Do people actually have good experiences with Discord?

[Deante]

I see people preferring to play on Discord, and I don't get it.

Because every experience I've had with going on Discord to RP with someone has been along the lines of:

Me: Hi, I saw your thread on BM/E/whatev, and was interested in this RP...
Them: Hi
Me: So... that RP...

And they never connect/respond again.

 

[DreamingDaniel]

I am absolutely with you on this one. Tried it three times on discord and each time it stopped after a few messages back and forth.
Somehow it works here on the forum way better. Why? I have no clue.

 

[Shiver]

Discord or PMs makes no difference in terms of conversations dropping/ghosting. That happens everywhere.

Discord allows for dedicated servers and channels that are really useful for more elaborate RPs, and as an app it's easier to check on my phone than a website.

 

[HungryForMore]

I can't see anything about Discord itself that would make it more likely someone would ghost. If anything the opposite as you can have the app, everything in one place, have it beeping away when a reply comes in... So if there is a difference and it's not just false impression, it has to be a difference in the sort of people on it. Discord is easy to use on your phone as well as its web interface. So maybe it attracts more mobile, ADHD types who are more likely to flake. But I'm not convinced that's true.

It could be a slight demographic bias with younger and / or more gamery types being used to Discord and on-site players being a more old-guard who have been around on the site for a longer time. People who are long-term on BM are probably more invested and less casual than newbies like myself.

Discord is, imo, far superior as a role-playing experience. Better for sharing pictures, tracking your role-play, editing out mistakes, easily creating channels separate for discussion and the role-play itself, being able to just scroll up like it's an actual story rather than going from post to post and the occasional confusion where some non-roleplay stuff took place at the same time or accidental overlapping replies. PM-players can say all day that they don't need any of this stuff but I bet if they used Discord for a month and went back they wouldn't feel the same about PMs.

Except, apparently, for the problem of ghosting. Could be different demographics who use it, but I really don't think it's the app. I think ghosting happens everywhere.

 

[Subject Tai]

Aye, I only RP on Discord, so I can give some info on that.

So a lot of people just prefer Discord because of a lot of things, and these things make everything a lot more enjoyable for the people who seek it.

1. They don't like other people telling them what they can or cannot pretend to RP. Generally people telling other people what they can or cannot do in pretend land leaves a bad taste in their mouths.
2. Discord makes organization a lot easier and accessible in comparison to a forum. Forums for RP are super outdated, but still applicable if it's preferred.
3. Discord has pins and can exchange information quickly with the use of notifications and many, many different settings that a forum can't provide.
4. You can have multiple RP's in a single server, and you can have many partners all privatized on a server for yours and their security / privacy.

From my experience, it's a very small population that are as you've described. I believe a part of the issue is more or less the mood difference between contacts. Some people contact others while in a mood, and when they don't get re-contacted during that mood, they seem to vanish. This is why F-list is useful, because it's got it's own advertisements, and people can contact each other while in that same mood. I personally find that a lot of the F-list staff suffer from god complexes or stalker issues, enough for me to purchase a VPN to avoid some of their staff from stalking me. That's an additional + with Discord though, you don't really need to deal with stalker issues or abuse of power, you're your own responsibility on Discord.

With Discord however, you can make your RP play-land a beautiful and well designed piece of art. Here's an example of what I would consider to be a well orchestrated Discord for RP! This particular server has 2 active RP's, an OOC section, and a FC section. This is why I prefer to take F-list points of interest from their client, to Discord, because of the tools that Discord has to offer.

Hope this helps! I'm sure that if you will find a partner that fits what you're looking for.

 

[Staine]

I think it's very, very subjective which you prefer and I don't think forums are outdated in the slightest for roleplaying. There is a reason people use this place to find their roleplays and I haven't heard of many Discord servers that offer the kind of advertising for your request threads that a forum site does. Or any, for that matter. Being able to make threads in a well defined section such as the request thread sections here is a huge advantage for finding what you are looking for over a channel in Discord where the walls of text are in your face and you have to sift through at a much slower pace.

