Your guide to our current community platform.

Screenshot of the current Discord platform.

Discord is a free communication app (similar to Slack), for communities with shared interests to gather and talk online. Discord will be the initial online forum for bringing people, ideas, projects and energy together. Channels are where messages are posted, and folders are how we organise the channels.

Discord can be downloaded here as an app for smartphones or computers. You can join the community Discord group here. We also have a short video guide for using Discord, here.

Discord is a garden where some channels are static, long-lived perennials where information is stored, such as the ‘Resources’ channel. Other channels are short-lived annuals that grow and change with the seasons, as the needs of the community change; these could include short term project based channels, such as organising the annual alumni gathering.

Anyone in the community can request to have a new channel or folder created, through the #Issues-and-requests channel, in the ‘Information Folder’ on Discord. However, if you request the creation of a channel or folder, we ask that you take some responsibility for it, in terms of stewarding its content, moderation and use.

To keep Discord channels organised, so we can all navigate it easily, channel requests may be refused if they already exist or other channels can be used. Channels may also be archived if they are not used for two months. For example, temporary channels might be created for one-off projects, and so have a limited life span.

The ‘Digital and Tech’ and ‘Communications and Content’ Lily Pad groups look after Discord channels and will make decisions bout channel use and navigation in Discord.

Navigation

• Information Folder
  • This is where information about how the community is run is kept, it is mostly for volunteers to communicate with the wider community, apart from the ‘Issues and Requests’ channel, which is for contacting volunteers.
• Community Folder
  • This is for information that is relevant to the whole community, and includes channels such as #Introduce-Yourself and #Events.
• Cohorts Folder
  • This is where different courses, cohorts, volunteer groups etc set up their own channel. Each group is responsible for looking after their own channel.
• Pods Folder
  • These are for the six groups of volunteers who run the community, to organise meetings and tasks.
• Projects Folder
  • These are temporary channels organised around shared purpose, usually a collaborative project.
• Chicken Shed Folder
  • This is the social side of the community, where channels reflect shared interests, experiences and all fun things. Channels currently include: #BookClub, #More-than-human and #Gratitude.
• Stories & Dialogue Folder
  • This is where more serious discussions take place, these channels can be around certain topics, sharing examples of work, or be about discussing professional practice. This is also the folder where we gather news, that can be included in the newsletter, from within the community and further afield.
• Archive Folder
  • Channels where activity has dropped to being at negligible levels, or where a channel is temporary, are stored here.