Forum:CT:Archiving Discord discussions channel

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The result of the debate was support proposal. Master FredceriqueCommerce Guild(talk) (he/him) 04:57, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

Forwarding this on at least a decent portion of the admin team. This CT would affect the Discord policy by altering the server list to archive the #discussions channel.

A bit of history on the channel: it was originally created to serve as a channel extension to Wookieepedia's Discussions forums, from a time when Discussions-only Wookieepedians could not verify for the Wookieepedians role. However—Discussions users with enough posts now can fully verify, so that point is now moot.

The primary argument for archiving this channel is as follows:

  1. It is not used for its intended purpose as a Discussions-extension; frankly, hasn't been for years if it ever was. It does not produce (to quote the channel description) "exemplary Star Wars discourse" in any form, nor do threads from Discussions get linked then discussed there much.
  2. Which leads to the second point: what is it used for? Three things: one, which many non-admins may not be aware of, is that it's very commonly used for inappropriate, bigoted, or spam-bot messages because it does not require a role to access. Automod and admins usually ban these accounts and thus delete the messages/inappropriate links fairly quickly, so it may not be apparent that it occurs to the community; but it definitely does.
  3. In the rest of the time, the second thing the channel is very commonly used for is "argument spillover." When people are told to drop a topic due to it making other users uncomfortable, or if they want to continue to vent about it, instead of stopping in the channel the convo originated in—it then blows up in #discussions. In numerous instances in the last few months, this has resulted in admins having to harshly warn people (often when we get messages from other concerned users watching it unfold) that it's getting out of hand. This then looks bad since to all users who can only see this channel, it's essentially constantly full of ugly arguments and warnings.
  4. Thirdly, the channel serves as a non-specific catch-all. Most SW topics have a channel that fits its topic; canon, legends, spoilers, etc. Anything that doesn't fit gets dumped in there. All of our other channels can easily support our needs.

TLDR due to reasons both visible and some-not, this particular channel has become quite an issue for the admins who primarily moderate it, and then as well for the rest of the admins who don't prefer to moderate it but do step in when it's needed. As it serves no productive purpose and harms the site's image and reputation by what it's used for (ie not its intended purpose); time to go.—spookywillowwtalk 16:33, 9 October 2025 (UTC)

Support

  1. —spookywillowwtalk 16:33, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
  2. Entirely per above. It has far outlived its purpose and has been a venue that drags the community down. OOM 224 16:36, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
  3. Almost every day, I check that channel to see another issue or argument that's arisen from nothing, and we've had numerous people straight up tell us that the chaos in that channel has actively driven them away from either the Discord or the site itself. I understand the intent behind it, but it's become something else entirely. Cade GalacticRepublicEmblem-Traced-TORkit Calrayn 16:39, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
  4. Every time I see that channel's messages I regret it. It serves no purpose and the lack of barriers only serves to heighten how abominable the quality of discourse there is. Fan26 (Talk) 19:15, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
  5. Rsand 30 (talk) 20:03, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
  6. I want to apologize to those users who try to make this channel a worthy edition, a fun place, this is not your fault. And to those who appear simply because they have questions for Wookieepedia and are curious about its workings. I am sorry and I look forward to continued contact with you through other means Editoronthewiki (talk) 20:13, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
    • Worth noting that unverified-help and user-help would remain active for any editing questions new users might have. Bonzane10 Bonzane10-Sig 07:07, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
  7. Lewisr (talk) 20:25, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
  8. In order for this channel to serve its purpose, it would need around-the-clock moderation by multiple people, and that simply isn't possible. It's too chaotic, and people can still reach out in other channels if they have a question for the community or would like to jump into editing. This channel often just drives them away completely. Master FredceriqueCommerce Guild(talk) (he/him) 04:32, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
  9. Yea, this channel more often than not ended up being very argumentative, even negative in some moments, especially when comparing it to its spoiler counterpart. Bonzane10 Bonzane10-Sig 07:07, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
  10. Rakhsh (talk) 16:43, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
  11. CometSmudge (talk) 16:52, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
  12. Tommy-Macaroni (he/they) 07:10, 11 October 2025 (UTC)
  13. Ayrehead02 (talk) 23:28, 13 October 2025 (UTC)
  14. ThePedantry (talk) 00:45, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Oppose

Discuss

Rocket
  • Is there a reason we couldn't replace the discussions channel with a similar channel that is wookieepedian (or a similar role that prevents spam messages) only? I do think there is some worth in a channel like the discussions channel that would let editors discuss general star wars stuff. I understand the server is mainly built to facilitate editing, but i feel like this is one of the few spaces outside of #social where we're able to have any form of non-editing discussion, which unlike #social, we can discuss star wars stuff, which many of us are clearly passionate about, and it that ability to have discussion helps build out community. That being said; I also want to acknowledge that many spam messages and such are not good and clearly are clearly putting pressure on the mods, which I think can be solved by making a wookieepedian-only channel. That being said, I understand the argument issue, but that's still going to happen anyways, no matter if it's in a more specific channel or discussions. As it's said in this proposal itself, the channel is frequently the location of argument spillover, so even if the channel gets deleted, some arguments are still going to happen, just not in the discussions channel, and even if we're taking into account the line about "all users see the channel", then that brings us back to questionung why not making it a wookieepedian-only channel. I frankly think that there are other solutions, such as making the discussions channel a wookieepedian-only channel (or replacing the discussions channel with a channel like that), that would be a better solution than just deleting a channel that does have it's use to some of us. RocketLaunchJr1 Ever been to Ghorman? 09:00, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
    • I agree that a space for general Star Wars discussion for Wookieepedians has value. I do think the #legends, #canon, and #behind-the-scenes channels, along with all the WookieeProject channels, provide spaces for Wookieepedians to discuss any Star Wars topic they are interested in, and #spoiler-discussion still remains available for casual discussion of new releases. Master FredceriqueCommerce Guild(talk) (he/him) 16:15, 10 October 2025 (UTC)
    • Yeah. We quite genuinely have tons of channels, over 7 fold what the site’s IRC used to have. Also, Wookieepedian role users are the ones that cause those massive blowout issues a good portion of the time, so I genuinely believe locking it by role also does not work. What does work is stopping arguments that cross the line in their original channels.—spookywillowwtalk 16:47, 10 October 2025 (UTC)