I also don't think Discord has the formatting tools for posts that can hold a candle to a place like this. Fonts, text colours, image embedding with links and so much more can be put into a post or request thread here that Discord simply doesn't offer so calling this outdated is a little rich imo. I can see the benefits of a private Discord for sure, separating your roleplays by channel and you can easily make everything private for each and every partner but conversely, the work you are so proud of writing is no longer on display and available to the hundreds of users who browse every day. I've gotten compliments on my writing, I know several others who have too. It makes you feel good, knowing what you're working on is being appreciated and is a huge draw for forum roleplaying, something I would miss on Discord where the only people that see it are those invited and the regulations are lax.

Organisation on a large scale is another issue, to reach the scale this site has the Discord server would be a mess. I can't see it reaching anything like it, though I would love to be proven wrong as I use Discord for many other things so by all means if you disagree please enlighten me. To the points above.

1: This is what I think is the number one reason for most Discord RPs. I consider it a negative for me, I like the rules here but I can see why others wouldn't even if I disagree.
2: As I've said above, I think organisation is actually much better on a forum. It's cleaner, you have access to many more tools and separate forums and Discord only becomes better for purposes of privacy.
3: Pins don't really bring anything to the roleplay and are limited in number. I suppose you could find a section easily but in a thread each post is denoted by a number that you can easily note and find when you need it. Exchange of information is perhaps a little faster than a DM here but also, not really. Notifications for sure, unless you have them turned on here and get an email ping, in which case it's very much a moot point.
4: You can't have multiple RP's here? I do. I have the option to have DM RP's too for privacy, though Discord is much better for that I am sure. I personally don't do DM RP's with the exception of one group RP I have on here because I do like sharing what I write, but I can see value in the privacy.

Anyway, that's enough out of me. Everything I said is just opinion and no doubt very subjective, just roleplay on the medium you prefer and don't be a dick, that's the best you can do really. The partners the OP is talking about...may you never be contacted by their like again, I think Tal has it right, they simply were in a certain mood when they messaged and that mood dissipated. No prizes for guessing what that mood was.

 

[Psychodurus Eques]

Y'know, for awhile roleplaying on Discord was all I wanted to do, but there was a lot I didn't like about it.
I had a couple that were the old "me and partner had a server, had our ooc, characters, lore, ic and so on sections all laid out" type of deal going on. And I really liked that. Also was involved in some group rp's that had a similar dynamic going on.

I suppose the biggest plus for me was immediacy. Like, it's really good when you both want to get online and do quick back and forth.

It's also nice to have the chat there. I mean, I like being able to chat on Discord with partners anyway. From an organization standpoint, it admittedly is nice to have it all there in one spot. Its also nice when you want to have a spot for sharing media and the like.

But forums just look better. With the formatting and everything. Discord is nice to organize everything by subject in the channels, but actually listing everything out isn't as great.

So I guess the ideal thing would be to have a discord server, for ooc, miscellaneous media sharing, and possibly the ic too, while using a forum for character profiles and other jazz.

 

[Virginia Greene]

I really really love Discord for OOC conversation. For roleplaying it's kind of a pain in the butt for me personally, because I have to make 2-3 entries to get my whole post out thanks to the character limits. But I do use it, since some people prefer it and I'd rather be slightly displeased with the medium but writing with a partner I really click with than miss out on that partner because I'm not willing to use the medium.

 

[Inkybus]

Personally, I like using discord for the quickness of the chat, because people can check it faster than the PMs of BMR; so I use it to coordinate OoC ideas, expectations and warn my playmates of any absences or life bullshit headed my way that might impede my posting times. I'll post some images, talk some about what I want and what I'll maybe do , try to get some people to make characters who would actually give a damn about each other and have a reason to stick together instead of brooding in the corner like a thrift version of Batman.

I like BMR's forum and PMs because they have a good formatting foundation and I can play around with fonts, color writing, put short links in where appropriate and so on, so I do prefer that over Discord. So yeah. Discord for keeping tabs on each other and share ooc commentary and organizational stuff, BMR for the nitty gritty IC stuff.

