Community Chatroom Migration?

[Lethe]

As you may know, we currently have a community chatroom on Skype, which has been active for roughly three months. The reasons we chose Skype are as described in the linked topic:

Many people already use Skype, and it is available for several operating systems, including mobile. While this limits access to members who (are willing to) use Skype, this may be less of a hassle compared to any other channel that members usually do not use. This way, members already on Skype can join the conversation anytime rather than opening a tab, app or client solely for Amassment's group chat.

The Skype chatroom has been very active, but we realize it's not necessarily ideal. For example, the barrier to enter and leave is very rigid: As you need to contact one of the people listed in the topic first to be manually added to the group, you can't drop in and out freely. You're also required to have a Skype account in order to take part. Members have reported Skype crashing due to the amount of backlogged messages in the chat when starting up the client, or find the notifications bothersome, and have left as a result. (Skype allows you to mute notifications of a certain group chat, but the option is... hidden, so many don't know it exists.)

We've stated that the Where and When of community chats are subject to change depending on community input and activity. Right now, we are looking to give Discord a try - you may have seen it being promoted in gaming communities recently, and it was created with group chats in mind. Discord and its mobile app are completely free, do not feature ads, and use less resources than Skype. See here for a list of features.

We've noticed that several members have posted their Discord info in the restarted Connections! topic, and in the last few days, some of our members have signed up for Discord. As members seem to be open to giving it a try, we're opening this up for discussion.

Below is an outline the pros and cons of moving the community chatroom to Discord with our needs in mind (compared to staying on Skype).

Pros

• no account or client required (browser support) = more open than Skype
• minimal CPU usage
• multiple channels (separate chatrooms) possible; also allows Amassment's teams to discuss and brainstorm certain things quickly
• setting nicknames for individual servers (groups) is possible = no more "who is this and that" as on Skype, or Skype arbitrarily switching between account and display name if you don't have the person in your friend list
• user groups
• customizing notification settings for the server and individual channels
• option to hold voice chats in separate channels if Amassment members are interested

Cons

• for many members, this is an additional client/browser tab to keep track of, especially since it wouldn't be replacing Skype for their other contacts
• if members aren't using Discord for anything else and would only sign on specifically for the community chatroom, there's concern that they won't spontaneously join in on conversations

We'd like to hear what you think! You can vote in the poll, but if you have reservations or further input, please comment in the topic. From numbers alone, we can't tell how strongly members feel about this. We'd especially like to hear from

• those not currently in the Skype chat (or those who left due to Skype issues) but wanting to be part of the community chatroom
• those already in the Skype chat, namely whether they'd be willing to give Discord a try

Thanks for your time and interest!

[Chibi]

Personally, I'm not part of the Skype chat because I was out of the loop when that was set up. I have tried going back to Skype just the other day and I was baffled by how it just slowed my computer down by quite a lot! (And my computer specs aren't old or bad by any means!)

So I voted in favour of moving to Discord as, 1) it doesn't use as many resources as Skype, it doesn't slow my computer down, it doesn't crash and it's actually quite a neat little program (especially for staffers to communicate on, so say, in case you don't have time to login into the forums, you can just pop in on Discord and read the latest messages); and 2) I've been part of the Discord chat group the past couple of days and it's been tons of fun! I can't see myself enjoying a community chatroom as much on Skype due to the issues I talked about, but I do want to be part of the chatroom nonetheless and moving to Discord would be the way to keep the chatroom alive and open to all members without much hassle, at least in my opinion. :)

[Aku]

I was never part of the Skype chat (and also never managed to jump in on those AIM chats back in the day ;-;), but I do really like having Discord! I use it with some gaming friends and a few close buddies who I group chat with as well, so it's pretty convenient to have Amassment accessible there too. Obviously I understand this isn't the case for everyone, though, and for some people it's just an additional program they'd need to download to participate. I guess on the plus side of that, Discord can be used on the browser, if you aren't willing to download a client.

I will say that I only came back to Amassment in the past week or so, but having the chat there made everyone feel less distant! I think outside of Skype being resource-heavy and weird to use as far as group chats go, a lot of the functionality of Discord that Lethe listed really caters to Amassment's needs more than Skype would be able to. The multiple channels gives us the opportunity to organize discussion as well, which would be useful in the event that a good portion of the community joined the server, methinks.

Also I'm shallow and Discord is way prettier than Skype! (Dark Mode, so easy on the eyes!) The alerts are also way less intrusive (and much easier to silence), for the optimal shrine-writing environment.

[Crystal]

I voted no for the reasons listed in the cons. Most everyone I know uses Skype so I don't really want to have another chat to deal with. I already have battle.net and Skype chats and those alone are one too many for me. It's difficult to keep track of.

[Megan A]

I have voted yes because a lot of issues that I personally have with Skype are resolved with Discord. Skype constantly crashes for me, and I have no idea why. It has super invasive ads, and it's really just an eyesore for me. It just seems really outdated.

For Discord, it runs a lot more smoothly for me, and I haven't had any issues yet. I also like that you can make additional text channels, and I think our community could really use that advantageously. We could make whole channels for events or specific things like immediate feedback for layouts/content which could also go in general, but the fact that we have this option is nice. I also really like how Discord can just run in the background because I don't even notice that it's on since it doesn't hog resources.

This is a bit unrelated to Amassment, but I really like how Discord interacts with games too, and I'll probably use those features so I'll be using it anyway. However, I will go wherever the community would like to be. I only started to use Skype again frequently to interact with the community here and will continue to do so if that's what everyone else prefers. But, there is nothing else tying me to Skype so I'd fully embrace a move to Discord.

[Andrea]

I wasn't part of the community chatroom on Skype since, uh, to be honest, I didn't know it existed, haha. In any case, I voted yes.

Over time, my close friends and I have moved on to other communication channels (ie. Tumblr), so Skype doesn't really see much use from me anymore. Compared to Skype or TS, Discord certainly offers a lot more features—ones that Amassment could find useful! I use Discord more often now—mostly for gaming, such as chatting with guildies or raiding. It works well, and I haven't had any problems with it in the past.

Although the move would be convenient for me, I can see why other people might not like it. So while I voted for the move, I'm totally okay with whatever decision is made!

[Kula]

I'm not part of the skype chat since I recently managed to come back to websites in general, but I obviously voted yes since I pretty much suggested it: I love the features it has, how it uses few resources and I pretty much live there since it's beta because gaming.

Also like I posted before on the announcement, it has a lot of pros for something like Amassment, so hopefully everyone decides to at least give it a try! Otherwise I'm obviously totally ok with whatever is decided : )

[dubiousdisc]

I'd move. I'm just annoyed that I have to keep so many things open XD

[Delphine]

I wasn't part of the community chatroom on Skype and didn't know it existed either. I voted yes to Discord for all the pros listed by Lethe and it would be convenient for me since I barely have use for Skype anymore anyway but I'd be willing to join either way :3

[Megan]

I would like to use this as well, especially if it will help speed things up on my computer! Is there an amassment chat already set up for this program? Also, how do we add people to our list here? :p I am clearly a n00b to this haha