To Discord, or not to Discord

in #steemit6 years ago (edited)

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... That is the question...



Knowledge is a tool, but a tool can cause harm if one is not prepared to use it right. Knowledge is liberating, knowledge is also a curse.

With this idea in mind, I welcome my readers to contemplate and weigh on a the following question:

At what stage of someone's journey on Steemit should they be introduced to Discord?
... that is the question.

Some months ago I wrote a post about how I joined Discord and how I discovered GinaBot called:

"GINAbot - How I Outsourced My "Stalking" of Others"

Since then, I've invited many other users to join Discord, but the results were very varied...

My theory now, is that a user should only be introduced to Discord after they've spent enough time on Steemit to understand how it works, they recognize it's short-comings on many levels, and also figured a way to work within the confines of these obstacles. It is my experience that being exposed to challenge generates commitment. While if a a challenge is taken away from a person, their commitment is softened.

We, the more experienced users and community builders, take Discord for granted, and at this stage we cannot imagine how we could operate without it - without Ginabot, without PAL, without private messages... but there was a short time in our journey where we had to make do. And only after we started asking the right questions did someone came around and guided us to Discord.

In my case, the first question was:

  • How can I chat privately? (oh yeah, at that time steemit.chat still existed, so I went there...)

But the next questions were:

  • How do I keep up with the particular people that I want to support (on time)?
  • How can I organize my feed to show me the topics that I am actually interested in?
  • Also is there a way to know who resteemed your post?

The first question came to me when I was rep (35 - 45), so pretty early on... but the following questions came to me when I reached rep (50+)... This means, that up until that point I managed to keep up with the people I followed, and didn't yet feel the need to reach people in order to grow on the platform ( in many ways thanks to @curie's great support which so many newbies rely on). Also I didn't yet know anyone on a more personal level to have the need to chat privately; which also means, that at the time, Steemit was still something I wasn't feeling committed to, or engaged with.

Furthermore, after I got on Discord, it took me a while to figure things out, luckily I had friends and familiar faces from Steemit who helped me out... but the main issue, was that it started to consume more and more of my time, while I already was finding Steemit quite time consuming. Of course being on discord also saved a lot of time for me - Ginabot is completely vital to me at this point! In other words, I had to adapt...

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So what might happen, when someone like me - who views Discord as a vital part of growth on Steemit, tells a new Steemit user about Discord as soon as they joins the platform? They get overwhelmed, they get disoriented, they confuse their priorities... they were given knowledge - a tool, but they didn't yet developed the muscles to wield it correctly. And so, what I've seen happen is people simply get fatigued from all this information, notifications and interaction rushing at them - like a relationship that got too intimate and serious too fast.

My conclusion is that a person should only get introduced to Discord when they either start asking the right questions, that only being on discord can answer... (generally around rep 45 - 50+)... or when they start to express how difficult it's getting to keep up the pace.

Essentially, It's really important to let people figure out the system at their own pace.


Your thoughts


This is of course an invitation for discussion. I think there can be other perspectives that i haven't taken into consideration, and if anyone has some thoughts or experiences to share on the matter, please leave a comment.

Thank you so much for reading!
-A N K A


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^^ http://steemit.com/@helpie ^^

^^ http://steemit.com/@knot ^^

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When I joined Steemit I was forced to join Discord almost right away. And it scared the living daylights out of me. It threw me off, because it was full of information and people chatting 24/7. Chats about cripto, schools, tips, chats bout' this, bots, commands and so on. It was overwhelming.

However, the same Discord community made me understand Steemit. From participating as mod in large communities, to taking a curator role in smaller ones, I feel like Discord has the power to really make the Steemit experience a lot better.

My pieces of advice for those wanting to join any Discord as a newbie in Steemit:

  • Start small: Join smaller communities and then grow upward. One way to know about a large or small community: their reputation number (right next to their username). The larger the number, the more likely that said community is big -and more intimidating-.
  • Learn to mute things: one of the most exasperating things about Discord is the constant alerts. Learn to disable that, if you're anxious, this will calm you down as the alerts will be popping up almost non-stop if you don't program it otherwise.
  • Be yourself: I've seen so many people turn themselves into something they're not. Be yourself, regardless of how you may feel, there's a spot for everyone. And I mean it, Discord is open to many roles that you can play with.
  • Large communities? Get 1 on 1: sounds funny but it's true. Try to chat with one or two users at a time, maybe in private. That will help you get comfortable with the hub-hub of Discord, where a chat can have over 20 people chatting non-stop at the same time.
  • Participate in Podcasts regularly: these are a fantastic tool to know the communities, and to add experience to your skills. Join an online school for a variety of subjects, listen to a debate, sing karaoke, or something else entirely, just take your pick. These are amazing ways to humanize otherwise plain chats.
  • Don't be intimidated by established rapport: if you're new, established digital friendships and the like might intimidate you. Camaraderie, jokes and the like are what people do in most of Discord's chats. You can join them asking, and participating positively in those chats. Their friendship doesn't make you an outsider, it makes you a new participant, entitled to respect and camaraderie as much as other members of the chat.
  • Limit your time in it: Discord can be addictive at first. As you try to understand it, it puts it's little hands over yours and it turns into a very Anabelle-esque experience. Give yourself an standard time on Discord, then adapt it to your life outside of Steemit. That way you're balanced and happy with the results of your chat experience.