Aside from that, ghosting is everywhere, in my personal experience. I've seen it happen in the same amount on discord, BMR and f-list.

 

[Murdergurl]

I like discord for organizing my ideas through the channels and whatever. And I've joined some interesting servers since I singed up. But most of it doesn't get anywhere, and I find that the pace that people expect on Discord is often way, WAY more than I can accommodate. I honestly have yet to get any worthwhile RPs done on it, anyway. One thing that particularly irks me about Discord is the character limit per post. 2000 characters is paltry for what I typically put out, and it's annoying to have to go through and portion everything out so I can post it. I sometimes wind up making 3 or 4 separate posts to get a single entry in.

..., ghosting is everywhere, in my personal experience. I've seen it happen in the same amount on discord, BMR and f-list.

Literally everywhere that RP is done online, in my experience. If I'm going to be absolutely truthful, I've done it myself a couple times. I think more people have ghosted than are willing to admit it.

 

[the boy]

I love Discord for the organization and the ease of reminders. It's difficult for me to keep up with a website because I'm not always on it. I use Discord for multiple purposes beyond roleplaying and am on it throughout the day. I am far more likely to respond to a roleplay there than on a thread.

 

[Kiden]

I prefer to role play on discord. I have more that one plot with a person at a time, and it helps me keep those organized. But I understand that it is not for everyone. If some told me that they don’t role play on discord, it won’t make me wanna not role play with them.

 

[Quantum]

For me, it depends on what I am searching for.

If I am doing a lengthy, wordy RP where responses will be multiple paragraphs, then I much prefer forums.

If I am doing a quick RP that does’t need a ton of description and set up, then Discord is fine for that.

 

[TotesBurger]

I honestly prefer Discord. Having your own private server to organize things is a god send.

 

[Tanakalian]

As someone who writes all his plays in Word, and copies replies from my writing partners in that same document as well, the 2000 character limit is never a problem. Two full paragraphs, split by a double enter and the second paragraph ended with a little - , make up that 2000 mark. So it's just copy and paste.

And like it has said before, having a private server to organize things is brilliant.

 

[MellowYellow]

I haven't had any bad experiences with it, except for getting strung along for nothing on one occasion.

I can see the appeal to it, wouldn't normally be my first port of call but I dig it.

 

[Murdergurl]

I haven't had any bad experiences with it, except for getting strung along for nothing on one occasion.

I can see the appeal to it, wouldn't normally be my first port of call but I dig it.

you're lucky it just happened once, then.

I lost count of how many times I've opened up an RP with a goodly sized intro post... and then tumbleweeds roll by.

I even got told to "go write a book" on one server. Because "People don't RP like that". Apparently, the meta on Discord is shitty little five liners in quick, lazy succession. I don't roll that way with my RP

 

[the boy]

I've played with numerous people on Discord and have never encountered anyone who does shitty little five liners. All my partners have been multi-paragraph (3+) writers with excellent detail and description.

 

[Murdergurl]

I've played with numerous people on Discord and have never encountered anyone who does shitty little five liners. All my partners have been multi-paragraph (3+) writers with excellent detail and description.

Where do you find these unicorn Discord RPers? lmao
Seriously, I've lost count of all the sub-par writers who: are unable put together a decent paragraph, but also have the most terrible grammar and run-on sentence structure. I feel like I might be RPing with middle schoolers masquerading as 18+ members.

Needless to say, I don't RP on Discord anymore. I just use it as a method of communication for OOC and such with others, and storage for my own stuff.

 

[True Grave]

I tried doing three RP's on Discord and all three fizzled quickly. Not a good experience. It is great for OOC conversation and some storage, but I vastly prefer doing the IC in a forum or PM on a site like this. For those that love it, I'm happy for you, but I'll stick to forums. They look way better and it's easier to share your work. It's all down to preference.

