Important: Forum Closure, FA Discord Coming Soon

[Rimna]

Any suggestions for those of us who do have issues following the faster communities of Discord?

Something more than just "lol read faster and be on more often", as some of us don't have the capacity. (I might be able to, but a few here have said they can't.) I'm looking for actual advice from someone who's more adept at the software.

It really depends on how the rooms and threads and sections are organized. From experience, in really large servers there are usually "chill" rooms - some even have Slow Mode enabled. Slow mode is a setting that the admins can utilize to make it so that a person has to wait X amount of time in-between posts. I've seen them range anywhere from seconds to minutes. This might make it more comfortable if you're not interested in constant short messages.

In fact it would be really nice of the FA staff to implement a chill room if they haven't already.

 

[Miles Marsalis]

So it goes. End of an era, and all that.

@Dragoneer

T'was a pleasure. I'll be keeping the place bookmarked and swinging on through it for the memories every now and then.

And I'll definitely be on the Discord

You've returned.

Nice see you back.

 

[CreachureComforts]

Any suggestions for those of us who do have issues following the faster communities of Discord?

Something more than just "lol read faster and be on more often", as some of us don't have the capacity. (I might be able to, but a few here have said they can't.) I'm looking for actual advice from someone who's more adept at the software.

I usually can't do huge servers, so I may not be joining the official discord. I might just end up lurking if I do join. But I'm pretty comfortable in smaller servers that revolve mostly around a closer group of friends since they're slower paced. Some discords have been posted around here in the past, and it's still familiar since they're servers owned by users of this forum

Discord also lets you mute channels and categories you don't care for, so at least there's a way to minimize the amount of messages you're set up to pay attention to. It's still real-time, but it's not the end of the world to miss conversations, even though catching up is the whole appeal of a forum. But like I said, smaller servers are slower-paced, and that also makes it easier to catch up on if you choose to

 

[Flamingo]

I'm on my phone so pardon the lack of quotes.

Answering a few questions:

Discord link will be pushed out January 1st I believe.

And we did a global notification on the main site.

 

[RestrainedRaptor]

Giving just 2 weeks' notice until going into readonly mode.

Fully deleted within the first quarter.

Opening the Discord floodgates on Jan 1 rather than letting people trickle in.

Yep, this sounds like a classic FA move to me. Also, Discord will make it much easier to delete inconvenient comments without a trace. I'm sure the admins will love it.

 

[Rayd]

Any suggestions for those of us who do have issues following the faster communities of Discord?

Something more than just "lol read faster and be on more often", as some of us don't have the capacity. (I might be able to, but a few here have said they can't.) I'm looking for actual advice from someone who's more adept at the software.

i guess try your best to find another furry forum? i'm sure they're out there. but we can't just expect to halt progression for the sake of the minority who don't like the idea.

big discord communities don't entirely inhibit you, and this is coming from someone who generally hates them as well, but like i said, i'd much rather post a few messages in a huge chat and occasionally get a DM or two from people i can talk with more regularly, rather than sit on a board with 20-30 people i cant relate to at all.

 

[Flamingo]

Giving just 2 weeks' notice until going into readonly mode.

Fully deleted within the first quarter.

Opening the Discord floodgates on Jan 1 rather than letting people trickle in.

Yep, this sounds like a classic FA move to me. Also, Discord will make it much easier to delete inconvenient comments without a trace. I'm sure the admins will love it.

You're funny.

 

[Deleted member 160950]

Signing out soon

 

[RestrainedRaptor]

You're funny.

There's only one joker around here. In completely unrelated news, there's only one director of FA.

But seriously, no transition period is going to be hell for you guys.

Also, looks like someone already squatted the 'furaffinity' Discord invite code, so that'll be fun.

 

[luffy]

I'd hate to drag more attention away from these forums, but an art-comms advertising feature/"forum" seems better suited on the main site. Seems like it would be confusing to non-forum goers if most of this forum is archived except one subforum. And given that this forum's structure likely isn't changing, would the spam issues be eased...

Maybe consider a slow-mode channel for commisssions on the Discord as another alternative, if it's not there already. There doesn't have to be one single place for advertising commissions, multiple options are good.

