Mastering Discord for Advocacy Groups: A Tutorial for Forward-Thinking Groups, Parties, and Social Movements
In the digital age, platforms like Discord are becoming increasingly popular for organizing and connecting communities, with over 150 million monthly users worldwide. This includes political movements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and parties, who are leveraging the platform's unique features for decentralized event organizing, volunteer management, and community building.
Discord offers a mix between Slack and Reddit, providing text channels, voice chats, and community management features. It's a browser-first platform that supports voice, video, text, and media sharing, making it a versatile tool for various needs. One of the key advantages is its almost limitless customization, which allows servers to be tailored to specific requirements.
Regular activities such as topical chats, polls, trivia nights, and movie watch parties help build connections and keep community members engaged. Bots can automate organizing tasks like moderation, polls, and welcoming new members, while simple tools like MEE6 and Poll offer dedicated polling solutions.
A well-organized Discord server can help a community feel welcome, stay informed, and want to get involved. Szikra, a Hungarian green-left political movement, uses Discord for internal communication and organization, and their event management heavily relies on the platform for coordinating large events with many volunteers.
Security is a crucial aspect when using Discord, especially for sensitive information. While the platform offers multiple layers of protection, its security depends on how it is used. It's recommended to keep invite links private, use verification gates, limit access to sensitive channels by role, create private rooms, and move conversations to more secure platforms like Signal or in-person meetings if necessary.
Best practices for setting up and managing a Discord server focus on creating a clear, welcoming, and well-structured community space that is secure, respectful, and legally compliant. Essential channels, such as a welcome mat, rules, introductions, and announcements, should be established from the start. Moderators can create smaller groups within the larger community for specific tasks, and it's important to have channels for self-introductions, general chat, specific topic channels, shoutouts, feedback, help, and mod channels for private coordination.
Moderation responsibilities should be divided among the moderator team, and it's crucial not to give admin rights to untrusted individuals. If a Discord server is attacked, it's recommended to temporarily disable invite links, use Discord's "Pause Invites" option, report the raid to Discord's Trust & Safety team, and take coordinated harassment seriously.
Implementing these practices helps create an effective online hub for political movements, NGOs, or parties, encouraging collaboration and trust within the community while managing risks related to moderation, security, and legal compliance. With over 30% of Discord users using it for non-gaming purposes, it's clear that the platform has a significant role to play in the digital organizing landscape.
- Political movements, NGOs, and parties are utilizing Discord's resources to organize decentralized events, manage volunteers, and build communities, recognizing its potential as a versatile digital tool for activism.
- Szikra, a Hungarian green-left political movement, illustrates the effectiveness of Discord in fostering social change, using it for internal communication and organization, particularly in coordinating large events with many volunteers.
- Discord's security features are crucial for sensitive information, necessitating the use of private invite links, verification gates, and limited access to sensitive channels by role to maintain privacy and protect against unauthorized intrusion.
- To create an engaging and well-structured community on Discord, best practices include establishing essential channels, dividing moderation responsibilities, and promoting a respectful and legally compliant environment for education-and-self-development and sports-related discussions.
- Leveraging digital tools like Discord dynamically allows communities to work together, collaborate, and actively participate in social change, demonstrating the platform's growing role in fostering activism and community organization in the digital age.
