I really don't think how the discord is run is really the problem though. A lot of discords will actually tell you what the channel is when you click on it. Like so:
You'd see more but I have the sidebar open. Lots of discords have simple channel names and you'll get used to it. Hell, I am used to my servers and I'm still never sure if I want to post in Writer-gen, Writer-only or Gen-gen. Just like on the forums, sometimes you're not sure which category is best to post in.
The discord and how it's organised and run isn't the issue to me, nor is whether people will use it or not. They're different platforms used for different styles of conversations and discussions. People prefer different things.
The discord can be as well or as badly run as it likes, my issue is that everything goes to discord while Tapas says it still cares about the Forum and is actively trying to force people onto discord. When was the last time there was a forum only event? And don't think we haven't notice Tapas now locks every post it makes because it doesn't want to interact with us here. Tapas makes a post and directs us to discord and locks the post while claiming it still wants to encourage the community here, just without every talking to us apparently. That's the issue to me, not whether it's a well run server or not, because if it's not well run it'll die naturally.
this specifically is a big detail that's been standing out to me next to everything else
like i keep trying to give the benefit of the doubt but it's really odd to me that discussion isn't being encourage in both places and merely ushered over to discord. like if it's something to do with moderation or staff of something being spread thin between the two platforms i'd feel it better for them to just be upfront about that than subtly/not so subtly trying to send us to discord. and maybe i'm being quick to assume what the situation is but it really just goes back to the whole transparency thing.
like tapas ought to know it's community by now and how for the most part at least we try to be receptive to things so long as it's been explained to us. we managed to work our way through explanations on tapas coins and then the transition from coins to ink, the addition of novels and so on so more clarity in the explanation of the discord and where the forums stand in terms of lifespan or longevity would be nice rather than all the smoke and mirrors we're getting now. like any time tapas has been weird about communicating things it's always had negative consequences so here's an opportunity to at least try to repair that by just being straightforward but it feels like they wont.
i will say it looks like the most recent thread for inksgiving is open but i imagine most chat traffic about the event is happening on the discord
My feeling is that Tapas knows very well what the community wants, but they do not want that community anymore. They are trying to buy time, so they can grow a new, less picky community that corresponds more to their new, very different vision for Tapas. And thus, get less impacted by the unavoidable, but probably slow, departure of the old community.
In a while, new users won't know Tapas used to have more options, more freedom, more postive feedback from Tapas. They will only see stuff like Tapas has a better comment system than Webtoons or such things. They will be content with it, not because they are easier to please than us, but because they don't know how it was before.
The community has grown too big to have us discuss how Tapas should run their business. They don't need to please us anymore. Tapas have taken control of the community and I would have done the same thing if I was running a business growing this big.
This is the new Tapas, where we do as they say and follow the candy they toss in the direction they want us and we are the ones pleasing Tapas in hope of promotion now.
It was fun as long as it lasted, but time had changed. Even this Inksgiving has very little traffic at the forum, that usual is where we all are posting like maniacs when it's on, but the post with the most traffic are the ones that gives ink for insta following. Even here we see how we are moving from the forum to other platforms. We are also changing.
Yeah.. a pity art is seen as a low quality product though.. the situation is like if a gourmet restaurant was making enough money to expand/open new locations, but decided to become a fast food franchise because it's more profitable, forgetting their success was due the quality, and that other bigger fast food franchises are there already. Not just a pity, a fully disgusting choice in my opinion.
That's because all Tapas' actual inksgiving support is on the server, and their pre-hiding the link promotion of the forum was that the forums were a place to promote, not a community, so that's how lots of the new members see the forum, meaning all new people see is promotions, meaning they think it's the norm to just promote. And the bigger names who are really trying to make a living have no real choice but to go to the discord server to get the support from Tapas.
This is the thing really. And like, the folder forum members skew older. We're not kids who're blowing things out of proportion, a lot of us voicing out concerns are adults. Actually adults, not freshly 18 years olds. If they simply said they were focusing on the discord because all the mods are there, fine. If they say they're phasing out the forums, sure they're losing the thing they had over similar sites, but at least it's honest. If they're keeping the forums, but aren't going to support them anymore, say that. I'd rather they give us bad news up front than keep telling us we're panicking and being silly and paranoid about it only to give us no reason to trust them.
It's like "no discord isn't out favourite child we love both of you" and then going "here, discord have the forum's promotions. huh? you want something forum? no, you don't get anything".
As someone who prefers discord more than the forums, I think this is a very poor decision made by tapas. They've got to understand that there are millions of people out there that still use the forums. In the beginning I didn't mind because the discord was relatively new but now it does feel like tapas might be trying to kill the forums. But I hope that isn't the case
Idk how creating a ticket works exactly, but I would think when they're asking you to provide details of your problem, you should be able to type and tell them the problem? Especially since that screen shot is them asking you to provide specific details. Or are you expected to contact a mod or put your problem in a different and then it'll pop up in that channel?
@KennethLopezJr921 usually that means you don't have the right role assignment though.
It creates a personal chat with support where you can write and add anything like in the usual chat, and they will answer there too. After the problem is solved, they close this chat and it simply dissapears. So if one wants to save the whole conversation for any purposes, it's better to screenshot it.
This is actually a very, very big problem. I've read some horror stories of people who were screwed by doing business over a service like discord DMs or instagram messaging or twitter DMs, and the problem with doing that instead of using email, is that if you are blocked or if your convo is deleted--it's just gone. Gone is all the proof of what happened. You only have your word that what happened ever took place.
So really, yes, there is a discord ticket system, but would I EVER want to use it over email? Never. Not at all, and it sucks because it sounds like the emails take so long to get answered that people are being forced to use discord in the same way that they felt like their only option was to make threads on the forums for tech support before.
That and like when we thread a convo on discord from the general chat? when we actually try to have a conversation like a forum? Turns out that after a while a thread can be deleted and then it's just gone. And for the most part, on big discords, they don't want to keep around threads forever like on a forum because they crowd space, so there's just no record of these conversations,. they typically get deleted after like half a day or once the convo slows down. If a channel you're talking in gets too slow, it'll probably get deleted, too. Once the inksgiving event is over--that channel which currently has a lot of activity and friends hanging out--probably also will get deleted.
It's very different from the forum because nothing really lasts.
this is why fast paced anything stresses me the heck out... but the lack of records especially pertaining to certain issues feels incredibly concerning. like i get convenience but isn't it good to keep records of past problems so that if the same thing or something similar arises again in the future there's references to go back to? i mean maybe they're keeping a log on their end but if not that's... :\
I don't know who's in charge of support on Discord, but the email support didn't answer before I tagged Victoria in forum and later until I went and filed a ticket on Discord. They answered really quickly on Discord, I must say, which is nice, but it just makes me feel like they make people go to Discord for this. Maybe it's because it's easier for them to solve stuff there, but like... Not everyone wants to solve problems with comic reading app by specifically joining their Discord for that.