We've talked about this at length and the primary solution is to build an art marketplace on the main site. Unfortunately, we cannot provide a timeframe for that kind of thing because we have so much else on our plate.

 

[GuffinDoesArt]

Having the forum closure date and the discord opening date at the exact same time seems like a really bad idea. FA is already suffering from major issues stemming exactly from making too big of a change without any lead-up or easing into. What downside is there to having at least some overlap of both the forums and the discord being open for a small window, to let people join in and to squash any unseen problems before they get overwhelmed by the sudden flood of people?

 

[Draconas]

would've preferred a transition period where the forums and discord are both open, would delaying the read-only by 1 month be that bad?

 

[luffy]

I don't think I'm understanding the benefit having an overlap would bring. Forum will be going anyway. The amount of people joining Discord from the forum will be negligible compared to the main site. Moderation doesn't need an overlap to keep things under control or anything, and we're not going to not remove the forum based on Discord.

Again: it's a financial decision

 

[KimberVaile]

I can't say I've always really agreed with some of the decisions FA has made, especially early on. That said, I get why it has to happen, it's not cheap to host a website. Even just a forum, it adds up. Unfortunate that the forum will die out, but ya know, there was no way the costs of running the forum wouldn't start to catch up. Especially in terms of server space.

 

[Krikri]

Well this is the worst decision you could make. The Art section will be a freaking mess. The marketplace - especially.

 

[luffy]

Well this is the worst decision you could make. The Art section will be a freaking mess. The marketplace - especially.

The art section is set up as a forum where users may have one topic.

 

[luffy]

Join FCF https://fur-community3.freeforums.net/ plz

If you guys are going to continue operating this, you need to do the following:
1. Not plagiarize Fur Affinity's rules at all
2. At LEAST read the rules and change them so they don't say Fur Affinity. lmao

 

[Rimna]

I don't think I'm understanding the benefit having an overlap would bring. Forum will be going anyway. The amount of people joining Discord from the forum will be negligible compared to the main site. Moderation doesn't need an overlap to keep things under control or anything, and we're not going to not remove the forum based on Discord.

Again: it's a financial decision

It might have helped some of the regulars here try out discord and get used to it if they've never tried it before. Not everything in this world is about spreadsheets and short-term profit.

 

[luffy]

It might have helped some of the regulars here try out discord and get used to it if they've never tried it before. Not everything in this world is about spreadsheets and short-term profit.

I guess I'm not understanding what "trying out Discord" will benefit when it's basically either use Discord, or don't use Discord. Do you mean a transitory time before others are let into the Discord?

 

[Regret]

For the read-only mode you should bring back the rants and raves and black hole so people can witness this place’s true glory before it dies for good.

 

[luffy]

For the read-only mode you should bring back the rants and raves and black hole so people can witness this place’s true glory before it dies for good.

Your name is how I would feel if we did that.

 

[Regret]

Your name is how I would feel if we did that.

I could have suggested the political subsection but I have at least a modicum of decency :V

Not like it truly matter anymore anyway.

 

[Miles Marsalis]

I guess I'm not understanding what "trying out Discord" will benefit when it's basically either use Discord, or don't use Discord. Do you mean a transitory time before others are let into the Discord?

I think he means giving forum users who aren't regular Discord users more time to adapt to using the platform before closing the forum and opening the forum.

 

[luffy]

I think he means giving forum users who aren't regular Discord users more time to adapt to using the platform before closing the forum and opening the forum.

That makes more sense, and I can inquire about adding long-time active users to the beta, but I am still not grasping what it actually changes because either way, forum's going down. I'm not trying to be difficult, trying to think of ways to make the transition easier and I can't understand the problem.

 

[Rimna]

I guess I'm not understanding what "trying out Discord" will benefit when it's basically either use Discord, or don't use Discord. Do you mean a transitory time before others are let into the Discord?

If you've never tried something it can be intimidating. I guess there's also a pre-conceived notion that it will be without a doubt too spammy, which doesn't help. Maybe it'd be easier to ask questions about the app and its functionalities here, in a familiar setting. There's also a big difference between 1-on-1 conversation on discord, and how things work in a server.

But I guess 2 weeks is good enough to at least try the app out. Discord is what you make of it in the end. It's better to have another official FA online community in the form of Discord than to not have any at all.