Skyrim Character Building » Discussions
[UNOFFICIAL] Skyrim Character Building **Discord**
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Note: If you're just here for the Discord link, scroll down until the dotted line!
Hello! It's been a good while since I was last here, and I've got to say - the new site looks pretty spiffy! Even this text editor here looks leaps and bounds above Ning! Goodness, I might even get around to cranking out a few more builds in future once I get Skyrim up and running again (though I suppose that has little to do with the state of the site itself)! :D
Matters and pleasantries aside, I've always wished there was a little more back-and-forth communication on site between members about builds and build creation.
See, whilst there is plenty of feedback, comments and likes all around, communication still seems to be a little sporadic between members of the site. Some sort of separative barrier between people despite our status as a community...at least, so to speak. To someone invested in only a handful of things at once, things to discuss and comment on aren't always available on feed at the front page (with those that are scrolling out of range over time) - and to the relatively impatient / waiting person, a relevant answer, response or comment can take absolute oodles of time to turn up because of that.
Of course, I certainly do believe that in-depth commentary, pictures, and well-thought posts / responses certainly have their place on the forums. It's certainly a healthy indicator of the site's content and progress to have them there, and by no means do I intend to subtract from what's going on right now!
...But! All the same, I also think that an open ear and a source for instant feedback, answers (even for small questions) and idea bouncing will greatly streamline the character building process and increase overall build quality! It's hard to lose heart about something continuously discussed in the here and now, instead of the then and later, yes?
And! Whilst we certainly do have friend messaging and the site chatroom (albeit an empty one) on site, it still all seems rather...isolated in terms of accessibility. Both aren't exactly the wieldiest of platforms to coordinate, organize or host a discussion - especially on the go - nor are they the prettiest, given the need for an extra tab...and as a result it's quite easy to neglect, ignore or accidentally close a discussion should one so rarely arise.
Hence, my suggestion for a Discord channel!
At the expense of sounding like some sort of salesman, it's easy to access on both phone and computer, fast, convenient in terms of images and links and the like, and with a solid multi-room interface requiring little by way of hassle. Leaps and bounds above the likes of Skype! Personally, I think it's the perfect platform to keep whatever projects we have going on, well, going!
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Of course, whilst I can always go out of my way to create a makeshift (and hopefully temporary) one right here...
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...I wouldn't quite wish to stop at that. After all, I'm no trained admin or moderator, and my availability is quite limited. I would be much happier (and think it would be much better) should a TamrielVault Discord be run officially by those appointed by this site - possibly even in a broader scope covering more than just Character Building. They know far better than I would about what areas of discussion need defining, are more numerous as a whole, and would likely know what to do in the event of....any number of things, really!
So if you're out there and reading this, please do consider it! I love to see both healthy discussion and a flourish of good builds come from our community, and truly do think that this is a great way of encouraging them!
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Hey Halifax. So, we have a chat client on site already and we've tried a couple configurations so far, but we'll take another, closer look at it to see if we can make it more visible and stable. Because you raise a good point - having a more immediate means of communication for the entire community would be great, so the other admins and I will take a look at how we might go about making that happen.
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If we could get a Site-wide chat it'd be great (Might even force me to be more active). But for what it's worth, I've never liked Discord that much. They pretty much insult Skype and TeamSpeak on their front page, and I've just found it to much more cluttered compared to other chats (Not to mention that "discord" literally means "disagreement"). Now IRC and Skype, on the other hand... Anyway, just my two cents on the matter. -
Ah, about that - this community used to have a Skype chat (of which I was a part of), and, whilst it was certainly good fun it ended up being perpetually off topic! None of the buildwork discussion we'd hoped would become a thing actually took place, and we had several people leave very quickly out of frustration because of it.
Not to mention (on a separate note) that the alerts you get from frequent calls and image uploading can't be disabled.
Besides that, the lack of additional rooms meant that a new (and entirely separate) group had to be created whenever something needed to be discussed for longer periods of time, making movement from room to room (or subcommunity to subcommunity) very clumsy.
Given this, I think that the multi-room function on Discord (as well as other functions like channel muting, no forced calls, and different "tiers" of moderator) is a handy way to keep several discussions going without losing track too easily of one or the other. There are a lot of specialty groups here, and I do think that the community could benefit from being able to jump from one of them to another at a whim!
I've also noticed that catching up on several hundred messages on skype has a far more adverse effect on both phone and computer than on Discord - scrolling issues, slow scrawling text and flashy lights and sounds being somewhat of a part of it! (As for the name and what beef they have with other platforms, I don't think that really factors into which platform to choose in the interest of the community itself, so far as the end product is concerned!)
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Hi Halifax, glad you accepted my friend request. Feel free to drop me a line. :D
To be honest, I'd really prefer to stay onsite. My reasons are quite simple. I don't have much time to donate to multiple platforms and sites. To keep discussions in one location would be great for me, because I do really like discussing builds. I discuss them quite a bit with people. In fact, on the bottom of my laptop screen are tabs for at least three ongoing chats from this site. That's a light day. Sometimes, I'll have up to six or seven taps open and anybody on CB or on the vault can send me a friend request and a message and I get quick questions on builds and sometimes I'll have lengthy discussions on them.
Maybe people just need to see the bottom of their pages? I personally find the sidebar chat very easy to use. I've used the other chat a few times, but again, I'll continue to discuss things with EC and Legion and see if we can come up with a solution that makes it more usable.
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Yo Halifax. I'm definitely down for joining it but I'd be a bit split on recommending it as an official, Admin/Host run operation. Personally I'm not fond of the sidebar chat thing we've got (mainly I find it hard to see when people message me, and I don't like that I can't send messages if others are offline), but the fact that we have permanent chatrooms on Social Engine unlike Ning just makes going off-site for chats a bit of a toss-up for me. Though the fact that conversations are extremely temporary in the site's current chatroom function is a bit of a negative (And I assume that Discord is similar to Skype in that it allows you to go hunt down your old discussions).
I don't know, there are definitely pros and cons to both options. I'm going to give Discord a shot and try and be active on the in-site chats before I make a definite decision.