Web Weavers: A Discord server

[ghostk.id]

I have a lovely Discord community for webmasters that I'm looking to grow.

This is a server for 18+ webmasters of the indie web. Web Weavers (WW) is primarily a social hangout with website talk on the side. Everyone is encouraged to connect! Don't be afraid to join in on the conversation; it's a public space, after all. Let's make friends! :)

You are more than welcome to join if this sounds like something you would be interested in! The only requirements are: you must be at least 18 and have a website.

I am aware of the complaints surrounding Discord. I'm also quite unhappy with them. I've looked into several alternatives, but unfortunately Discord still has the edge when it comes to community management. Until a suitable replacement reaches feature parity with Discord, the Web Weavers community will remain there. Rest assured, I'm also looking forward to the day I can move it off that platform!

Click on the button to join:

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I hope this isn't overly confronting, but I'm somewhat interested: What are the features that make Discord irreplaceable to you - when compared, lets say, with Matrix or a Forum like this one -, and what do you think does your community offer that could make it worth to people to sacrifice their personal data and digital independence to a rather dubious company to join it?

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

Yeah, what TPW said. Why Discord? Put it on Matrix or IRC! If you joined here to have a better web, participate in actually making it better instead of beating the 20 year old dead horse

[ghostk.id]

I hope this isn't overly confronting, but I'm somewhat interested: What are the features that make Discord irreplaceable to you - when compared, lets say, with Matrix or a Forum like this one -, and what do you think does your community offer that could make it worth to people to sacrifice their personal data and digital independence to a rather dubious company to join it?

Yeah, what TPW said. Why Discord? Put it on Matrix or IRC! If you joined here to have a better web, participate in actually making it better instead of beating the 20 year old dead horse

These are valid criticisms, and I don't want to defend Discord at all. I'm not trying to convince anyone to sacrifice their privacy or anything else to join. As I've stated in my post, it's an open invite to anyone who sees the appeal in it. If you're not already on Discord, this server isn't for you, and that's completely fine! Especially when we have so many other web related communities already on more ethical platforms.

This server is simply a space for webmasters who are already in the Discord ecosystem to connect. It's not a replacement for those spaces—it's just where some of us already are. I've looked into alternatives (Matrix and IRC included), but neither has the community management features I need: granular permissions, proper voice channels, screensharing, custom bots, and so on. Matrix voice is essentially a group call with no real channel structure. I do not want to fragment my community across several platforms just to cover all the bases that Discord already combines well. As someone who has been searching for a Discord alternative to love, the current ones available leave much to be desired. I've managed several communities over the years, and it's not as simple a switch when I have to consider my users and not just my own willingness to move. I'm genuinely open to switching permanently when something reaches feature parity.

For what it's worth, I'm not a hard sell on switching platforms. I've already made moves away from mainstream services that most of my peers would not. I treat Discord as a publicly accessible space and refuse to use it for private conversations, directing people to Signal instead, which was already difficult enough to get people on board with. I know firsthand how difficult it is to get everyday people to change their habits, so I think meeting people where they are does not minimize my efforts elsewhere to contribute to a better web. For me, nudging the majority in the right direction starts with having a strong competitive alternative I can actually sell to them. If the current ones can't convince even me to switch, I'm not sure how to make that case to others.

[kringle]

i totally get what your saying, discord has a lot of features that i know i won't be able to replace easily for my own online friend-group anytime soon; but i think at least running a forum in parallel to your discord would be more in the spirit of the movement. instead of having it be an A or B problem, why not have the two in sisterhood and try to have small things that incentivize people to use the forum more? like maybe have event information only on the forum, or have your resource master-lists stored on the forum.

i get that this would be more tricky from a moderation perspective, but i feel like closing off the possibility of using alternatives entirely is way less effective than at least having it as an option for the community youre building.

in the end its up to you! just my two cents.

[ghostk.id]

i totally get what your saying, discord has a lot of features that i know i won't be able to replace easily for my own online friend-group anytime soon; but i think at least running a forum in parallel to your discord would be more in the spirit of the movement. instead of having it be an A or B problem, why not have the two in sisterhood and try to have small things that incentivize people to use the forum more? like maybe have event information only on the forum, or have your resource master-lists stored on the forum.

i get that this would be more tricky from a moderation perspective, but i feel like closing off the possibility of using alternatives entirely is way less effective than at least having it as an option for the community youre building.

in the end its up to you! just my two cents.

I'm a little confused on where you got the idea that I'm closing off the possibility of using alternatives entirely. My apologies if I didn't make it clear in my previous posts that I am very open and hoping for a good alternative to come soon.

I only made the Discord community because I:
- am on Discord every day already
- just wanted to be in a server to casually socialize with other fellow webmasters on a daily basis
- have experience with creating/managing them already so it wasn't difficult to spin up
- find it very easy to quickly find members and build the community without much effort

I guess I did not expect my whim to be held to a higher purpose. I presently don't have a desire to expend the time and energy to create, host, manage, and grow an additional community platform, as nice as the idea of a sister forum might be.

Chat clients and forums are two very different kinds of text channels and environments. I enjoy both for different reasons and use them accordingly to my mood! I currently satisfy my web related forum needs here on Melonland.

That being said, I'm not against the idea of creating a forum or imageboard in the future. I could definitely see myself becoming interested in investing the time and resources into that eventually. I just currently have other projects I'd like to prioritize (including ones that are specifically more for the movement) and wanted to treat this server as somewhere I can just exist without it needing to mean something.

[kringle]

I guess I did not expect my whim to be held to a higher purpose. I presently don't have a desire to expend the time and energy to create, host, manage, and grow an additional community platform, as nice as the idea of a sister forum might be.

that makes complete sense to me! and is super fair. ig as someone running a forum i just get really pumped at the possibility of there being more; but lacking energy 2 to run one is no joke and i hella understand you using your own personal bandwith in a way that works best for you.

i'm really excited to see those other projects!!!! 

[ghostk.id]

that makes complete sense to me! and is super fair. ig as someone running a forum i just get really pumped at the possibility of there being more; but lacking energy 2 to run one is no joke and i hella understand you using your own personal bandwith in a way that works best for you.

i'm really excited to see those other projects!!!! 

Thank you for understanding! I will for sure share my projects here when they're ready for the world to see :)