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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site:

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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 12, 2023 22:21:18 GMT
aliasHachi
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Hello! My name is Hachiko, and I moderate for a pretty cozy-sized Discord-based One Piece AU RP, and would like to learn some of the pros and cons of a possible transition onto a fully-fledged site. Of course there is the entire process of creating a site, formatting, coding, etc., but is there a difference in general accessibility or degradation in ease of navigation? Thanks in advance for the help!
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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 12, 2023 23:53:18 GMT
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Unfortunately I can't really compare as I've never been part of a Discord-based RP...
But my main reasoning is message limit I'd have to say. Discord limits how long messages can be ( you get more with nitro but then that's money you have to put out ) and I tend to type a lot when it comes to my RP threads.
As for accessibility, I imagine it's about the same. While I use discord as a hub for my site, there are many features that were moved to discord for the ease and accessibility.
I think it also matters which forum host you plan on using as well... I'm solely on jcink but navigation is as easy as you choose to have it ( I decked out my nav bar and bookmark other things that I need to reference too lol ).
I hope this helps at all... but I'm sure someone who is versed in both discord and site RP will be able to be more helpful ^^;
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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 13, 2023 3:10:53 GMT
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as someone who's done the transition in reverse + helped people go from discord to forums before?

tbeh, i wouldn't probably wouldn't recommend moving a community from discord to forums (proboards, jcink, or any other host) unless your existing community is heavily biased towards wanting to make that shift + the staff team have enough previous familiarity with forums to handle the transition.

i could go on for a good long while about how forums are a huge learning curve for people to first learn how to navigate compared to discord (since even if you are using the new forums feature for discord to minimize the base navigation differences solely on the user end, tupper is getting rid of so many clicks and menus you have to go through to update accounts/images and make posts + the admin controls for the main hosts are both pretty unintuitive if you're not familiar with the base software) and how forum-based rpers have very different expectations out of sites than discord rpers do (rules + lore information is typically far more extensive on forums than discord and the web design aesthetics arms race that is skinning is probably the biggest thing i was glad to avoid in transitioning over towards discord).

but i won't because all of that is a huge deep dive into rp meta that largely doesn't matter. because the reason i wouldn't recommend it essentially boils down to that the animanga forum rpc community is by and large a much shallower pool than the discord one - which will make it a lot harder for you to expand your community, especially if you're having to fight an uphill battle with discord rpers getting frustrated with the learning curve to get started + forum rpers being turned off because your site doesn't check boxes that they largely consider standard at this point or are checking ones that have largely fallen out of favor.

it'd also be a harder transition to make since a lot of rp resources are either disappearing entirely (like the big jcink resource site, caution to the wind, closing their doors soon + blocking access to their 10+ year library of various codes and their ad directory) or are becoming less easy to find if you don't already know where/how to look (via shifting resources into tumblr ad directories or coding discords). advertising your community also relies a ton more heavily on personal networking (since most long-term members tend to come via word of mouth), which you may not have, and takes a lot more effort too (since posting ads on other sites is a lot more time-consuming than just bumping the server on disboard every couple of hours).



i can feel the rest of the animanga community trying to deathglare me into oblivion for having said all of this, but i also couldn't in good conscience say anything else in my answer - not to dissuade you if this is what you and your server ultimately want to do but so that you'd be able to step into the wider forum community knowing it's going to be a lot of effort and huge learning curve. if you're willing to put in the work to get over that higher barrier of entry that forum rp has, it can be a lot of fun and it opens you up to a very different community than what discord rp typically has (i've found, for example, you tend to get a younger crowd with discord than forums). but it's also enough effort that i don't think the decision should be made lightly by any means + i would never recommend making the jump one way or the other if they weren't absolutely sure of it.

