Thread:S3r0-Ph1i/@comment-106.68.146.7-20190819053334/@comment-36009152-20190822143833

Thank you for the details, straightforward to answer now. In the interests of creating a Seraph of the End Discord that can cover everything, one large one rather than multiple smaller ones (which would be closed having merged with yours), is this preferable to your side?

Though there may have been poor initial impressions of users on other Discords, having them involved is best. Understandable if they wanted a Discord solely for Seraph of the End, but if you have an area that does that anyway, plus in addition other grounds such as memes, role plays, anything. Imagine those are best on a Discord anyway, better on one large one rather than smaller prone to failing ones at any rate, so again joining is key.

Have you introduced the idea of forging one large Discord to be used across different Seraph of the End sites, Reddit, the wiki and so forth? That may be a better uniting vision to iron out any tensions. That way the focus isn’t on who owns the Discord, but having to make it work since it is tied to multiple Seraph of the End platforms, indeed being an established one in it's own right.

The impression is this other Discord has the technical capabilites and partnered servers, and larger ones with the means to have one large Discord. It just needs all the content and rules that you are covering.

It might be worth adding the idea that joining the Discords where they can still discuss only Seraph of the End like they would like, and your side can cover all other areas and then there is a Discord to share across different platforms. Though it is just a one sided view of the behaviour from the other side, and it doesn’t matter, even if users came across as initially rude, so long as they can help the Discord that is fine? Being patient, understanding and focusing on what matters is best, so feeling they would not be able to be gotten along with in the long run is better replaced with these are more people to help with the Discord long term and they can stick to that.

It is not my personal view, neither a suggestion, but if certain users really were interfering with creating a nice environment, could you ask those who were co-operative to leave the other Discord and join yours. They can see to the only discuss Seraph of the End content, you and others can cover other areas. Obviously working through things amicably and all parties being happy is best but hypothetically speaking if the other Discord was split with some people coming over to yours. Then everyone there could find exactly what they would like to discuss – Seraph of the End on your Discord, where you have the addition of covering other areas for people to enjoy. If the other Discord were to fail through mismanagement and implementing limited discussion options, where admins were unfavourably judged as uninvolved and rude… and then if your Discord with everything were Reddits new partner, the wikis too, well just a hypothetical scenario.

That aside though, it would be for the purpose of ensuring everyone can enjoy themselves, hopefully people can have a change in tone and join your Discord, with mod positions if they can help, or at least a pathway to a mod position. One person from that Discord may be all the admin needed until others can recognise that your Discord works better and decide to join if and when they want to.

Discussing all issues is vital on Discord, they are made for talking, so should it be done! The “educate, don’t berate” is best if people do try and make an issue out of a non-issue. Simply remaining a decent person and helping those who may appear uncertain with new things for them is helpful. A good thing that was raised, would be inclined to encourage Fandoms terms of use to extend for the Discord conduct, namely viewing behaviour, particularly racist behaviour as some bowling pins ripe for the scoring. Similarly casual behaviour that people may not see anything wrong with, such as use of the word “trap” used to describe characters should be prodded to change for the better. Yet your politely and civilly talk things out approach is not only nice but best practice. If it is important, why was this practice banned on the other Discord? With some characters genders not being stated, it does seem Seraph of the End related.

With channel layouts, if you have the tried and tested knowledge that what you do works, and you show why it works then so long as people are taking part well, do whatever functions. From your view are there merits to being partnered with Discord, and wouldn’t you want this for your Discord? With the series Seraph of the End is, leaving adult content behind would be a small loss for those who even took part compared to the benefits? If this small channel were to be removed (and how nsfw are we talking about here? Is it like Shinoa smiling at Yu or something), would these several users feel the loss of that, or the gains of all other areas?

Modifying the Discord channels depending on popularity sounds sensible, and it seems guiding conversations to what users would like to discuss is better than trying to fit conversations into select topics - one of those good plans, not so good in practice things. Might be beneficial to explain this to the other Discord people.

