Discuss Discordatwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019 39DiscordHow do I find interesting
servers?
As well as keeping aneye outfor
invitations on social media,websites such
as Reddit and in emails,you can browse
Discord’s server directoryby clicking the
magnifying glass in the left-handcolumn
of the interface. Discordstarts by
showingyou some popular servers and
communitiesyou mightconsider joining,
including details of how many members
each has and how many are currently
online.You can also searchfor a game,
e-sportsteam, artist orkeyword.
Hovering over a result letsyou view the
server and join it.
Do all servers look the same?
No. You can customise your server and
give it a leg upby using boosts.Every
Nitro subscriber gets one of theseto use
wherever they like(see the boxout
above). A server with two boostsreceives
an extra 50 emoji slots, 128Kbps audio
quality, a custom invitation background
and an animated server icon. Meanwhile,
10 server boosts adds more emoji slots,
doubles the audio quality,raises the file-
size limit from 8MBto 50MB and letsyou
add a server banner.For 50 server
boosts, Discord hands out anextra 100
emoji slots, 384Kbps audio quality,a
vanity URL and a 100MB upload limit.
Are there third-party
servers, too?
What? You want even more? Okay, try
typing a search query into Disboard
(disboard.org), andyou’ll see
recommendations along with the ability
to select tags such as music, art and
anime. Users of this siteeven go sofar as
to review servers, which can save yo u a
lot of time, while anything deemed “not
safe for work” (NSFW) is flagged.
DiscordMe (discord.me) has a separate
sectionfor adultcontent, and people can
also payto promote their servers, which
can push some “interesting”content
toward s the top.Is there a lot of dodgycontent?
Discord isn’t short of it, that’s for sur e.
The service hit the headlines last month
when a NewYork man named Brandon
Clark murdered 17-year-old Bianca Devins
and posted photos of her dead body on
the messaging platform. BBC Radio 4’s
File on 4programme alsorevealed that
criminals use searchablecode words to
pointto closed groups before using peer-
to-peer encryption in serversto advertise
stolen financial data, drugs and indecent
images. On a political level, Discord has
been popular with alt-right movements.Oh dear. What is Discord
doing about this?
Discord has shut down many servers but
it sa ys those that violate its terms and
conditions make up a tiny percentage.The sharing of non-consensual
pornography is prohibited, as are
violent and gory images, and it hasa
‘Trust and Safety’ policy thatextends to
cyberbullying.The platform does allow
consensual pornography andcontent
that it admits “might be okfor you but
unsuitablefor others”, however, which
means that as with anything online,you
needto tread carefully.
Avoid givingawayyour private details
in a chat unlessyou’re comfortable with
the people in it. Ifyou receive an
invitation, take timeto co nsider who sent
it beforeyou ac cept.Does Discordwork
with other apps?
Anyone who sets up a server can also
use arange of automated users called
bots (discordapp.com/streamkit). Coded
in Ja vaScript, these handytools integrate
with other big-name services such as
Patreon,Twitch andYouTube.They can
also help withcommunity and server
management and letyou keep aneye on
your Discord chats whileyou’re away.
Third-party bots areavailable from
reputable directories such as
discordbots.organdbots.ondiscord.xyz.But how involved do
people become?
Like any social-media platform, Discord
has many devoted fans who use the
serviceevery day. When a Cloudflare
outage crashed Discordat the start of
July, one usertook to Twitter with the
message: “I’mtoo lonelyfor Discordto
be down”. Users must be 13 or older.IS THERE A PAID-FOR DISCORD?Discord offers a premium
service called Discord Nitro,
which has two levels. For
$4.99 (£4.10) per month or
$49.99 (£41) peryear, Nitro
Classic givesyou perks that
enhanceyour chat, such as
higher-quality screen
sharing, larger file-size limits
for uploads and the abilityto
upload GIFsfor animated
avatars and emoji.
The next level costs twice as much
but adds access to a library of oldgames, such as Super Meat Boy, Limbo
and De Blob.Paying users can boost and customise
Discord servers invarious ways
Popular servers such the PUBG game
channel have 180,000 members or moreYou can find further Discord servers usinga
third-party site such as DisboardNot all Discord serverscontain good, clean
chat, so it pays to be careful