(honestly, if you want me to ramble more about my personal experiences with making the transition between the two + what the experience is like on either end, i'm more than happy to delve into stuff more, i just don't want to slam down so much text that it just gets skimmed/ignored or for forums to kick me out as a filthy traitor to my people for becoming a discord convert.)
last edit on Dec 13, 2023 3:14:50 GMT by Kuroya


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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 13, 2023 4:47:37 GMT
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Dec 13, 2023 3:10:53 GMT said:
as someone who's done the transition in reverse + helped people go from discord to forums before?

tbeh, i wouldn't probably wouldn't recommend moving a community from discord to forums (proboards, jcink, or any other host) unless your existing community is heavily biased towards wanting to make that shift + the staff team have enough previous familiarity with forums to handle the transition.

i could go on for a good long while about how forums are a huge learning curve for people to first learn how to navigate compared to discord (since even if you are using the new forums feature for discord to minimize the base navigation differences solely on the user end, tupper is getting rid of so many clicks and menus you have to go through to update accounts/images and make posts + the admin controls for the main hosts are both pretty unintuitive if you're not familiar with the base software) and how forum-based rpers have very different expectations out of sites than discord rpers do (rules + lore information is typically far more extensive on forums than discord and the web design aesthetics arms race that is skinning is probably the biggest thing i was glad to avoid in transitioning over towards discord).

but i won't because all of that is a huge deep dive into rp meta that largely doesn't matter. because the reason i wouldn't recommend it essentially boils down to that the animanga forum rpc community is by and large a much shallower pool than the discord one - which will make it a lot harder for you to expand your community, especially if you're having to fight an uphill battle with discord rpers getting frustrated with the learning curve to get started + forum rpers being turned off because your site doesn't check boxes that they largely consider standard at this point or are checking ones that have largely fallen out of favor.

it'd also be a harder transition to make since a lot of rp resources are either disappearing entirely (like the big jcink resource site, caution to the wind, closing their doors soon + blocking access to their 10+ year library of various codes and their ad directory) or are becoming less easy to find if you don't already know where/how to look (via shifting resources into tumblr ad directories or coding discords). advertising your community also relies a ton more heavily on personal networking (since most long-term members tend to come via word of mouth), which you may not have, and takes a lot more effort too (since posting ads on other sites is a lot more time-consuming than just bumping the server on disboard every couple of hours).



i can feel the rest of the animanga community trying to deathglare me into oblivion for having said all of this, but i also couldn't in good conscience say anything else in my answer - not to dissuade you if this is what you and your server ultimately want to do but so that you'd be able to step into the wider forum community knowing it's going to be a lot of effort and huge learning curve. if you're willing to put in the work to get over that higher barrier of entry that forum rp has, it can be a lot of fun and it opens you up to a very different community than what discord rp typically has (i've found, for example, you tend to get a younger crowd with discord than forums). but it's also enough effort that i don't think the decision should be made lightly by any means + i would never recommend making the jump one way or the other if they weren't absolutely sure of it.

(honestly, if you want me to ramble more about my personal experiences with making the transition between the two + what the experience is like on either end, i'm more than happy to delve into stuff more, i just don't want to slam down so much text that it just gets skimmed/ignored or for forums to kick me out as a filthy traitor to my people for becoming a discord convert.)


I agree with most of this but also I think this is like an argument for the community needing to come together and put together some resources. I'm currently trying to open a site and if it doesn't explode in a few months then I'll come back and make some.

Forum RP is not a one-to-one replacement for other types of RP platforms. It's a format that allows you to tell different types of stories. I would focus less on "are forums easy to use" (They are not. Banish the thought from your head right now) and focus more on "What kind of narratives does my community want to create?" Go browse some forums and read the threads. If your members want to write stories that way, then I think making a forum could be worth it.

I think the main reason to pick forum rp is if you want to write longform stories with a focus on character and setting development. I've never been on Discord RP but I tried Tumblr and Twitter RP. I bounced off both because the posts were shorter and the focus was more on brief character interactions and comedy. I like those things too, but I don't like them enough to maintain an entire character muse just to write those kinds of posts. I'm also not a very social person and I would rather write someone a post every three days instead of having to keep up with a talkative community.
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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 13, 2023 6:01:41 GMT
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If you already have a community established, transitioning to a forum is merely a change of medium. I agree that there is a type of culture and creative process between discord and forum (even though I, too, have never personally rped in discord) but if you have the community already, I think that part isn't much of the focus.

Forums are less accessible compared to discord for pretty obvious reasons. Discord is a chat service (and a very rich one) that has incredible accessibility. It isn't really fair to compare forums to it. Jcink and PB have mobile modes that aren't that bad; you can post in it but it's not great. 

And it has a lot of options, which means there is a learning curve. Again, discord is a rich, chat service meant to be pretty easy to use. Not really comparable to forums.

