Discord Survival Guide
You may have seen the words "Join Discord!" flying around for the last couple years. Maybe you’ve already joined and you’ve been enjoying the conversation or you’re new to PPTC, or MAYBE you’re still wondering what it’s all about!
Regardless of the reason, you are once again faced with the cheery beckoning of the instruction-to join Discord. We’re here to break down discord for anyone new to the platform or who gets cold feet when thinking about posting.
Discord is a media platform with multiple servers- ours being PPTC. Each server has different channels where various conversations can be had. PPTC has training, text channels, information, special interests, training, road running, trail running, and events & logistics channels. There's hopefully topics discussed that will pique each person's interests. These conversations often lead to in-person meet-ups and new connections.
From bird watching to book reading, Chicago training to trail running - there’s a chat for everyone and a community waiting to be found.
You can Join here and complete this form to be admitted to the great chat rooms of Discord. Recently, Discord has been introducing unique usernames to replace common usernames with unique ID numbers. Both are supported so you can use either type of username in the form!
Oh, hey you're here! Welcome. :) Now what?
There are a few tips that we wish we had from the get-go so we’re sharing them all with you now.
1. You can mute channels!
If you are looking to mute a channel, hold your finger or cursor down on the channel title for a few seconds until the channel pops up. You will have the option to mute the channel.
The menu that comes up when you hold your finger or cursor down on a channel title for a few seconds.
The options that pop up when you click on “Mute this channel”
2. You can turn off notifications!
Are you tired of constant notifications? Then turn them off by clicking on the bell symbol in the bottom right corner of the screen. This should bring you directly to a notifications page. Click on the three horizontal dots in the right top corner. That should bring up a notification settings pop up bar across the bottom of the screen. If you click on that, you’ll be able to adjust your notifications. You can then choose if you'd like either in-app or system notifications or not.
A step by step photo guide of how to adjust your notifications, compliments of Markup. :)
3. You can tag people
If you want to get someone's attention or specifically address them, tag them by using the @ followed by their username or user number. This will send them a notification regardless of if they've muted the channel or not.
How to effectively use the “@” symbol to alert others of a message.
4. You can create a thread
Are you having a conversation adjacent to the channel? Start a thread! (i.e. you are planning logistics for a race, but are unsure of the start line. You can create a thread to discuss directions.)
Threads are started by selecting a channel, clicking into the dialogue box and then selecting the hashtag with a message symbol over it. You will then be prompted to title the thread and send the first threaded message.
A photo guide to creating threads. Brought to you by Markup.
If you have any other discord related questions, email us at communications@PPTC.org. We're still learning too, but we'll do our best to answer. :) Or, if you have any other tips, mention them in the comments and we can add them into the post!
Happy Discording,
PPTC
Written by: Mike Grady (he/him) and Rachael DePalma (she/her)
Edited by: Mike Grady
Produced by: Rachael DePalma
PPTC is a diverse and supportive team. We want to celebrate the diversity of our club and membership. We welcome and encourage everyone to share their stories with us.