I am in 41 Discord servers. Some are livestreamers' servers, some are community hubs that host small indie games and others are speedrunning or modding communities. Other Discord servers are just for close friends. I have lurked in more then 41 servers at times, but that doesn't compare to the number of servers my friends use. I've watched enough servers come and go and after seven years that I am begging everyone to stop making Discord servers for things that just don't need them.
Discord has established itself as the de facto gaming hangout, and is pushing for ubiquity across all online communities.
I swear it doesn't.
If you are:
- A community manager is not available for an overworked indie developer. - A modder with an existing account on NexusMods, ModDB.
- A new Twitch streamer who is still learning how to moderate live chats.
It can be used as an alternative to a game wiki. Please no.
Reading patch notes in a chat log where every single message is highlighted with the equal importance of an @everyone tag, makes me want to scream.
Bug report channels can be chaotic: developers and modders are flooded with complaints, then discussions, and then 10 people report the same bug. If you've ever been annoyed by duplicate issue threads on Reddit or a forum, know that Discord is far worse.
Twitch livestreamers adopted Discord in 2015 as a community space for their followers. I was one of those. Discord felt like magic to us all, despite our frustration with Facebook groups and subreddits and Skype. It doesn’t anymore. In 2022, your livestream likely won’t require a server. Everyone watching is already on their 41 servers. It is harder than ever to get any of them into yours. I've watched the original 2015 servers close down, and I have seen the wastelands of new Twitch streamer server-sidebars of 20 preemptively launched chat channels, all desolate.
Discord is aiming to go beyond gaming and offer features that encourage participation in forums. You can now customize your avatar, name, and side conversations per server. This allows you to avoid clogging chats. But Discord servers are not forums-they're the overwrought descendants of the guild Trello and Skype combos that I once frequented as an MMO player. Just three words to get into a fight: "Discord replaces Forums"
In the first week after Elden Ring's Launch, I was searching for CheatEngine tables. The creator had only one table available on Discord. Given Elden Ring's popularity I was not surprised to find the place full. Sidebar already had text chat channels for support, tutorials and coop, as well as for memes, cats and food. Why does a glorified Devlog need a chat for memes? (It doesn't.)
discord-servers.co
The rules channel had grown rapidly and haphazardly. There was no doubt that the creator of the server felt overwhelmed by their sudden small community of 15,000 members.
I suspect that "I can't believe that had to be said" is a familiar sentence to any community manager, professional or amateur.
Even if you haven't seen anyone learn about internet toxicities in real-time, chances are you've been on a server where the owner forgot permissions to @everyone chat. This led to a huge surge in notifications. Perhaps you've witnessed a stressed server owner collapse under pressure and nuke their entire server, booting everyone, and wiping out entire channels.
I was on Stardew Valley Expanded's community servers when an unknown assailant deleted large portions of chat channels. He also remade everything so it appeared as if it were an official server. This was for a small, unrelated game called Potion Permit. Developers had to clarify that they were not involved.
Despite witnessing so many errors, it's difficult to draw firm lines around what shouldn’t be served.
Mods don't need Discord servers, but Stardew Valley Expanded is so enormous a mod that I see how players enjoy having it as a tentpole social space.
Some indie games can have unmanaged, chaotic servers. However, some publishers manage that aspect. This has allowed me to have unforgettable experiences such as accidentally attending a roleplay murder marriage.
Twitch streamers don't necessarily need a Discord server either, yet some giant communities like Red Dead Online's horse lovers seem to be doing great with theirs.
I have a few tips to help you keep your Discord server manageable if you're determined to make one for a project you don't really need. Make the majority of your channels (or all) read-only. This can be a glorified billboard. For anyone with moderation power, enable the two-factor authentication requirement. Please no hacker mutinies.