I've been running an angelkin server for about four years, which means we've been active through the peak kinnie years. In all that time, we've had zero kinnies join, or if we have, they haven't stuck around long enough to even leave an introduction. It's fully possible to maintain a Discord server without dealing with kinnies.
"If you find you are falling into madness -- dive." -Malkavian proverb
While we are not necessarily against a shoutbox if people truly want one, Nonhuman National Park has no plans for a Discord at this time. While I was entertaining the idea a few years ago when the forum started, I've come to realize that we just simply don't have the manpower to moderate a full-fledged Discord in addition to the forum. Discord moderation is also a different beast than forum moderation in a lot of ways, and it's just not something that I feel confident in being able to handle long-term, especially with my ADHD and busy school+work schedule-- while I can afford to be gone for a few days from NNP when I'm swamped from work thanks to the fact that we're a relatively small forum with a good culture, a Discord server is something that you need to keep up with every single day due to how it's a very popular instant messaging platform. I'm sorry to those of you who would have liked a connected Discord server, but it's just not a possibility right now and doesn't seem like something we're likely to pursue in the future.
With that all said, members are more than welcome to make their own personal alterhuman Discords (or forums, or anything else!) and advertise them on our Tent Pitching board. I'm not trying to pitch this as a substitute for an "official" Discord server, but I also don't want anyone here to feel discouraged if you want to find more community, or connect with your fellow forum-goers on other platforms.
The position of the moderation on an official server has already been said and I agree with the stance that modding for a discord server is a different beast to modding for a forum. (heh, beast)
I just want to add that I joined this forum and not a discord server because it's a forum and not a discord server. I know discord is popular, but it's also monopolized online chatting and that's allowed it to degrade in user quality, become overly monetized, and be flippant to security concerns. It's also inaccessible by search, a major drawback of moving communities and resources onto the platform. It's become bloated, and I consider my current use of it more of a necessary evil than anything else. Plus this community is already small enough and activity is slow; spreading interactions to other, separate platforms is both not equivalent to a shout box and also is not achieving anything in encouraging lively forum discussion, just IMO.
I wanted to add links to articles which lament discord's shortcomings in detail or stuff about the death of forum culture and the non-corporate web in general because I remember reading a couple of really good ones, but I can't seem to dig up anything specific; this is a critique which has happened so many times it has become a trend.
Idk maybe I'm an (impossibly) old entity roaring at a cloud. Just sharing my thoughts.
The position of the moderation on an official server has already been said and I agree with the stance that modding for a discord server is a different beast to modding for a forum. (heh, beast)
I just want to add that I joined this forum and not a discord server because it's a forum and not a discord server. I know discord is popular, but it's also monopolized online chatting and that's allowed it to degrade in user quality, become overly monetized, and be flippant to security concerns. It's also inaccessible by search, a major drawback of moving communities and resources onto the platform. It's become bloated, and I consider my current use of it more of a necessary evil than anything else. Plus this community is already small enough and activity is slow; spreading interactions to other, separate platforms is both not equivalent to a shout box and also is not achieving anything in encouraging lively forum discussion, just IMO.
I wanted to add links to articles which lament discord's shortcomings in detail or stuff about the death of forum culture and the non-corporate web in general because I remember reading a couple of really good ones, but I can't seem to dig up anything specific; this is a critique which has happened so many times it has become a trend.
Idk maybe I'm an (impossibly) old entity roaring at a cloud. Just sharing my thoughts.
Yeah that's pretty much the only reason why I pop into this forum. As a forum I can just log in, check for the topics that interest me, and then take a break for as long as I want. So far NNP has had forum discussions that have lasted for a few years, which just wouldn't be possible with a server given the linear exclusivity of channels. There are multiple discussions and even coinings here which have been able to be archived because it's a forum and not a Discord server.
Discord has become increasingly harder and harder to use, and if so many alterhuman community weren't on Discord, I would stop using it period. If NNP were a Discord server, I probably would have left awhile ago and forgot about it in the sea of other samey servers.
I have a lot more to say on the topic of forums vs. Discord, but it's a good call I'd say not to move to Discord.