Thinking about +ves and -ves for IRC and Discord, when compared to each other.
IRC's strengths are in age - ASBot is designed for IRC (Although a port shouldn't be too rough), IRC is practically not noticeable in terms of internet usage, and even if one IRC server is permanently closed, migrating to a new server is not the end of the world. However, it's age also has a habit of showing - muting users is often difficult, the ignore function is dire.
Discord's strengths are in organisation and permanancy. As it stands, I am in 39 Discord Servers, and 189 individual rooms between these servers. Discord servers by nature are less accessible for spambots and trolls, and with practically no effort spam is non-existant.
A large amount of this organisational strength comes in roles. In essence, roles can be applied to users - sort of like applying a +v tag in IRC. This allows for the creation of private rooms without any hassle, but also allows for other things. For instance, rather than highlighting the entire gym committee individually, you can instead tag the gym committee role. Because the format for this is consistent, it guarantees that all members of the role will see the tag.
I... don't think I can see reason to not switch over, especially once the ASBot clone is complete. It will also help with membership retention - our target audience is primarily Smogon, and Smogon has almost entirely moved over to Discord and PS (We're the last IRC Holdouts). A Discord link is much simpler than an IRC Server + Room setup, and experience tells us that IRC is the easiest way to retain members.
Responding to Gale's points:
For a change, I'm agreeing with IAR with regards to Discord being a fresh start. I believe that voice chats will help there - I have always believed in the mantra, 'Remember the Human', and voice is the strongest step towards that.
IRC's strengths are in age - ASBot is designed for IRC (Although a port shouldn't be too rough), IRC is practically not noticeable in terms of internet usage, and even if one IRC server is permanently closed, migrating to a new server is not the end of the world. However, it's age also has a habit of showing - muting users is often difficult, the ignore function is dire.
Discord's strengths are in organisation and permanancy. As it stands, I am in 39 Discord Servers, and 189 individual rooms between these servers. Discord servers by nature are less accessible for spambots and trolls, and with practically no effort spam is non-existant.
A large amount of this organisational strength comes in roles. In essence, roles can be applied to users - sort of like applying a +v tag in IRC. This allows for the creation of private rooms without any hassle, but also allows for other things. For instance, rather than highlighting the entire gym committee individually, you can instead tag the gym committee role. Because the format for this is consistent, it guarantees that all members of the role will see the tag.
I... don't think I can see reason to not switch over, especially once the ASBot clone is complete. It will also help with membership retention - our target audience is primarily Smogon, and Smogon has almost entirely moved over to Discord and PS (We're the last IRC Holdouts). A Discord link is much simpler than an IRC Server + Room setup, and experience tells us that IRC is the easiest way to retain members.
Responding to Gale's points:
- I very rarely Edit + Delete my own stuff (Users can E+D their own posts, and I tend to just * my edits), but for a mod, the deletion power is useful in maintaining an atmosphere that's not harmful to the community. For context, in the discords I mod, I've never deleted posts.
- I think you've mis-interpreted Fort's point on blocking users. On IRC, you can /ignore a user, and you won't see their posts. But, since other users will, they might talk with the user you've ignored, which means you can't see the context of the conversation without using .log (Which not everyone has acccess to). Discord, rather than outright removing the post from your feed, hides it. So when they're talking, you can expand the hidden posts to get context.
- Discord permanently maintains a log, but yes, this includes edits. Setting up a bot to maintain original logs (pre-deletion/edit) has been done before without too much hassle, however.
- As a mod, Discord gives me a hammer to deal with nails - IRC is more prone to give me a sledgehammer. Quite often IRC arguments end with a mod enforcing a channel mute (+m), shouting at people, and then unmuting. On Discord, individual users can be muted and talked to, without disrupting the general chat.
For a change, I'm agreeing with IAR with regards to Discord being a fresh start. I believe that voice chats will help there - I have always believed in the mantra, 'Remember the Human', and voice is the strongest step towards that.