 

[Murdergurl]

They look way better and it's easier to share your work

I didn't even think about the formatting/BBCode. Discord is in the dust in this regard. As someone who likes to put a bit of aesthetic flair into my adverts and pepper posts with things you can only input with code, this is yet another reason I feel that forums are superior. I mean , I know Discord has some mild formatting options. But they just don't compare.

 

[Subject Tai]

Where do you find these unicorn Discord RPers? lmao
Seriously, I've lost count of all the sub-par writers who: are unable put together a decent paragraph, but also have the most terrible grammar and run-on sentence structure. I feel like I might be RPing with middle schoolers masquerading as 18+ members.

Needless to say, I don't RP on Discord anymore. I just use it as a method of communication for OOC and such with others, and storage for my own stuff.

Try an interview process. Whenever I make a post, I tend to get a few duds that I weed out super quick, and then focus on the actual potential RP partners. Very rarely a dud player can make it through something they only have half a heart in. I also tend to look for actual interest in something that requires more effort, or if the person is looking to just get off and then be on their way. I legitimately tone done my writing just to fit the person's mojo, and if that interests you, it's a good alternative. Nothing long-term of course.

If you give Discord another try, I hope for good luck

 

[Murdergurl]

Try an interview process. Whenever I make a post, I tend to get a few duds that I weed out super quick, and then focus on the actual potential RP partners. Very rarely a dud player can make it through something they only have half a heart in. I also tend to look for actual interest in something that requires more effort, or if the person is looking to just get off and then be on their way. I legitimately tone done my writing just to fit the person's mojo, and if that interests you, it's a good alternative. Nothing long-term of course.

If you give Discord another try, I hope for good luck

Oh, I very much do that with my own RPs. I always ask for writing samples and discuss character dynamic. (actually, I think this is the very reason I have such a hard time recruiting) Most half-assed RPers don't wanna go through all that. The discord drop-outs come from me getting into other people's requests and/or Discord RP groups that are like Group RP all on a server of a centralized lore.

 

[Subject Tai]

Oh, I very much do that with my own RPs. I always ask for writing samples and discuss character dynamic. (actually, I think this is the very reason I have such a hard time recruiting) Most half-assed RPers don't wanna go through all that. The discord drop-outs come from me getting into other people's requests and/or Discord RP groups that are like Group RP all on a server of a centralized lore.

I have the same problem LOL

If I'm coming into another person's request, I'm usually gonna experience what you're describing. Crazy. Though, I stopped asking for writing samples after having pretty much a 100% failure rate with that tactic.

 

[obieblu]

This was an interesting list of anecdotes and variances in what others consider 'good' for an RP and environment. My own standards put me in a 51% Discord / 49% Forum disposition. It was also interesting to see someone to say that chatters are younger. I'm gonna date myself and say I'm from the generation that caused the bloom of chat rooms, and that most RP back then was chatting. We were looking to recreate the table-top gaming environment and pace in an online venue. It was truly interactive instead of dropping a letter in someone's mailbox for them to find tomorrow. Chat room games then broke off into the various messengers at the time. The online RP hobby was "I'm here for a couple hours. Let's do this as our focused activity together." This current forum style RP that dominates the online landscape looks like the evolution of the Livejournal collaborative novelists that were the weird ones, back then. I roleplayed online for about 8 years before I took a long break, and I never met a player back then who wanted to wait a day or two for a reply or thought +3 paragraphs was reasonable. Roleplaying was an activity rather than a semi-self-paced introvert hobby.

After my long break, I was dying of boredom at a bad job I was temporarily stuck in, and I wanted that focused interactive activity again. I couple other online artists tempted me onto Discord for roleplaying. It captured the feel of the RP I 'grew up' with back in the day. The two partners weren't quality, though, so I ended up venturing off to find others. When you Google looking for RP these days, it's basically all forums and static listings. I had a long period of adjustment to Craigslist-style ads looking for the "weird Livejournal" style of RP, but I accept that's what it mostly is, now. In between the cracks of forum partners, I have found good partners that also wanted to chat on Discord, and a couple even wanted to try it for the first time and said they really liked the active engagement in contrast to sitting alone and banging out paragraphs for a list of waiting partners on a forum. I'm not stuck at that boring job anymore, so my craving for focused interaction isn't my driving need, now.

