Discord, honestly since notifications are a thing on it and it's less glitchy by far. If there was a way to embed the Discord chat in the place of the regular forumotion chatbox, that'd be a decent solution, and that'd help not deter newer members, but I don't know if that's really possible.

tl;dr: I like to ramble

[Yuuki Yuna]

From my experience, outside chat has taken over one of my places, and quite frankly I removed the chatbox on the main forum cause quite frankly nobody cared about it. Do whatever makes you look better as a forum.

[Lord Beerus]

I like discord and its easy to manage but i don't want to see the site die. I am all for shutting the discord down and just have staff use it. Our Members we get on the forum is not to big but the fact still remains that there was a lot that went into the site and we shouldn't let it go to waste. Discord and skype chats are some of the reason most places go down but then they just stay in the discord from then on. I don't want to see MADA go down that same Path. I personally would rather have the discord shut down and have it used for staff only.
- Master Tigress

[Yuuki Yuna]

Yet again, I know I only care about the discord. And maybe some others feel the same way. Forumotion's chatbox is just disgusting.

[Kiernan]

It really is, but it can also be helpful for promoting overall forum activity.

That said, I still dislike Forumotion's chatbox mostly due to it having almost literally no redeeming qualities except for pseudo-convenience.

[mimgrim]

If the discord can be made more intergrated into the site (doesn't have to actually be a box on the forum but the link should at least be made more obvious) abd then get rid of the forumotion chatbox it could work. But it will also need to be done vice versa as well (as in make the site more intergrated into the discord chat as well) which means giving incentives through the chat to go back to the forum. I've noticed people playing other games together like Paladins and what not so maybe something can work theough with that, or just contstant advertising of the forum on the discord chat.

It could work to make discord the chatbox but both sites need to be more connected for it to really work.

[Arc V Yuto]

I see both sides as Discord can be seen to kill academies it would also help if Forumotion could make a better chat box but that would take resources and for already being a free website maker I think they have provided enough.

Discord is a gaming chat area created for mainly for gamers also as another alternative to other chatting areas such as Skype or Facebook group chats "If anyone actually uses these". I like Discord as it gives more options to what a chatting area can be by introducing bots to help run the server and implementing little mini-games for people to enjoy unlike the standard Forumotion chat which at most can allow Emotes but Discord does it better.

I would leave this up to the admins decision of what to do with the Discord server as it is better than the Forumotion chatting server as well as whole Forums are ran on Discord as well which can lead to activity drop on the main forum since Discord would be the better alternative seeing that it has better things than a Forumotion site except the posts which is one thing Forumotion has going for it.

Lastly I'd like to say that not everyone might be able to access Discord as it takes an account to set it up and isn't like a chat room you can just join but on Forumotion your account on a forum can help you reply to post as well as join the chat box to chat with people.

My look on this is keeping both of them and if activity on the main chat box drops substantially then I'd push for a termination of the Discord server.

That's just my look on it.

[LightRook]

If the chat box goes then I'll have no way of talking because I can't get on discord with my phone. I do see discord as being a decently good thing for events such as tournaments or role playing games and also could be used for staff communication but I also don't see that it should be the main source of communication, anyway that's all I really have to say.

[Flint]

The change that I think would be the most beneficial is to change the main-chatbox room in Discord to an Emergency Chatbox room, should anything happen to Forumotion. You wouldn't be able to send messages until an administrator toggles it. I didn't want to completely get rid of MADA Discord mainly because how convenient it is for sending PMs, staff rooms for discussions and the NSFW chat. Which will still continue to be up. I think this is what would be the most optimal decision.

I'll discuss with Doge and Demon and we'll try to come to a decision within a week.

[Kiernan]

I do like the idea of the NSFW chat.

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