The channels sound good as well, would you mind going into detail on the bot channel and what areas they can do? Excellent that you are working towards teaming up with another server for games, and that between you the Discord can be regulated at all times. Regulated as in guided, having people involved well is always nicer than excluding them, what are the disciplinary actions and what for?

You have the right attitude to be growing and adapting the Discord, if that is part of the recipe for being maintained, stick at it. With wikis though, what has to be understood is that being an online encyclopedia virtually everyone who visits is there for reading, it’s something like 5% of readers who actually take part in activity on the wiki. Even people who are aware of the forum and Discussions are there to read without any inclination to take part, presumably conditioned to just read considering the nature of the site, but not add their inputs. Which is fine so long as they are happy, but where we are concerned linking with the wiki may not unfortunately help you to a huge extent. It’s not meant as a burst bubble, if there were one, rather a practical sight simply that people evidently like to read content not create it here. People who do contribute see to detailing the article pages so even those with accounts may not join the Discord.

Then again they might, and can still support the platforms supporting the Seraph of the End series. The symbolic act of being encouraging counts for a lot, and yet maybe we all know one large area is better than multiple smaller ones. If the wiki is going for an official Discord, it needs to be the best because if it is not then it does not reflect well on anyone. For example if on the Discord there is infighting, casual or veiled racist remarks that are being normalised, if a few noisy people are showing off because they cannot tell the gender of a character, it could be embarrassing for the fan base as a whole. The Seraph of the End fanbase is really cool, and funny, clever, sure even brave and stick up for others like the characters themselves do. It is not a poisonous marsh consisting of people who are asking very nicely for us to play in cat excrement with them (“come on in, it’s so warm!”), no thanks fellas, we all deserve better and can create the means to do so.

Grandiose (and comical) statements aside, we need to remain focused on what matters, it’s great that you agree that the aesthetic choices for the server work well, and the physical format. Obviously you know that your rules work better, and a Discord that covers solely what they want, and every other area you know works well with plans for the future, do they see anything better than this?

Nice one on the details, what is coming out of it are pleasant arrangements for people to enjoy more Seraph of the End content. If you don’t mind answering the questions I raised, I believe you planning a second attempt to have one Discord overall, a nice Discord that people like being on, that works and can stand the test of time and develop in ever more exciting ways. Well, you know what works best, and yet pulling it off I’m sure shall be fun!

Hi there Ribble, yes an excellent account of events. What are your plans to navigate the tricky waters of moving from a small server to a larger one and maintaining that? As a Discord that will eventually be the largest, which is what you would like? You are good with what it takes to have it grow to that stage I imagine.

Not all the time, but there can be so many obstacles to maintaining it as it is, if areas splinter off as it develops, and then maintaining it when large. That’s the suggestion to keep these other Discord people firmly with you as one team, simply put there should be people on hand in case things grow too much too soon, or do not grow at all and people are needed to help there. Expanding the mod team is sound, yet there is a another mod team where it is better to work together with the common goal of having the best Discord.

Bear in mind a close knit community can be good, but so can a server full of strangers as you put it, everyone is a stranger at some point and a Discord that caters to all, covers all.

Explain why your rules are better to this other Discord, might be worth pointing out that many of their own users have come over to your Discord because they enjoy it more. Kindly warn of the pitfalls of their management style with examples of how it has worked for other sites. Don’t be put off by what may be a working practice for the other mods to have negotiations concealed. Remember when they thought they knew best with their years of experience, before changing their tone in light of new information. They, like you may just be doing what they feel is best so explain the merits of not ruling but being a part of the community if that works. If they do not plan to get to know anyone, is that a bad thing? A decision for you to make, but changing attitudes is nicer and thankfully conceit can flip like nothing else.

Also consider that as a largest Discord that covers everything, “identities” is the better word, but you already know that with the sheer range of people who come, what ties everyone is the adoration for Seraph of the End, it’s like magic!

Working with any and all people on different Discords remains best, and as noted a lot of valuable insights have been gained so renewed negotiations with these in mind could be promising.