Do FR servers you're in have vent channels and how is it managed? My flight has one, but it's becoming a little too personal of a space, but we don't really have active mods atm to keep an eye on the negativity and how it's used... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Idk. I'm of the opinion shared game servers of strangers don't need dedicated vent channels. But just wanted to know if that's the norm across flights lol
light discord has one and tbh its a really awkward space. people are going in there talking about wanting to kill themselves, there's one kid who is actively being abused and talks about it like its normal, there's people talking about how their intensive medical procedures....its a lot and super personal. way more than it should be.
Server I'm in has one and it used to be kinda :/ lots of people venting incredibly heavy topics in there, and you'd get it occasionally bleed out into other channels when someone was upset no-one responded to their vent so they go fishing for replies elsewhere in the server.
I think the mods realised they were way in over their heads with it and clamped down on that, saying they'll keep it open but to keep things in there light. Now its more of a "fuck I missed the bus, I'm gonna be late to my interview :(" kind of vent channel rather than "i am currently going through -insert heavily traumatic experience here-"
Wish more servers did that with their vent channels if they have one tbh. It's nice to keep the rest of the server more positive and focus stuff like that into a specific spot, but if you leave it unchecked it can be kind of nasty imo.
You can't let vent channels go unchecked without constant active mods like that. I would rather they not be in big servers of strangers. Only server it's been fine in is one I've got with a friend group. It's mostly about shitting on your boss/job and heavier topics don't get highly detailed.
I'll say I feel like there is a clear difference between a vent channel in a discord with your friends and in a public discord anyone can join. Presumably, your friends care to hear when you're having a shitty day or something is going badly. It's very different than dumping "i want to die" on total strangers
I personally don't like vent channels, but there is a certain demographic that feels more at ease in an online space when they can vent and feel heard by an "online community". They are very dramatic and will monopolize conversations in other spaces if not directed to a vent channel.
The vent channel is way too TMI and I don't expect people on the internet to give a shit even if the most heinous thing happened to you. But the people who use vent channels have no boundaries and an incorrect assumption that online communities are way more touchy feely than they are. I mute the channel.
having adminned several large discords with vent channels, the only tolerable server i adminned was the one without the vent channel, or the one that closed the vent channel. i think our online society has veered towards this misconception that vent channels are completely good or necessary to have in public spaces with this idea that everyone's friends, but it tends to be the complete opposite. gaming servers - or generally any general public server - don't have staffing trained or even basically equipped to deal with the things that typically come into vent channels.
i've had long days where i'd come online and find out that the entire server has been thrown to chaos because overnight, a regular chatter posted a big breakdown with suicide letter out of NOWHERE, and mods at the time were NOT capable of handling a situation like that in any way. i had to get on, delete the message, shut down the channel, contact discord, coach the team on how to handle things like that in the moment, do massive damage control where i was called various awful names for not appearing concerned in the same way as everyone else; all of this happened even with rules in place about what kinds of vents aren't allowed (heavy topics, suicide ideation, etc.).
i don't blame people for using these spaces when mental health services are just so out of reach, but i feel people need to relearn that venting is better off among your friends and closer peers who understand you best. this isn't to say we need to eradicate all public spaces of places to seek help or understanding of certain subjects, but discord is quite literally the worst of the worst at it, and there's commonly far better moderated forums or chat groups with actual professionals or trained staff who can handle these things much better and offer guidance and help.
I'm in a server with a vent channel and I think the only reason it works okay is because you're not allowed to talk about anything more serious than day-to-day frustrations. so you can complain about waking up to find your dog puked everywhere, but not really heavy-duty stuff. which is how it should be imo
partially; you owe it to your mods, too, and the community members who follow the rules. rules are just words, and they are very easy to ignore or forget about in the moment of poor mental health. we had a similar rule among others, locked down the channel behind a role that mods had to apply manually to an account after the user DMed one with a small summary of the rules in their own words (to make sure they read the rules, and also to make sure people weren't just stumbling into the vent channel), and even enforced a 5 minute slowmode on it to give people time to think about what they were going to say and prevent spam. did not stop the occasional bombshell.
tl;dr: it takes a village to keep a village from burning down.
What's tough for me as a newbie admin is that I had never encountered this venting obsession behavior before. So my first impulse was to give it space and console the person venting extremely heavy topics. I think a lot of people's first impulse are the same.
At the end of the day, I think rules are necessary because of the fact that these online spaces arent actually communities. Rules should keep venting to every day things. And while people (or maybe just people like me) respond with sympathy, the sympathy isnt real unless you know the person. I've had a person I helped during these vent sessions turn on me because when they realized I was assisting only out of obligation, they got even more upset. But I don't know them and can't magically manifest feelings out of nothing. Even tho I wanted to help.
you're completely right! rules are very necessary, especially for tense spaces like a vent channel, and even moreso when young teens are possibly added to the mix. the part that rules plays relies on the community working together, however, in the roles that they play. community members can ping or DM mods when something comes up, and mods can follow through to make sure that the space is following community rules for everyone while offering guidance where they can. rules work when everyone works together.
and this follows into your next point: it's not just you who jumps to helping. it's a completely normal reaction to seeing someone else in distress even when you don't know them. you might not be able to completely sympathize with a person you don't know, but you *can* genuinely empathize simply because you're both human, and you can reasonably understand that the feelings they're having aren't pleasant/feelings you'd want to experience similarly. that's usually where these situations start to fall apart and rules go by the wayside- people often jump immediately to help first and forget the rest. this isn't a bad thing, but it can lend to the chaos if it all takes place in the public where everyone can see and interact.
imaginably, you did what you could with what mental bandwidth and experience you had. we're not always equipped to deal with that kind of situation coming out of nowhere, from people who we don't know well enough to give the help they need. they were in a vulnerable place, probably dealing with things out of your wheelhouse. it sucks, but they are responsible for their feelings and expressions. the best you can do is your best.
