For reference: http://tinyurl.com/ECCDiscord

https://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/discord-instead-of-teamspeak.152895/#post-855299
This is a continuation off of this suggestion, which was denied about three months ago.

"Gob, it's been suggested and denied. -1."
"Gob, you're beating a dead horse."

A lot has happened in three months. Here's my new reasons why ECC should use Discord.

1. The Merger. Jamie denied the suggestion stating that he and andrew didn't want to switch to Discord until ECC grows much larger. But as I thought about it, transitioning the community to Discord before dropping ECC into Arkham's hub would allow staff and users to get the bugs out before opening ECC to a larger player base. If we get 250 players active and suddenly switch to Discord, it will be a bumpy turnover. But seeing how dead TS is nowadays unless andrew is on, the switch to Discord would be pretty swift and simple.

This also doesn't take into account that about half of our current staff team has Discord and are added to the ECC server already... :p

2. Staff communication platforms become streamlined. Ex-staff as well as current staff know what I am referring to. Sometimes managing three applications (Slack, Skype, TS) for communicating with other members is tedious and hard to manage. Discord brings all of the best of the three into one: private calls (Skype), chat channels to tag work (Slack), and general discussion (TS). To add, staff are able to more efficiently moderate those in a voice chat because they're signed in already!

3. A second shoutbox. Any mod can use a simple "@here" or "@all" tag and announce something to the entire server on Discord. Crazy lotto in 10 minutes? Restart soon? A quick tag can tell everyone who is part of the Discord that something is happening.

4. No more tedious TS keys/multiple TS keys. Any mod or TS user knows the TS key process is a little bit...confusing. With Discord, you can add/promote with the click of a mouse. As long as the user fills out the same application as they would TS, any mod can quickly click the user into the "Allowed Users" group. And, once you are in, you're in! No need to reapply for a key for each device.

5. Better protection for IPs/personal information. Discord does an extremely solid job of protecting users IPs over Skype and TS. Just a nice feature for those who aren't interested in someone finding out their IP. 2fa can also be enabled if you are staff or a user who just doesn't want their account hacked.

6. It's free! The Discord server is hosted remotely wherever you wish...Eastern/Western US, Europe, Aussieland, wherever. Lag on NA-East? You can change the host to a different location (iirc). There's no cost to set it up, and nothing but a occasional labor to run it. Plus, ownership can be changed at any time. A decent-sized TS server (25-100 slots) can run you anywhere from $138 per year to $444 per year. And let's be honest here, how many people do you see on ECC's Teamspeak daily? That money saved in the transfer can go to custom development, advertising, or server costs. All while the Discord runs itself.

7. Responsive Support. Pretty self-explanatory. Discord has great service on their Twitter and website for support, plus their community can help solve most issues.

8. Bots! Users can create music bots, alert bots, and more. The possibilities are endless, as long as the server administration doesn't mind them happening :p

9. Getting in contact with staff. Ever wanted to PM a staff member, but didn't feel like it was worthy of a forum PM? Don't want to hop ingame just to ask a one-line request? Discord solves that problem. You can quickly DM a Mod (even if they aren't on your friends list) or tag a Mod in a global chat, and it will alert them. Ezpz.

It also tags along with #2. There were a lot of times on staff where I was asked to hop into TS to listen for whatever reason. As long as you're signed into Discord, you can moderate a voice channel. Even from mobile!

10. Discord is less CPU intensive (and battery intensive for you laptop and mobile people!). Discord uses less CPU than Skype and TS - especially TS. It makes all applications run a wee bit faster, and it also helps with your battery life if you are on a laptop. Plus, if you are on mobile, it not only saves battery but saves cellular data...all messages are stored locally!

TL;DR Discord is cost-efficient, streamlined, and would be good to implement /before/ ECC merges.

(Will add more if I see fit or think of something.)

 

Added points 9 and 10, as well as did some editing on other points.

 

There's a way to make channels private such that only staff can use them. Just do that with the respective Slack channels, then you'd just need one Discord server for the staff and players.

The private staff TS channels have already been created equivalently by @Videowiz92.

 

Looks like I misunderstood :p but another good explanation to add to the suggestion never hurt

 

https://support.discordapp.com/hc/e...do-those-colored-dots-next-to-my-avatar-mean-

This explains the Idle pretty well and the other hidden color, purple.