Maybe it would help us provide specific pros/cons in your situation if you tell us reasons why you're considering on moving? What are some problems, issues, or key features in discord that you're not satisfied with that makes you consider moving to another medium?

---

different topic-

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Dec 13, 2023 3:10:53 GMT said:
(honestly, if you want me to ramble more about my personal experiences with making the transition between the two + what the experience is like on either end, i'm more than happy to delve into stuff more, i just don't want to slam down so much text that it just gets skimmed/ignored or for forums to kick me out as a filthy traitor to my people for becoming a discord convert.)


just gonna say this. i think you're imagining enemies here. people have their own preference. if you prefer discord, then some also prefer forums. people can get passionate on it because of their personal experience with the mediums. pp is a proboards site and leap is a very strong advocate for it. yet it's not like there isn't a huge chunk of us who are jcink stans/rpers hanging here. it's not as if we're at each other's throats or feeling like we have to walk around eggshells when discussing them. we're all rpers at the end of the day.
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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 13, 2023 12:38:32 GMT via mobile
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might be echoing the others' insights, however as someone who has rped in chats (discord and good ol' chatrooms) and forums (proboards, jcink, forumotion) โ€”

i advocate jumping in and trying to work with each one in order to see what feels better for you and your community (if you have one that is moving with you).

discord is great for rp and is becoming even greater with each new feature / bot that comes to it. but forums are great for rp too. even if it isn't as accessible, some of the features it can provide aren't quite there on discord yet and might never be.

but... at the end of the day, they can work in conjunction with each other. you likely won't have to give one up to play on another.

that said, if you're interested in running a forum โ€” this site has a pretty helpful community if you ever need answers to anything really.
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Transitioning from Discord to a Forum Site: written Dec 13, 2023 17:50:16 GMT
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Should note that this will be all from my experience of โ€œbriefly friends and I decided to try playing on Discord in 2020โ€ and โ€œI have roleplayed on forums almost exclusively and only used instant messengers for chat/plotting/joking around/etcโ€

โ€” Discord feels cramped compared to forums, this is a big thing my friends and I had noticed when we played. Though I can imagine, if you only know Discord and are used to that, I can see forums feeling overwhelming and may take an adjustment period

โ€” Forums can have less pressure to respond instantly, which is, as stated, will benefit players who cannot be around as often or canโ€™t post as frequently as others. Itโ€™s much harder to miss things. Because on Discord sometimes things get forgotten because everything happened so long ago or so fast, or because it was auto-archived and lost amongst a list of faded out threads/forum posts

โ€” Focus. Keeping my RP stuff on forums instead of in servers/on Discord helps me focus on replying better, as there is a separation between here I hang out and chat with my friends and the place where I write. Additionally, having plotting be done in private messages instead of Discord messages makes it easier to keep track of

โ€” Discord... thereโ€™s no promise the service will be around forever if it is seen no longer worth it to keep it up and running. This has happened to other instant messaging services. While there is no assurance that our current free hosts will remain around forever either (RIP Icyboards, Zetaboards, InvisionFree etc.), they have been around for a long time already and survived many others. Additionally, thereโ€™s forum software you can get and so you can host your own site if you want to.

This is especially important to me โ€” I donโ€™t want to lose the stories Iโ€™ve made with people, or have to scramble to back-up a Discord server with thousands upon thousands of messages on it. Anyways, this is a reminder to yโ€™all: please backup your forums/writing/etc etc! Nothing lasts forever.

โ€” While Discord has better built-in accessibility, forums can be made extremely accessible, as stated though: the issue is that, by default, they arenโ€™t really, but there are resources about this online and people who will be willing to help you with this

โ€” There is joy to be found in the expression available to you using forum skins/layouts/etc etc. Discord does have a lot of options in regards to bots and again, I know the fact that I find it hard to use is mainly because /Iโ€™m/ not used to it. But as stated, donโ€™t try to throw your hat in the skinning armโ€™s race โ€” just make/use something you and your current players like!! It can always be changed and updated

โ€” You can still have the Discord up for your site alongside the forum and re-open RP there if it doesnโ€™t work out. This, also for growth, if this is a concern.

โ€” Iโ€™m running out of steam here on other thoughts. But if your community is on-board with trying something new with forum boards, I recommend trying. PP in particular is a pretty helpful community if you have any other questions/concerns.
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