- Pronouns
- he / him / his
"Discord Is Hell"Written by HEM Tiberius
Discord is hell.
Discord is a continually-sprawling, impossible to regulate properly, out-of-control hell.
Discord is an overseas Europeian colony that is completely ungovernable, and so far away from the capitol that any reactions on how to deal with it are often delayed and "too little, too late."
Socially, Discord has created a culture where to be a part of Europeian culture, you must be a part of #EuroChat culture. It is exceedingly difficult to make friends in The Republic Square, or by playing spam games. If you want to form social connections (which too often become political connections) you need to spend an inordinate amount of time shitposting in #EuroChat.
Politically, Discord has made governments more aloof and less organized. While lists of goals are posted in Tomlinson, the fabled Cabinet headquarters now sits mostly empty. Institutional memory has become more difficult, with fast-paced conversations on private Discord servers replacing long-form discussion from years past that still provide our leaders with a framework of how to govern. Why did an administration make a certain choice? Why does a certain custom exist? Future governments may have no fucking clue, because the answer lay buried in some 12,000 lines of text in a Discord server nobody has access too.
Culturally, Discord has furthered a culture of popularity and cliches over substance and debate. Why bother reading through the threads in the Oval Room if you can just vote for the people with the funny jokes?
In terms of moderation, Discord is the wild west. Administrators attempt to do their best to enforce community standards, but there is a far-reaching perception that there is no way to create reasonable expectations without infringing on the Charter of Rights. And so we are left with either an overreaching moderation team that slowly slides into the political realm, or a completely ungovernable set of NC-17 chats that leave people uncomfortable.
Outside communication in Nationstates has always been a thing, but it has never before warped into outside communities.
The truth is, Europeia's Discord server — and all her sister servers — almost exist as totally differentiated communities to this forum and to our game. There are people in #EuroChat who only rarely post on the forum, there are people who I don't even know who they are. There are people who use different names between the forum and Discord. There are people who hang out in #EuroChat but couldn't name a single President from before Writinglegend.
Discord is sapping us of our regional identity and lasting power. Discord is creating a separation in Europeian society and culture. Discord is dark and dreary — the absence of light.
Discord is hell.