These are my bits of advice as far as Discord goes. Thank you for this post! I'm really happy that I'm not the only crazy person trying to understand this interesting platform. And yes, us crazy people are going to rule the world one day, as in the future the crazies resit mind control and all... No, kidding, but yes, Discord is overwhelming. Yet once you know it, life it's back where it should be.

-A.

this comment is great....it actually ALMOST makes me want to try using discord again

That's awesome @AidnesSanchez! Thank you for such a generous response! I'm really glad to hear your perspective and that you had a positive experience, despite being new.

I agree with your tips 100%, this is actually very useful stuff.

Also, totally agree with you about the podcasts and the radio shows. This is where I found my grounding when it came to Discord. I love listening to people have intellectual discussions and also make total goof-balls of themselves, it really puts a personality behind the avatars we see daily.

You feel like you're not really chatting to unknown people, you get to establish a cool dynamics over voice chat. And the part about goof-balls? Yes, I'm 100% on board with that because I sing (really badly) over a Podcast and I don't feel the least shamed by it, also make puns that would prompt people to throw me tomatoes, but that's a story for some other say.

Discord is an amazing tool but when you force people to the unknown, you have only two choices: them getting on board real fast, or running to the hills, never to be seen again. I'd like to think we can reduce the runaways by turning ourselves into messengers of possitive, into people that go the extra mile to make the experience amazing for others.

After all, Steemit is a platform that nourishes out of external resources such as Discord, Dtube and the like. We might as well make it work for the new ones!

-A.

Definitely, helping new people navigate steemit and find their community is actually benefiting all of us in the long run. What servers do you usually go to?

just thinking about discord still makes my brain hurt

is that me lighting a cigar while discord explodes in the background? haha

LOL yes! it all ties together quite elegantly - you, "not to be" verdict, acting, Shakespeare, Arnie doing Shakespeare, all the purples - discord is purple... so many things align that there's a vortex opening somewhere.

Coming from the gaming world, we have been using discord many years. Voice communication was the reason and started with Teamspeak, Gamevoice, Mumble and a couple others. These really evolved with Discord because of the addition of text channels and the like for sure.

So, there is a good chance they already know about discord. If not, maybe it is best that they spend time getting the basics of STEEMit and this kind of social interaction before biting off discord as well.

It could seem like drinking from a fire hose for sure.

There are a lot of gamers here!
I'm what one would call a gamer voyeur :) I like watching others play but have no nerve stability nor the finger dexterity to play :D

I completely agree... giving them so many platforms to figure out at once can overwhelm them and actually make them shy away from a great tool like Discord. I've already had a few friends back out because it was just too much learning Steemit... I was lucky enough to learn Steemit before Discord was even a thing, so by the time it came around, I was already some what comfortable with Steemit. And I had friends to help me navigate Discord as well. That is always a huge help! But I'm happy that I found it because I have made so many friends on there and discovered great new content that I love! Before Discord finding content within the same topics that you are interested in was a little harder to do, considering that tags are only a vague topic of the posts and actual content that one shares.

@rockchickenjen thank you! You brought up a great point about friend helping you out on Discord - that is also something that doesn't usually happen when a person joins Discord without making any connections on Steemit first. BTW, you are someone I know better on Discord than Steemit, I recently discovered your epic metal growl thanks to the track that @soundwavesphoton was playing on the backfill, and now i'm a fan!

So very true!! And thank you! Haha! I just started joining other Discord threads about 4-5 months ago and the MSP Waves was one I found. Then I discovered @crimsonclad's amazing show and met some really awesome people like you there! Which was great because now I am finding all of those people on Steemit and actually get great content that I am interested in on my feed now, as opposed to just blindly following random people in the beginning!

Most people join these groups only to promote their posts, but don't realize that there is so much more to it than that! The radio shows, the helpie groups, and just plain human interaction in the discussion channels, not to mention the many ways to find support with multiple things! I'm amazed at how fast it's grown and the amazing network that it has turned into!

I couldn't have said it better @rockchickenjen, you've basically described my experience too! Steemit made a lot more sense to me with the help of the people in the different chats, and as you said, it's so much more than just a place to promote one's own posts.

When i joined Steemit we were still beholden with Facebook.

The first group I was in operated on a Facebook Messenger group and had a Facebook Group page to out our latest posts for the day and it was expected that all posts there was upVoted, commented and Resteemed without any exceptions.

First that needed to be upVoted was the leaders of course hahhaha.

