TLS Discord (More better than Skype)

[Joe]

In terms of something official, Discord is 100% the way to go. We have multiple chat and voice channels for our social and more professional needs (livestreams, events, etc.), we can moderate it much easier and it's widely used as an official platform for all sorts of gaming communities.

 

[Fangu]

Discord currently is named the official channel at /chat, so that's pretty much where we're at at this moment.

Let's just stick with that then. Bc liek

Spoiler: Then there was rant only oldish members need to bother with

idk I'd be happy to detach myself from this even for having strong feelings about it for years. As in, wanting to give people one common platform to meet, as I do feel getting to know people instead of creating segregated groups is always the better choice. But I've realised that's never going to happen. People prefer their silos (and I'm only calling it that in need of a technical term) because they want to create friendships, and feel safe, and have a good time. And stuff. And it's not my personal agenda to create something that the world in general don't want. It's some sort of weird personal battle of, idk, if you can't create it in real life, maybe you can create it on the Internet. But you can't. People don't want it. And maybe they don't want it because it serves no purpose.

So, I resign I'm not gonna try pushing this agenda further. For reasons mentioned.

Peace

 

[Flintlock]

Which is literally saying 'we're fine with being elitist shitbags who don't like new people keeping chat secondary'.

I agree with you on not wanting to make chat secondary but I feel like we're in a very small minority. I've noticed that when someone joins Discord, they're immediately asked "Who are you on TLS?". What they mean is the forum, but to a lot of people the term "TLS" is synonymous with this forum. I'd be fine with someone joining our Discord server without signing up to the forum, and I'd absolutely consider them part of our community. The people who comment on our front page articles (spambots excluded), the people who engage with our social media accounts, the people who send in comments to our podcast, chat with us on Twitch or reply to our Youtube videos, even the people in our Free Company on XIV – they're all part of the wider community too. We're much more than just a forum. I wish I could convince more people here to take that view.

I'm a bit confused by some of the other stuff you wrote but you said you "resigned" so I won't get into it.

 

[Flare]

I use the Discord more than Skype nowadays, for various reasons. I like it better overall. I'm a part of several servers on there and it's a great way to feel connected to multiple communities, it feels very 'open' compared to Skype. The TLS server is set up nicely I think.
I think the only thing Skype has that Discord doesn't is video calls. Skype is nice for that and I guess if you want to just call an individual person. Idk if Discord has that function?

I agree with having Discord as the public/main TLS chat thingamajig. Most of TLS has switched to using it now anyhow.
I don't think the Skype has to be deleted for any reason though, some people still enjoy using it a lot. I used it a lot myself even when Discord was first created because I was used to Skype. Only kept using Discord initially because half of TLS instantly jumped to that, and I like trying new things.

Spoiler: Tangent about Skype

Originally I joined the 'Shoutbox Skype' group early last year. I never knew there was a main TLS skype chat until several months later. I had no idea how to get to it initially, far as I knew you had to have someone add you to the chat, I think I pestered Joe a couple times but he forget, etc.
It was only when a new main TLS skype group was created that I saw the link to it in the Skype thread here on TLS. That's when I finally joined and saw a lot more members chatting in there. XD The old shoutbox Skype group that I started on died out fairly quickly after the new TLS skype group was made, those of us not a part of the old main one all moved over to the new main chat via the link provided on TLS.

Spoiler: Also random thought

Once the Discord chat was made, the majority of the European TLS members instantly moved over to it, while several NA members still chilled on Skype. I didn't realize this until about a month ago.
I think it's just an interesting observation; I wonder if Discord is just more popular over in Europe? I've honestly never heard it mentioned over here, unlike Skype.

 

[Geostigma]

I think the only thing Skype has that Discord doesn't is video calls. Skype is nice for that and I guess if you want to just call an individual person. Idk if Discord has that function?

Discord has private 1 on 1 calls. I believe smaller non-server type group chats as well. They said they were going to release Video calls after those 2 features came out so unless something goes horribly wrong it's in the "soon tm" pipeline.

I use the Discord more than Skype nowadays, for various reasons. I like it better overall. I'm a part of several servers on there and it's a great way to feel connected to multiple communities, it feels very 'open' compared to Skype. The TLS server is set up nicely I think.

Same. I'm in the TLS one, one for IRL friends, another one for IRL friends that has like 2 people not invited to it lmao, old WoW guild ones, a WoW gold making one , a few Black desert online community ones and even a discord a game dev made for his game.

Discord has become the defacto community hub for a ton of things. Most places have forums but you can almost always find a discord link for that community and at times it's way more active or at the least if you need quick answers you can get them in real time and often from people in charge. It's really convenient to be able access so many community hubs from 1 program or web app like that, while still being able to just hang out with friends.


Personally I'll never switch back to Skype. Honestly I would have dropped it even for a garbage program like Raidcall, if my friends had followed suit lol. Luckily more and more people are starting to. Just everything around Skype is terrible. Resource hog, ugly, frequently broken, 0% chance of modding it or adding bots to do functions for you, NSA all up in your shit. Nah.


edit: Seriously some of the discord bots are awesome

https://www.tatsumaki.xyz/

https://www.carbonitex.net/Discord/bots

 

[Flintlock]

Discord now has video chat and screen sharing. Something like 25% of users already has it as part of a mass beta, but the update I just downloaded makes it seem like it's launched for everyone now.

