Discord INVITES and Rule #12

Hey Everyone!

Let’s get down to business…

Rule 12

I created this rule hastily in an effort to quell a very heated “discussion”. The blame should be placed squarely on my shoulders. I decided to create a blanket rule while I gave myself some time to think about exactly how I wanted to handle similar situations moving forward.
I didn’t communicate my thought process to you well on this. That’s my fault.

Currently, this Discord isn’t super active. We have 3000ish members, and a very small number are active. This means that it’s actually possible to keep an eye on resource recommendations, Discord invites, and more. I’ve ALWAYS been a fan of sharing resources here, even resources that directly “compete” with me (though I don’t really think of it as competition, more so looking at things from a different direction).
Because of that, I think that sharing Discord servers that may fulfill a need that this server does NOT is probably a good thing.

BUT, this server may not ALWAYS be small. I have seen, in this server as well as others, individuals spamming discord servers, bots that promote scam servers, etc quite frequently. The difference between a link to a resource, website, or a YouTube channel is that you click, you look, and you’re never bothered by it again unless you wish to visit again. How many of you, on the other hand, have more than 5, 10, 15? Discord servers over on the left hand side of your screen with tons of red dots, which you haven’t clicked on in ages? How many did you mute but not quit, because the endless announcements were super annoying? 90% of the members here have done the same to THIS server, I imagine! Haha

Anyway, yes you can CHOOSE to click invite, or not, but from a MODERATION standpoint, it’s MUCH easier to verify that a website or YouTube channel is legitimate, than to join every single discord server shared to insure that IT is legitimate. At 3000 members, sure it’s not a huge issue. BUT if we grow and our moderators are joining multiple Discord servers each day to ensure that everything is fine and dandy?
I always try to look at things from the perspective of: Right NOW I can do this, but if it multiplies by 10x, can I continue to maintain it?

Furthermore, I truly believed that not sharing Discord invites on OTHER Discord servers was a sort of “general knowledge” rule. This has been a sort of unwritten/written rule of chat rooms, forums, YouTube channels, etc, since… well, as long as I can remember.

Imagine this: I post a video - Someone else comments a link to a video on the same topic from a YouTuber that THEY prefer. Now, I don’t care whether people like different YouTubers more than me. That’s to be expected and fine. If they find that a different video explains something better than mine, they should watch THAT video! BUT, isn’t it kind of rude? To go out of your way to share a “competing (even if I don’t think of it that way)” video on my video?

That is another reason I didn’t really think much about it when I quickly created the rule before bed one day. I wouldn’t want people sharing THIS server unbidden on other servers either. NOW, I understand that the situation which spawned this discussion DID involve someone ASKING for the server in question. Perhaps, in this specific situation, it should have been allowed, but we’ll get to that.

This is the point where something ELSE needs to be made clear:
In the end, every single moderation decision that has occurred here, I have PERSONALLY approved either BEFORE or very shortly after it was implemented. So if you have a problem with a particular moderation decision, you should be taking it up with ME, or now that we have it, discussing it in the #feedback-and-admin channel.

Recently we’ve had a few nasty attacks and ill will aimed at one of our mods, and frankly I find it childish. I haven’t DONE anything about it yet, because active moderators on every platform on the internet end up having to deal with such attacks sometimes. Especially when they actually moderate.

I have been VERY busy recently trying to increase my content output, maintaining the website, working on hiring to get us even MORE immersion content, etc, and just getting used to doing this full time. Because of this, I have let the Discord sort of fall off my radar a little. Our Mods, and specifically @iamOmgPhil, have taken on a lot of responsibility. He has been creating things that I personally wanted, or offering up ideas for new content TO ME. He has ONLY implemented new policies or features that I agreed were either necessary, or had wanted to implement myself for quite a long time. Once again, we’re planning for a future when things get much more difficult to handle than they are right now. If the server becomes busier, it will be better to have certain policies decided UP FRONT and clearly, than just reacting as we have up until now.

So if you dislike what he’s been doing POLICY wise, you also dislike what I’ve been doing. If you dislike him AS A PERSON, that’s possibly a “you problem”. Issues you have with INDIVIDUALS on the admin team should be directed to ME personally. Issues you have with POLICIES and RULES can be discussed openly in #feedback-and-admin.

Coming back to Rule 12:

I’ve read all of your concerns, and the admin team has discussed it in detail as well. I want to emphasize that the final decision was mine, and mine alone. So if you have an issue with it, take it up with me, or continue to discuss it over in #feedback-and-admin.

I have decided on the following modification to the rule -

RULE 12 Update
In GENERAL, do not post direct INVITES to other Discord Servers. Sharing the name of a server when it is relevant to the conversation is OK. If an INVITE seems more appropriate, either

A: DM ME DIRECTLY. I may approve of it.
B: If you prefer not to wait, DM the person asking about it AFTER confirming they are okay with a DM.

As always, I reserve the right to change this rule at any time I feel that the situation has changed.

We want to share as many resources as possible here so that people can learn Japanese as best they can, and as fast as they would like. But we also want to keep things safe and manageable, even if we grow to 10x our current size.
I ask for your understanding in this matter, and if you would like to debate it any further, please do so in #feedback-and-admin.

Finally, we will be posting weekly or bi-weekly discussion topics in the above channel so that everyone can have more input on directions we are considering taking this server. I would love to hear your opinions on these things, so that we can continue to make this the most welcoming Japanese learning community possible.

よろしくお願いいたします。