I had been using Discord before but for games that did not have a built in voice function so I was pretty familiar with it and none of the Communities that I first joined had it. Majority of Filipinos are reliant on Facebook!

Then I started joining some international Communities and found that Discord was way better!

It was here that I was able to get a lot of functionalities I need like separate channels and voice and games.

Discord indeed can be overwhelming especially for introverts like me but once you are comfortable it is easy to start throwing avocado grenades to Meno hshha.

I like the thought though that each one of us has their own pace.

Memo is an avocado magnet, even trees throw their avocados at him... That's why we always have nachos near by :))

Thank you for sharing your experience with discord. Its definitely important to not feel the pressure to learn it... you really got to find what you enjoy about it, otherwise it's work.

Hi @ankapolo, thank you for this post, it's comforting in a sense to know I'm not alone. What you describe here is exactly me experience when I was introduced to a Discord server by a very well meaning Steemian. For me it was like walking into a gambling venue full of machines with flashing lights and alerts sounding everywhere. There were about 20 or more channels, way too many for a newbie really, and there seemed to be a constant stream of chat going. I was completely overwhelmed. Despite my efforts to get involved I soon became weary. I felt obligated to participate but having a 5 day a week 9-5 and a young family means my time is precious and I have precious little time for Steemit and my music as it is.
I wish I had an answer but in all honesty I don't. A smaller server with only a dozen or so members and clear and simple daily goals or lessons may have helped? Thanks again for starting this discussion!
Cheers, Trevor

Yes, I still find it tough to follow at times, even though i'm basically constantly on it, cant imagine what it's like when you also have a full time job...

I'm on over 10 servers and I run one of them... It's a relatively small sever, with only 28 members (so far), and its definitely easier to manage, but not by much... Unfortunately, I've made the mistake of inviting people there a bit too early, and had them overwhelmed with information, even in such a small group.

Thank you for sharing your experience, Trev. ❤️

I can't be on it for more than a few seconds and I have to log off. It's too much. I can't keep up with the conversations, let alone the conversations in the sub-threads. Each channel had their own rules, many of which I didn't grasp very well because I didn't follow them very well. I read them more than once.

Eventually, I just gave up. I don't need to add to my stress. Really, I truly don't. And being on Steemit is hard enough (time wise), Discord was just eating up the same amount of time (so it felt).

I shouldn't need like four tools to use one platform to keep up with what's going on that platform. If I had someone to walk me through it the first time, it might have been better.

I'm not technologically inept by any means. For some reason, Discord just screws with my head.

I truly empathize and understand you. It can be very confusing and time consuming. I'd say that you probably discovered it a bit too early, and felt overwhelmed.
Definitely agree with you that there shouldn't be external sites that we depend on in order to navigate Steemit. And that is exactly what I been also pointing out... and Discord seems to solve a lot of things that bugged me... But, when you're too new to Steemit, it's too much.

Hi @miklkent, if this helps at all, please check out what @aidnessanchez wrote above. if you ever go back on Discord, this might help balance things out.

Get your post resteemed to 72,000 followers. Go here https://steemit.com/@a-a-a

I agree with the information you share, you also show a video of a child who plays sketbot and drops a cyclist as proof, this post is amazing @ankapolo, success is always for you.

qoɾ pooƃ   ˙˙sǝʎ ˙˙˙ǝǝɹƃɐ I oS ˙ǝʌᴉssǝɹdɯᴉ sᴉ ʇɐɥʇ puɐ spuoɔǝs Ɛ ɹoɟ ʇᴉ ʇɐ ʞool oʇ pɐɥ noʎ 'ʞɹoʍ ʞooʇ ʇɐɥʇ ˙ɟᴉƃ ǝɥʇ ʍɐs noʎ ǝsnɐɔǝq 'ǝɹɐɥs noʎ ʇuǝɯɯoɔ ǝɥʇ uo uoᴉʇɐɯɹoɟuᴉ ǝɥʇ ɥʇᴉʍ ǝǝɹƃɐ ᴉ puɐ ˙sƃuᴉɥʇ uo ƃuᴉǝǝɹƃɐ noʎ ɥʇᴉʍ ǝǝɹƃɐ oslɐ ᴉ

ooohh wooow MR GMUX!! i give you restemmiit to you!!! tyes!!

f4f

carry on dear

hey @teungkumerdu... i know you are trying, but you have to understand that in order for you to get any upvotes on comments, you got to contribute to the conversation. Look at the comments above, they all got upvoted for bringing something valuable, personal and genuine to the discussion. I hope that you don't take it as an insult, but an attempt to help you succeed.

I do not understand his language, I do not dare to reply to his comments, I am afraid if I am wrong response, because I have not been very proficient in English, I am sorry if there is something wrong @ankapolo

no worries, @meno is one of the good guys. But what he was trying to say is basically what I said to you.

thank you @ankapolo, and thanks for giving me the motivation, success is always for you and @meno.

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