What's the appeal of Discord?

[Blazorna]

I fail to understand the appeal of Discord for roleplays. Putting aside my countless failures there just setting up a roleplay only for my partner to ditch me without warning, I'm not a huge fan that post lengths are limited, as with the amount of roleplays one could do at a time being small. What makes it superior to some people to role-play there than PM?

No hate or anything here. I just hope to hear what others have to say, preferably discord users explaining why they prefer there more.

 

[Yoga Princess]

I use a computer and think Discord is more for mobile devices. Am I mistaken?

 

[Blazorna]

Not sure myself.

 

[Virginia Greene]

Discord is definitely usable from a computer. I think the draw is probably exactly the same as the draw for any other instant messenger - speed, you know when someone's online, and it's easy to send short messages back and forth. I don't use it for roleplaying personally, just OOC, but I feel a lot more comfortable sending a message that's just "ok" or something over Discord than I would if I were sending it as a PM because when I have more thoughts I can just send 'em off. I think stream-of-conscious messaging is more acceptable over any instant messenger as well - sending five PMs in a row as you worked through your thoughts would be weird and overwhelming but five IMs? Not really a thing to bat an eye at.

 

[Mlle_Justine]

When I started discord it was to have ooc with my former rp partners since my skype at that time was personal for family and friends. Discord is a sucky system for anything then one liners. That and I recalled having issues going over my posts for typos since it wouldn't let me scroll up before posting. Many liked it but the appeal to me was lost.

 

[MisterKing]

The thing I adore about Discord is a combination of convienence and server functionality. Convienence is fairly obvious; keeping chats synchronized and easily accessible across multiple devices with a slick interface I already use for a bunch of other shit.

Servers, though, are convienence turned up to 11 for me. A) The interface is way easier to use and I can bundle IC & OOC together for super streamlining, where on here I have to manage multiple threads that can easily get lost and separated (not helped by the new PM folder system). B) Because you can scale the size of the server to whatever you want, for larger RPs with big casts and lots of planning I can create dedicated threads for cast lists or planning the plot right next to my IC/OOC threads without the fear of losing them to a bunch of other threads/pms over time and having to manually search for them.

tl;dr: It's really appealing to people with OCD.

 

[Sophor]

For long now Discord has become my messanger of choice and replaced Skype.

pros:
-ad free, this way what pushed me away from Skype back then. I think it's better these days, but there was a time where there was moving, and occasionally even non-silent (!) ads
-stable and quality voicecalls, again, skype had some problems with that back then
-Perfect for communities/groups. Easy and vast permission system, you can organize channels, invite people etc
-server based group calls. Yes, Discord has Skype-like groups too, but also server voice channels. The later are handy for when you don't want to annoy every last person. Just hop in the channel and see who wants to join
-friendly company. Just have a look at their YT and social media presence, then compare it with Microsoft.
-public servers. Unthinkable in Skype, for example.
-Great screen sharing, used to be a big problem with Skype
-inherent dark mode
-no ads
-lots of options
-It's growing, an dit's growing fast, it's already one of the big players among messengers and it'll only get more popular

cons:
-Yes, the post length limitation is annoying, but only for long rps, it's nothing you'll even notice for normal chats
-The app is 'somewhat' tricky? But maybe it's just my general aversion for mobile apps.

 

[MisterKing]

Honestly I'm worried about the future of Discord. There aren't many options for it to monetize itself, let alone at its current scale, and plus it's laissez faire growth at all costs silicon valley bullshit means that its already got a bunch of skeletons in its closet just waiting to make the national news.

 

[Crepuscular Choir]

The inherent dark mode of Discord is great. I hate everything being bright automatically.

 

[Blazorna]

Thanks for the responses so far everyone. I can understand the appeal of Discord for chat and all that. I'm definitely a longterm roleplayer so I fall more into the camp for using Discord for only chat. I'm glad I'm not the only one who acknowledged discord Isn't ideal for longterms due to length. Still, I do wish we had public rooms on discord with no need for the invites. I understand that Discord is meant for private groups, but it sucks a bit having to hunt down invite links for a community server. Sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth.

