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Showing results for tags 'teamspeak'.
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Hopefully this is in the right spot for this topic. My goal is to have this in the most publicly accessible spot for people to jump straight into. Additionally, this topic can be used for similar issues regarding other messengers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, due to the Discord controversy of them rolling out their "Everyone's a default teenager" logic, there's been some interest in moving over to other messenger programs. Now, one concern is, how will we handle a switch over to a different messenger? And, to clarify, yes, there's going to be issues moving large groups over to another messenger, but the one I'm focused on here, is, how will we handle both of the community Discord servers? Cause we've got both Simtropolis and the SC4Evermore servers. And I'm sure there's others that I'm unaware of, I just know these two to be the biggest and most popular. Of course, there's been a lot of talk of moving a lot of people over to TeamSpeak, but the biggest issue with them is simply the fact that people would need to setup and host their own servers. And I can certainly see some issues regarding that, I wonder if maybe that could be advantageous to the community to some extent? Like, we've already got the STEX and LEX, so, I don't see any particular issues that could prevent us from utilizing the current webservers for TeamSpeak. That said, I am aware that webservers run a bit differently and the rules behind them may prevent something like this without going through some kind of clearance process. I'm just not sure if there's anything particularly technical beyond webhost limitations that would prevent the establishment of something like TeamSpeak. The idea behind this, is that both Simtropolis and Evermore could host their own TeamSpeak servers. Though, I don't know anything about integration, but if possible, we could have those setup so that all you'd have to do is just log into your appropriate account to use them. So, if I wanted to chat with people on the Simtropolis side, I could do that. Alternatively, we could just merge the two parts of the community together into a single one. This of course does come with a combined pressure of 2 sites running off of the same equipment, but also introduces a potentially unwanted effect, of having it centralized. And of course, if it goes down at any point for any reason, we're out that entire messenger service. Now, I know that there was some mention of using Stoat (formerly Revolt), as it seems closest to Discord in it's design. I have been messing around with Stoat for a while cause I remember there was something that came up with Discord a while back that had me start looking into alternatives (I think they were discussing going public with their company at the time), which allowed me to see how it worked out a bit. And it does seem to be the closest to the Discord experience we've known. So, if we're looking for "closest to Discord with least friction" Stoat's probably a good one to go with. I, personally, am not against checking out, exploring, and using other messenger services, but I'm aware that not everyone is going to be all that interested in making 50+ accounts to random programs that may/may not survive the next year. And I'm not trying to force the community into one right now, as we do have some (albeit limited) time to find a good one. My goal with this is to kick off a discussion of what everyone (more or less) is interested in moving over to, as that will help out greatly with reducing the friction regarding moving over. Of course, another idea is, we could find a way to implement a messenger system directly into the websites, allowing people live chatting there. Though, it may not be as robust as something like Discord. And I do remember there being an option for a live chat box on a website, as one of the first forum sites I was on had it and it was pretty fun to use at the time. And if there's a way to implement something along the lines of an RSS feed, then we could easily have a standalone program that would act like Discord, but connect directly to a website that has the chat boxes. Though, with that said, I'm aware that such a thing would be a bit of work due to the programming involved with it. Still, I do think having an integrated chat box on the sites would be good to have. Though, with how we don't have forums on the new Evermore site, it's quite possible only Simtropolis would end up with that. Hopefully I can be proven wrong in that regard. Another key concern, is how exactly would we handle some stuff? Because we've got: basic chat rooms images/memes videos/streams various projects And I feel that some of the projects, we could probably just move over to forums either here or over on Evermore. I do agree with @Ulisse Wolf, along with many others I've seen online on other sites, that Discord's actually done quite a number on information access, and that we're better off with forums for a lot of things. And, at least in regards to the projects, we are going to need a place to keep their development and access to any information that comes up from it. Of course, I'm sure that things like the basic chat rooms and memes can be easily overlooked. Except for the above mentioned issue, in which a ton of information is going to be lost soon due to Discord being such a closed system. Videos and streams will probably be fine, as I don't believe Discord really keeps the streams around, as it's neither Twitch, nor YouTube. But, I do feel that these are still some valid concerns that we should probably begin addressing sooner, rather than later. And the thing is, we might get lucky, and Discord doesn't make a complete and utter mess of things with this implementation. But, if we do get lucky? We absolutely have to take whatever buffer we gained from that and be aggressive with moving everything around, cause that's likely a one-off event. It'll just give us some breathing room long enough to work it out. Additionally, if we do end up merging both the Simtropolis and Evermore groups together, we might be able to relieve some stress on the admin/mod teams, as they won't need to be pulling double/triple duty across so much stuff. Cause we've already got a bunch of people like @Tarkus who's considerably overworked by being a mod/admin on the Evermore site, the Evermore Discord server, being the NAM Team Leader, etc, and this could prove beneficial to where he won't be as overwhelmed. Maybe. It is hard to say given how everything's setup, but we could just move all the admins/mods over from both Discord servers into the new messenger with their same rank without too much fuss (theoretically). Oh, and for any projects where we want to keep the development hidden, if they're moved over to the Simtropolis site proper, we'd need to find out if there's a way to lock forums/forum groups behind certain roles and start giving people roles to allow access to them. No clue on how the current forum software works, but it's certainly something to keep in mind. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Linus Tech Tips going over it in part of their WAN Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLZr4cccNQI Discord's 'Teen-By-Default Settings': https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-launches-teen-by-default-settings-globally Reddit post for alternative messengers: https://www.reddit.com/r/allkeyshop/comments/1r3vsk1/best_discord_alternatives_to_try_in_2026_voice/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I would certainly like to know everyone's thoughts on this. And if you've got more sources and suggestions of Discord alternatives, please do share them.