Most of what I've been doing in the last few months is roleplaying in PMs on forums. That hybrid style is probably my least favorite option. It takes the slower static nature of a forum and blends it with the privacy of a chat to create... a situation that I find to be the most predisposed to ghosting. Yes, ghosting is a problem everywhere. I'll get to that in regards to Discord later, but I have had such a high percentage of forum partners that insisted on PMs turn out to be ghosters that I now really shy away from anyone that will only play in PMs. I also noticed that those who insist on PMs frequently have all their viewability settings shut down. It's a huge red flag. When I got started on forums, I really didn't want everyone reading my smutty posts. Between figuring out that that was probably rare, I also got over it and turned it into a tiny bit of an exhibitionist outlet. So, I definitely prefer either public forum threads or the intimacy of Discord. What I see as the secrecy of PMs is unattractive.

The best partners I've had since getting back into online RP were on Discord. The most creative, the most IC and OOCly engaging, and the longest. I think the active engagement helps to create a much more personable rapport, and that leads to better and longer stories. The longest forum threads I had were more mediocre and like the dinner rolls that filled up space between the chats I really enjoyed. I've also had some major disappointments on Discord, but that was just because of the quality of the stories and interactions. In almost two years, I've only had two people ever say Hi on Discord than never reply, like the OP mentioned. I don't find it to be a common problem. I've had fewer outright ghostings on Discord. I've had a lot of vague pauses that turned out to be permanent, but they were courteous enough to not leave me twiddling my thumbs. I think Discord, having many uses, is a place people will keep returning to even if they're not RPing, so it's a reminder to be polite. When you stop RPing, you just never go to that forum again. Out of sight out of mind. I'll also add to every other testimony to Discord's superior organization. The servers and channels are a godsend. I love it. It's so standard, with new partners, we just set everything up almost the same, and everyone knows what's going on. It's so great. As for post length, it's occasionally annoying, but it usually only catches me on intro posts or if I'm really GMing a big scene. It's a small price to pay for likely getting a response in 5 minutes.

As for the downsides of Discord, I'm not into all the forum styling, so it's not a problem. I'm an interactive designer, and my aesthetic/structural standards are on a professional level, which isn't gonna happen on RP forums with bb code, nor do I feel a need to do it with literature. Italic/bold is fine for me on Discord. I will say that trying to find partners on Discord is horrific. I've spent short periods of time on a lot of open RP servers, and it's just a mess. The forum RT style is far superior. The Discord ad channels are usually haphazard and inconsistent and just littered with red flags. I only ever felt like contacting one person I found on Discord, ever. It was weird, and he told me he didn't know how to play if we were sharing control of NPCs. ugh At least we only got 2 posts in before he had that realization.

Forums also have moods and moderation staff. Those are mixed bags. I do like some legal standards and not seeing underage ads everywhere. But other than that, my anxiety disorder has been triggered plenty when some mod speaks to me like forgetting a nuance of their unique policy that I read a year ago that isn't on the 4 other forums I frequent was me personally attacking them. No fear of that on Discord. It's just me and my partner. Also, the lack of being able to truly Block on xenForo forums is a huge problem. I'm tired of seeing staff everywhere reminding people of the Ignore function. It's not the same. My exact fear was realized here when someone I'd Ignored was posting crap on my profile. Another partner noticed and told me. With my career in UX, I have pretty high standards and strong opinions about prioritizing the users' experience on any platform. At least on Discord, the creep who sent me unsolicited nudes is blocked, and he can't ever see when I'm online, who I'm talking to, or leave bags of poo on my virtual front porch.

So, in the end, I'm old, but I adapted. I still prefer chatting and the venue that supports that the best, but longer forum posting also has its place, and I've grown accustomed to it. I'll keep looking for partners on forums, even if we move to Discord. And I'm gonna respect myself and stick to the 'public community' of threads or the intimacy of Discord, and avoid the secrecy of PMs.