 

[Sophor]

What's the problem with invite links? You should easily be able to create a permanent invite link, it's just timed by default for saftey reasons

 

[Varaciva]

I think the appeal of discord lies in the fact it is easy to juggle things back and forth, while drafting/micro managing early in a long fic. It's a decent system for bringing groups/multiple characters together as well, as it lets it be a little more dynamic if you get everyone in real time.

But for the most part is just another interface, and not one designed around RP. It's for short chats and the likes, so the post size limit isn't something that'll likely ever change, and the fact that it doesn't have that goal in mind, means for most people I don't think it ever will be the place of choice for RP.

 

[Sophor]

I love using Discord for rps, despite the size limitation, because you can organize things neatly on a server.
Make an ic channel, an ooc one, and one for resources, then reference images are always just a click away, this also works great for kink lists or inventory management

 

[RedRose]

I've never understood how people RP with voice. Do you just learn your text by heart before replying? lol

 

[Sophor]

By voice?
I do d&d in voicechats, but for normal rps there are text channels, discord has both

 

[Blazorna]

Yeah, but the invite system can be abused. Like a YouTuber I know who only allows thise who pay to join his discord server.

 

[Sophor]

Hmm, I guess this is about opinion, but I don't see it as abuse, it's like a streamer only allowing subscribers in the chat. Sure, it sucks for some, but it' snot like you have to get on that server. For me personally it's a valid system to avoid overcrowding

 

[Blazorna]

Most likely is, but I understand where you're coming from there.

 

[Chai]

Finding public communities on Discord usually means that they were a large group from elsewhere that created a Discord i.e Phillip DeFranco’a fans created one, the Facebook group “Subtle Asian traits” created one, and so on. They’re only hard to find because they stem from some other source. However you can literally type in “fun public discord servers” into Google and some of them actually do pop up. Not that hard.

As far as private invites, that’s not abuse. Server creators can choose whichever way they want to limit their exclusive content— for Youtubers or Twitch streamers that actively participate in their Discord servers, that’s a perk of being a paying follower. It’s not like you can’t watch their content and be a fan of them without the Discord access. I wouldn’t ask them to change that, the same way I wouldn’t ask musicians to give way VIP concert tickets for free, or cam girls to give me their Premium Snapchat for free. Would you?

 

[Melevolence]

My biggest problem with Discord is I hate the interface. A lot. I use it only if I have to and even in that instance I only ever use it to keep in touch with my local Smash community to find out about events, set up matches, etc. Yet even then it feels like Hell trying to get where I want to be on the site.

 

[Heavenly Huntress]

My significant other and myself use it to role play, speed is only part of what we use it. We also use it because it’s easier to dump pictures, get alerts on our phones when we have messages, have multiple chats in a single rp server for any number of things to keep in line such as side characters and side ideas to use or just to have 5-10 Rp’s At our finger tips on one server without having to scan through the clutter of a PM box. The biggest reason on there is we both use phones and get notifications when someone has posted.

 

[ElizabethRose]

I have found I enjoy using Discord because you can set up different channels for posting character bios, the plot to the story, the actual story and OOC. I like how it keeps all the information organized. I however have never used a thread to RP so my opinion on this is very one sided.

 

[afluffymarshmallow]

like many others have said, discord is great for convenience and speed. i rp a lot on discord (primarily, nowadays), and even though i've hit replies pushing close to 1k words, it has never been a deterrent for me. it's easy to chat alongside your partner and rp at the same time, and having your own private servers are also a pretty huge bonus for me. the character limits can be a bit troublesome for those who are primarily mobile, but i personally tend to write all of my longer replies in google docs and just easily copy it over when i'm done. as far as i can remember, any instant messaging service has inevitably been used for rp, too, and of all the services i've used in my years, discord is honestly the best one to double as a roleplaying platform.

partner ditching is unfortunately common no matter where you go, however. that's just a fact of life, it seems.

 

[Tinkerer Nadia]

I can post lewd art easier then on here as I don’t need a link, that’s about it

 

[ALazyPotato]

I use Discord for gaming, don't understand why people RP on there. Then there is also the matter of having to cut of your post in pieces when it gets too big. :/