Important announcement for our 18 Stripes community!
We’ve decided to create and open up our own Discord server for our writers and readers alike. In an attempt to move past our current WordPress dominated website and transform our community into something better we thought this was a good idea for the future. If you have any questions, hopefully they are answered in this article. If not, shoot us a comment down below.
What is Discord?
Discord was created just under 10 years ago and is a chat room based communication platform that has been primarily used in the American video game community but has been expanding into many other communities in recent years. It’s similar to Slack, and if you’re used to our gameday chats, the feeling should be comfortable.
Why not just create a Slack for everyone with the 18S Gameday Slack already set up?
In short, we think Discord is a little bit more fun and more catered towards our type of football/sports community. Slack is good, but also more catered toward a work community. Either set up would be fine, but we feel the support, features, and auto-moderation of Discord is a better fit overall.
Why Discord and why now?
When we set about creating what would become 18 Stripes we debated creating a message board but balked at the idea due to the cost, time, and maintenance of that for a community that wasn’t that large. Today, we feel like we could use a different home to hang out. We have abandoned our 18S Twitter account and this will be a new place for our writers to interact with everyone.
Nothing will change with this 18 Stripes website?
Nope, things will remain the same here–at least for the time being. Although, truth be told I haven’t loved some of the quirks and technical issues we’ve been dealing with and the WordPress site is starting to feel a little dated. Also, I can’t guarantee I’ll be writing forever and I think this is a good way to future-proof our community sticking together should things ultimately change around here.
What can we do on Discord?
Right now we have 5 categories
- Welcome to 18S Discord
- ND Football
- Irish Sports
- National
- Extras
Each category will have specific channels underneath depending on the topic:
If you’re used to the Gameday Slack, we’d use a specific channel for a game and then archive that channel to make room for the next game. With Discord, we’ll just use the ND Football “gameday” channel all season long while the “gamewatch” channel in the National category will be used for non-Notre Dame games.
I am sure we will expand the channels, and maybe add a category or two, in the future. Right now, we wanted to keep things fairly streamlined and easy for anyone to sign up and get involved quickly.
Will the 18S Gameday Slack chat continue?
Yes, we will keep it open through the 2024 football season. I didn’t want to stop that mid-season. However, I did want to use the remainder of this football season to open up the Discord and get people migrating over there and used to the gameday chat channels.
How do I get started on the 18S Discord server?
Here’s the invite to our server:
Once you’re in the server you should be directed to the rules and then you’ll have access to all of the channels. You’ll be all set to be a part of the 18S Discord.
I hate change
FIRE MURTAUGH
I’m sympathetic, Publius.
But I will say, my Paris Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast uses Discord for very extensive intra-cast comms, with many different channels, and I’ve found it a good way to discuss various issues among folks with a common interest.
So I’ll give it a shot!
Except — “unable to accept invite” — anti-French discrimination???
Oh no! I’m not sure why??
Do you have a Discord account set up? I could try to send the invite directly to you?
I tried the second link, still refused. My Discord handle is
drpeterscott
— Don’t know if that will find me.
It’s on my phone, I’ll try from there (duh) … I usually access you on my laptop, to enjoy your graphics.
That worked! Gotta get to O’Hare and back to France.
Nice, I see you got in.
Or, try this invite:
https://discord.gg/ag9BN2pKsZ
Apparently I haven’t used my Discord app on my phone in a while, it was in inactive mode and logged out. Excited to have a new place to rant on gameday!