Discord

This guide explains (nearly) everything there is to know about dicord.

What is Discord?

Discord is a community platform where many people can come together and communicate. There is the option to register, invite friends, join chats, audio or video conferences, and plenty of opportunities to store and make information available to everyone.

Why can Discord be helpful?

Well, for one thing, it can help us as an alliance to document certain things, such as registered absences. This prevents anyone from being asked to leave the alliance due to inactivity, just because no one knew they were on vacation. Additionally, it greatly helps in spreading information, like tips and tricks or event guides, etc.

The third aspect is communication. Especially during events like Operation Desert Storm, it is extremely helpful to exchange information in a voice channel about current happenings and to quickly and collectively respond to enemy actions.

How does Discord work?

It's very simple. The best way is to install the Discord app on your phone or computer. Although it also works from a browser, the app is better. Then create a free account and get an invitation link from the alliance, which will give you access to our alliance Discord server.

After that, you can browse through the alliance's content as you like and interact with others in channels. Each channel has a small icon that indicates whether it's a voice channel or a text channel (chat only).

Otherwise, I recommend trying out everything you can click on.

Discord Structure

This section explains how to best structure a Discord server and replicate the alliance's ranks in the game. Additionally, there are some practical tips to help make managing the Discord server as easy as possible. Let's first look at the basic elements.

Channels

There are both text channels and voice channels. These are treated identically and assigned to categories. The difference between the two types of channels is simply the type of content they process (voice or text).

By assigning channels to categories, the rights structure can be inherited from the categories—this saves a lot of effort in managing the server.

Members

Members are the be-all and end-all of Discord, as they populate the server with data and life and can access all information from there. Therefore, it's important that people are recognizable on Discord. If my in-game name is "Caraguatatuba," but I'm known on Discord as "Baggerfahrer27," communication becomes difficult. For this, Discord has a feature where you can rename any member who joins our server. This new name then only applies to our Discord.

Roles

It is useful to group members into roles and manage permissions based on roles. This helps keep things organized, and permissions don't have to be assigned per user. New members can simply be assigned a role, and they will get exactly the access they are supposed to have. Permissions in a channel or, better yet, a category are not assigned to a member but to a role. Each member can be assigned any number of roles.

Recommendation

Defining Roles

1 role (admin) for administration
1 role (R5) for the R5
1 role (R4) for all R4 members
1 role (Members) for all alliance members
1 role (ex-members) for former alliance members (optional)
1 role (external) for externals

These roles should be arranged from top to bottom, so that, for example, the R5 role can moderate the R4 role, but not the other way around.

Defining Categories and Channels

There must be a basic open channel where new members land if they haven't been assigned a role yet. These unverified members should not be able to see any other channels.

There should be a category for information where various info channels are arranged. This category should be set so that the Members role has read and write rights, and R4/R5 have moderation rights in addition. All text and voice channels within the category should inherit the rights from the category, so that new channels are immediately created with the correct permissions.

Another category should contain documentation, such as leader assignments or data tracking. This category should have restricted access, for example, so that members without the R4 role can read and comment, and R4/R5 can also write and moderate.

The last category should be reserved for management and only be visible and accessible to members with R4/R5 status.

Member Management Procedure

This should be an R4/R5 task that is firmly held. Here is the task definition:

New Members

New members automatically land in the Welcome channel without role assignment and without rights. This channel should be used to identify the person (matching Discord name vs. in-game name). If the person is identified and the Discord and in-game names do not match, the name on Discord should be adjusted. After that, the appropriate roles can be assigned (Members, R4, R5, etc.), so that the member status on Discord matches that in the game.

Updating Members

If a rank change occurs in the game, for example, from R3 to R4, the new role should be assigned on Discord. Conversely, if an R4 switches to R3, the R4 role should be removed. There is no distinction between R1, R2, and R3; they only have the member role (Members).

Exiting Members

If members are removed or leave, they should be updated on Discord. Remove the member role, assign an ex-members role, or completely remove them.

Reviewing Roles

Role assignments should be reviewed periodically. Ideally, this should be done once a week as follows:

Show all member changes of the week in the alliance log in the game. Check if the changes have also been made on Discord.
Show all members with the LNY role in Discord and check if the total number matches the number of members in the game. If necessary, compare with the list and/or remind in-game to join Discord.
Show all members with the R4/R5 roles and check if they match the ranks in the game.
Check if there are members without role assignments and contact them with the goal of proper identification, assignment of the correct roles, or removal from Discord.

I hope I could give a rough overview of Discord.

Have fun

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