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Hello everyone, Brodie-001 here. As some of you may already know, there has been a lot of discussion among the Administration recently regarding the potential implementation of Discord as a new chat system for our wiki. In the last month we've been trying out its features and how we could put it on our site, and alongside LOMI I have created a Halo Fanon channel. While I've personally found it to be a useful app, I want to see what you guys think about it before we go ahead with implementing it on the wiki.
Naturally, one of the biggest concerns I and many others might have about bringing Discord in is that it might make our IRC channel seemingly obsolete. The Irk has been our site's main hub of communication more or less since the site's founding, and without it I'm certain that many users would not have stayed here as long as they did. Opposition to the implementation of wikia chat a few years ago was almost unanimous partly due to our love of the Irk, though sadly I've noticed a sharp decline in activity on it since it peaked around 2012-13. This was partly due to a migration towards Skype at a time where the chat wasn't a particularly nice place to be and while it really hasn't been until recently that the Irk's started to become more lively, I think it may be time for an alternative. Naturally we won't be shutting down our IRC channel or anything if Discord is brought in, but as I've said, it may feel somewhat obsolete with an easier chat system available.
So to sum up, what do you think about us bringing Discord to our site? I may have to put this to a vote in the near-future depending on what people think about it.
Comments
I like this idea.User:Spartan-D042 screw this sig stuff 02:38, June 2, 2017 (UTC)
On a personal side, I'd love to have an official chat that doesn't crash on me every minute or ten (dang XChat).
On a highly-official administrative level, I really think we need this. When some users started using Skype, it split up the community, and resulted in less engagement. Many older users drifted away without that, and I suspect without the interaction, we've lost a great many perspective new ones. We need a place where we're all present so we can bounce ideas around, casually ask for feedback, and just generally hang out so we get to know each other as one community.
Seconded. I was initially very reserved about Discord, but since I started using it I've been completely won over. I have yet to see a channel with a high level of activity, but I think it's a big improvement on the current IRC model. That being said, I think the IRC is a superior model when it comes to RPs, so I think we need to at least keep links to it up for that.
Not only will Discord be better than the Irk but it's cleaner to with design and seems more user friendly than the Irk. Like moving from Windows 95 to XP so to speak? Furthermore we can have user profile images associated with the chat for better recognisation.
Agreed, I find Discord to be a viable replacement to the traditional Irk we know and love, but I must say we mustn't abandon the Irk altogether. Like Actene has said, the Irk could still be used for its easier method of live RPs (though I'd like the new Wikia Forums because they too are a good way to RP). Another advantage of Discord is that you can always see the messages and other things that happened when you weren't active. Granted, we're gonna miss the good ol' mystery-like feel of the Irk, but putting that aside, I'm completely supportive of this.
I have always loved the Irk, and honestly I would look at this more of as an upgrade than a replacement. True, we might lose some of the 'mystery' and 'mystique' that's been built up, but I know for myself Discord would be much more accessible, since it has a working app and I've never managed to acquire a functional IRC app for my phone (don't bother suggesting any, I've tried them all). And despite worries about Irk RP's, I think they'll still be easily doable on Discord, since nick-changes are still a thing there (the extra characters might be a little more difficult)
Is there any doubt at this point? Discord is simply a better version of the Irk, lacking all those bugs with opening the links or unreliable clients on phones (not ending for me as Discord has yet to release support for the Windows phone, if ever), while incorporating standard features such as being able to read messages that were posted when you were offline. While I personally will still use the Irk, I'm certain newcomers will find more use with a Discord channel, especially if we integrate its javascript plugin with the site.
Well, I couldn't think of any witty unconstructive comments to make, so I guess I'll just have to be lame and hop on the bandwagon and say something actually worthwhile.
As much as the Irk has been a major part of this site since the beginning, I've long suspected that it's been stunting the growth of our community somewhat. Few people who are just joining the site are going to have any idea what the hell IRC is, and aren't going to necessarily know right away that when we refer to the IRC or the Irk that we are referring to a chat program. It took me over a year on the site before I figured out what the IRC was and attempted to log on to it myself, and that's with the "hey, come check out the IRC" section in the default talk message that gets sent out to new users after their first edit. Because of this, I get the feeling that a lot of promising new users may have gotten bored and left the site earlier than they would have had they known about the Irk and been able to become a more active participant in our community.
Discord, on the other hand, is a modern and pretty well known service. A lot of new users will already have Discord accounts, and even those that don't should at least most likely be aware of the service and what it does, as well as be able to easily set up an account and join servers on their own thanks to the user friendliness that comes with Discord being a piece of professionally-designed software made by professional software developers working for a company that pays them rather than a program written by a bunch of researchers and basement-dwelling nerds back in the nineties like the IRC was. This means it should be vastly more accessible for new users, making it easier for them to get involved with the community right from the get-go. For this reason, I think it would be benificial to use Discord as our main chat method going forward.
This being said, I think we should keep the IRC around as it is much better for roleplays, thanks to the ability to use different nicks and to have multiple sessions open at once. So the IRC doesn't have to go away completely, but I do see its use dwindling significantly if we do ultimately decide to make the move over to Discord.
So the general consensus seems to be that we should bring in Discord while using the Irk for RP's. That's fine by me. I'll wait a few more days to see if anyone else has anything to say on the matter, but hopefully I'll try to integrate Discord into the wiki within the next couple of weeks. Thanks guys.
So, that obscure Halo Fanon:IRC page should probably get something of an overhaul, shouldn't it? Describing what its general new role in the community will be. And on top of that, a better-advertised page for a Discord chat should probably be implemented to direct people its way.