I still don't have a webcam. But the screen sharing thing should be neat. I'm imagining playing party games like Quiplash without having to put up with Twitch's broadcast delay or Hitbox's racists. In general, people who can't or don't want to stream could use it to share their PC gameplay with other TLSers. It's up to 10 people at a time, apparently.

 

[Fangu]

It's up to 10 people at a time, apparently.

 

[Channy]

Did we ever really have more than that when playing Quiplash though?

 

[Cthulhu]

Yes, or, we could have

 

[Joker]

if only we could keep somebody from adding meme commands...

YOP. *death stare*

 

[JechtShotMK9]

if only we could keep somebody from adding meme commands...

YOP. *death stare*

You stop. Wednesday Frog is Love. Wednesday Frog is Life. And Wednesday Frog is the only thing keeping me going on Wednesdays.

 

[Cthulhu]

How else are we supposed to know when it is wednesday, my dudes?

 

[Joker]

I really hate you sometimes.

 

[Geostigma]

I know this is pretty poorly timed with the talk of the forum upgrade coming up again and potentially being on the horizon.

But I was wondering what everyone thought of trying to replace the current chatbox on the forum with a Discord widget thing? I think if we got it working it would be a handy way keeping the community in one area so to speak.

I've done some googling and found people mentioning they made a widget to integrate their community discord into the forum using this widget guide

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/for...zations/380733-creating-an-html-or-php-widget

but as you can see that's just information on how to make a widget and not specifically a discord widget. I haven't been able to find much else other then people saying their board has one so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think it would be pretty neat if we could figure it out though.

edit:

Just found a site with an example of a discord widget in action I think.

http://www.sc2mafia.com/forum/showthread.php/34464-Embed-discord-as-a-replacement-for-vbulletin-chat

It doesn't seem to function though lol.

 

[Cthulhu]

I did a quick google; https://titanembeds.com/ seems to do the thing, so I guess we could integrate that in the site somewhere. I think I'd prefer creating a #shoutbox channel and having only that one appear on the website, with a Strong Suggestion to open the proper discord page in a separate tab or app. People would still need to sign up I believe.

 

[Flintlock]

Right; the strength of the current shoutbox is that it is completely integrated with the forum, meaning there's no need to sign up for a separate account. I don't use it myself but I expect people would miss that functionality.

 

[Geostigma]

edit:

^good point.

That looks so much better than the junk I found haha. My googlefu is low tier all I kept finding was people asking on their forums if they could get a discord chat box lol.

Also I agree with your idea it would help keep it nice and neat , and it would also help people chatting on the discord end (app, phone etc.) know it's coming from the forum too.

 

[Lex]

I'm pretty sure Discourse has better Discord integration options also (from a forward thinking thingy).

I do not touch the shoutbox, I don't think I've even been in there for several months. Do people still chat in there?

 

[Shademp]

I do not touch the shoutbox, I don't think I've even been in there for several months. Do people still chat in there?

I regularly visit and make a few posts every week. Regular posters in the lifestream shoutbox would be Dawn, Ghost, Fancy, Octo, Flare and a few more I'm probably forgetting.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I'm pretty sure I've seen all of those people on Discord at one time or another....

 

[Geostigma]

^ hmmmm. If that's the case I think it wouldn't be all that bad for any remaining people to set up a discord account. Especially since it's so easy.

And then after that we can just incentivize it by pointing out you could use the new TLS shoutbox even from your phone (technically!) etc. and the sign up is worth.

Assuming it works well though. I think if it integrates properly and doesn't randomly just break and stuff it would be a decent upgrade to the current chat box due to at the very least having access to one of the Discord channels.

edit :

Just loaded up the site on my phone for the first time in like ever and see the shout box also works on the mobile forum. So like one of the lines in this post is really redundant lol.

 

[Flare]

I only use the TLS shoutbox nowadays if I see people chatting in there, don’t think I really initiate anything. I pretty much just stick with Discord because Discord is so much better And getting better and better as more TLS emotes are put on it

 

[JechtShotMK9]

Much more better, Flare. Get it right.

On-topic: Widget is a fun word.

 

[Cthulhu]

My googlefu is low tier all I kept finding was people asking on their forums if they could get a discord chat box lol.

The magic search phrase was "embed discord". When it comes to Googling, think simple.

Re: shoutbox; I think a valid point is being raised. Do we want to consolidate communications on and around TLS, or are we okay with siloes?

I mean at the moment we've got the shoutbox, forums, and Discord. There was one, if not two major Skype chats, but at least one of those has died recently (after months if not years of poking "hey maybe we should stop and go to discord". There was also IRC, similar story. Facebook groups / group chats have formed recently around the Kupocon wossnames and s00per s33krit conspiracies (although they tend to die off after the event).

On the one side, consolidation good, one close-knit community, etc. On the other hand, fragmentation is good too, since it allows smaller groups of people to get to know each other better. In fact, TLS' origins can be traced back to a splinter grouping off of ACF that shitpoasted on FFOF, one of many splinter forums that branched off of ACF at the time. I think that while we can idk, close the shoutbox in favor of promoting the forums or discord, I think it's pretty sure that people will naturally form chat groups outside of the main site. I'm not going to tell people to not do that.

 

[Geostigma]

The magic search phrase was "embed discord". When it comes to Googling, think simple.

Damn. Mine were more or less "discord vbulletin widget integration", lol.

Regarding the rest of your post. You definitely list out both sides of the equation pretty fairly. It's hard to say which one would feel best for the community, both seem neat