Question on Communication - Discord

[Rhythm4324]

Hi all,

I wondered: has anyone suggested a Discord for Librivox communications? This could potentially be another way for Librivox users to interact with each other.

Brendan

[TriciaG]

What would be the purpose?

Virtually all of our communications are claiming sections, submitting and OK'ing MP3 files. This forum and Magic Window structure works well for that.


P.S. Never heard of Discord. Had to look it up.

P.P.S. We've done Zoom calls, but they're not very popular - whether due to disinterest, bad scheduling, or lack of promotion is hard to tell.

[Rhythm4324]

I mainly thought it could be another option to connect with the Librivox community

This could perhaps also be used as an informal way to connect, since for instance we could chat about audiobooks or get on voice calls without a particular scheduled meeting time.

Let me know if you think the community would be up for it! If it's something they'd like to try, then we could set one up. Again, I mainly thought of it as another vehicle to connect with Librivox members.

[SowasVon]

What would be the purpose?

I guess it's one of these things that would start to see use once it exists. It's what the younger generation nowadays uses for pretty much anything video games related.
Personally, I use it for chatting with friends, but I hate it with a passion when e.g. a video game anything chooses to have a Discord instead of a forum:
Since all the conversation is in chat form*, you either have wade through tons of lines to find the things that do interest you, or just start taking an interest in whatever people do say. There usually are subgroups within a Discord server for different topics (general chat, game strategy, looking for coop partner, etc.), but they do not come with the neat further sorting you have in a forum where anything related to one post will have its own thread. There IS a thread function for chats, but on the very limited amount of servers I've visited, it wasn't being used and would (I think) require a moderator to keep checking the chat for threadworthy material. Unless users get the right to make their own threads, but there's no guarantee they would actually do that.

I suppose if it were to be implemented, the point would rather be to have a place where people can hang out and socialize with each other, or maybe get immediate feedback to some question (as opposed to organizing projects as here on the forum). Making other Librivoxers parasocial buddies, so to speak.

*nearly forgot, there's also voice chat, but of course that doesn't get "written down" - you're either there when it happens, or you miss out on what has been said

[annise]

Our forums are not really chat forums, they are "work" forums and as the books are each produced by a team of people all with different time zones and "free time" schedules we really need a "hard copy" of things that are happening.

So no, we would not want an official one - it would not help our prime directive - to record all public domain books.

Anne

[sjmarky]

Discord has a reputation for being one of the worst platforms for harassment, pornography, bigotry and other nasty stuff. Basically, everything that Librivox is not.

[mightyfelix]

Is that so? I suppose it depends entirely on which server(s) you use on Discord. I am a part of a very few niche servers, one of which is private, and I've only experienced good things. Maybe if I poked around on the more general servers, I wouldn't like them. But I suppose that's why I don't.

[Peter Why]

I go into a Discord server for a particular gamer .. mainly for a game called Rimworld. I'm not certain, but I think I had to be invited. There are well-defined threads for various games, some much less active than others, and a general chat thread. There's some activity every day; no flaming, abuse, or pornography.

I do think it would work for the LibriVox community, but have no idea how popular it would be. It would probably need to be moderated, and only open by invitation. Given the low take-up of Zooming here, and the limited use of our off-topic thread, I suspect that it might not get much interest.

Peter

[SowasVon]

That's also new to me. But if Librivox got a Discord, it would need volunteer moderators just as much as the forum does, if not more.
I do wonder how popular it would be though. Could be "hardly" since the consistent Librivox contributor base seem to be >30 years old and Discord appears to be the most popular with users below 30. Could also be "plenty" since I may be misjudging the situation (or the contributors' willingness to use Discord), or because listeners might join in.

[DACSoft]

Since I, as a fairly active volunteer, use LV primarily as a project work activity (PL/DPL and recording), I would have no interest in this. I see the importance of having project work documented in the LV forums. I don't really use LV as a social site, as there are enough other sites for social correspondence (of which I rarely participate in).

And guilty as charged, I am in the >30 category.

[stepheather]

I use Discord for gaming. I’m in several servers I pay no attention to, but the one with MY people I enjoy.
I actually dropped Facebook a while ago and have been browsing the LV forum quite a bit. This makes me think that I could enjoy a Discord with LV people, although I’m not positive how active I would be.
For statistical purposes, I’m above 30, but have siblings substantially younger than I am, which I think influences me a bit.

[NicoleJLeBoeuf]

I use Discord quite a bit. Some of the servers I'm on are about video games, where there's a lot of chatter about events in game and bugs detected and the like; and some are my various writing communities, where people discuss brainstorming stories, trying to get novels published, the state of the publishing industry, and also plan "co-writing dates". My manuscript critique group meets via Discord's voice/video channel. And of course just plain chatting, as people with shared interest tend to do. It's pleasant to have a place to kick back and get to know each other in an environment that isn't entirely workflow-oriented.

I think Discord would be a nice compliment to the Forums, both as a place for us to connect and chat on a more casual level, as well as providing an easy way for people working together to talk/plan/converse about their project in real time.

I acknowledge it would require a non-trivial level of volunteer moderation, and since I am not personally volunteering to be a moderator, I'm not going to argue too strenuously for starting a Librivox Discord server. But if by some chance we did have one, I would absolutely use it.

[jessieyun0404]

Personally I enjoy using Discord both as a social interaction and project management (talking with different creators on working on an animation/music project). But I do agree that LV has a very solid ground on managing all the heavy files and progress reports via forums and MW (which is magic, hint hint). If we had to use Discord it would be more convenient for just social interactions and stronger bond between the readers (ultimately replacing the misc forum...)

[ej400]

I use Discord quite often, for various reasons, but I certainly wouldn't see a reason for LV to use it or need a server in it. I've made friends here on LV, because this is where I go for a book group. Discord is more for the gaming community among other things.

On top of that, the forum here already acts a bit like Discord. There's the new here chat, the one minute test area, current projects in progress, and even a place for all the finished projects with links on the last post to the cataloged piece. We basically have it here, in an already wonderful place where we don't experience any of the foul things people find on other social media.

[barleyguy]

I hate to be the negative one here, but if Librivox was ever to move to Discord as a required form of communication, I would probably stop volunteering here. That same statement applies to Facebook as well, and any other public social media platforms. Any platform that requires creating a global login (meaning a login that's not isolated to just that specific community), and possibly gathers information about users, is not a platform I'm willing to use.

(For context, my perspective does not come from ignorance, but quite the opposite. I am a retired DevOps engineer.)

Like I said, apologies for being the negative one regarding this topic. But just wanted to represent those of us who would not agree to this if it ever came to pass.