From my experience as well, vent channels just aren't worth it, unless you're prepared to moderate it heavily and warn people/delete posts constantly etc server members WILL vent about extremely heavy topics. A set of rules asking members to keep it to simple day-to-day grievances pretty please isn't enough and also not really what people want out of a vent channel anyway. If your kitchen appliance breaks you can honestly just complain about it in the general chat and no one will care, a vent channel isn't necessary for that imo. Iirc FR staff also doesn't want you to have a dedicated vent channel in your discord servers if you're advertising it on the forums, even if you claim that the heavy stuff isn't allowed you're just better off not having one at all for the sake of yourself/the mod team, your members, and the site rules
as stated by aeq in september 2022, "all links posted anywhere a player can enter text on our website must adhere to [flight rising's] Terms of Use or Rules & Policies" (https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/fl8/3107585/22#post_52241377).
this means that to post discord links on the site have to follow their TOS or can be edited out or deleted by staff if they want (the discord doesn't have to get rid of the vent channel since FR staff have no say in that, but must NOT have one if they want to advertise it on FR) in accordance with this Forum Etiquette section:
"Do not post “vent,” “pet peeve,” or “unpopular opinion” threads"
as channels are technically threads (though antiquated, as threads are a function now), vent channels on a server would make them no longer advertiseable on FR.
I think you are reading the intent of the rules wrong there. Otherwise, I could get every single FR discord I'm in that was linked on the site in trouble because they all have something not allowed on the forums, like politics and current events channels as an example.
Can I have an example that isn't something like light's porn channel? Because that's the only thing I can think of, and there's a vast difference between a porn channel a lying kid can sneak into and a vent channel.
Fire had an 18+ chat a few years ago. Not much went on in there actually, mainly just people mentioning alcohol or more adult themed vents like work or whatever, but I do vividly remember someone saying that he had a dream about his skydancer and his imp having sex lmao
I remember that lmao. Glad that chat isn't in the server anymore but yeah it literally was 99% normal adult conversation... and then that guy was the remaining percent
Staff can't stop a discord from existing, FR discords can have whatever channels they want, but if they're linked on site then you could report whoever is sharing the links and get them in trouble for that.
If your FR discord is allowing/encouraging posting any sort of content that will get deleted on the forums, you can't link it, and many common vent topics fall under that category, being current events, politics, abuse, death, mental illness/medical stuff, etc. Staff won't go into the discord and demand certain channels to be deleted, but they'll remove the links to it on site and whoever posted the links will probably get warned.
Similarly, if your discord allows the use of swear words that would get censored on site, they wouldn't want you to link it for that reason either.
However, when it comes to lighter topics that staff may consider unwelcome / spam on their on forum but aren't inherently unfit for FR's audience such as "unpopular opinions" and "pet peeves", I highly doubt staff will care if your server allows people to bring those topics up. They're gonna be much more worried about whether you're inviting discussion about emotionally heavy/adult topics on your server than if you're letting someone's "pet peeve" slide.
yeah, you actually could, because FR staff will delete links on the forums that redirect to discords containing content that isn't allowed on FR. it's not really getting the discord "in trouble" in the traditional sense because like i said, staff has no say on what goes on in the discord, but removing links (which is a form of advertisement) is within their ability.
all you have to do is report the post with the discord link. if it doesn't get reported, staff isn't omniscient and won't take action, which is why it goes under the radar most likely.
Honestly, I'm glad my flight doesn't have one anymore.
When I was a kid and I didn't know any better (and had no support system), I was one of those kids who was way too personal in the vent channel. I regret it a lot-- it wasn't helpful for me, and it wasn't good to the people around me.
It just isn't the time and place for it. The average flight rising server member is not equipped to respond to (serious) vents in a productive and healthy way, even if they have the best intentions.
There's something to be said for community mental health and social support networks, but vent channels are not that and I can see that clearly now that I'm an adult and looking back in hindsight.
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Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-14 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 12:15 am (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 02:49 am (UTC)(link)I think the mods realised they were way in over their heads with it and clamped down on that, saying they'll keep it open but to keep things in there light. Now its more of a "fuck I missed the bus, I'm gonna be late to my interview :(" kind of vent channel rather than "i am currently going through -insert heavily traumatic experience here-"
Wish more servers did that with their vent channels if they have one tbh. It's nice to keep the rest of the server more positive and focus stuff like that into a specific spot, but if you leave it unchecked it can be kind of nasty imo.
+1
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 12:27 pm (UTC)(link)Re: +1
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)The vent channel is way too TMI and I don't expect people on the internet to give a shit even if the most heinous thing happened to you. But the people who use vent channels have no boundaries and an incorrect assumption that online communities are way more touchy feely than they are. I mute the channel.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)i've had long days where i'd come online and find out that the entire server has been thrown to chaos because overnight, a regular chatter posted a big breakdown with suicide letter out of NOWHERE, and mods at the time were NOT capable of handling a situation like that in any way. i had to get on, delete the message, shut down the channel, contact discord, coach the team on how to handle things like that in the moment, do massive damage control where i was called various awful names for not appearing concerned in the same way as everyone else; all of this happened even with rules in place about what kinds of vents aren't allowed (heavy topics, suicide ideation, etc.).
i don't blame people for using these spaces when mental health services are just so out of reach, but i feel people need to relearn that venting is better off among your friends and closer peers who understand you best. this isn't to say we need to eradicate all public spaces of places to seek help or understanding of certain subjects, but discord is quite literally the worst of the worst at it, and there's commonly far better moderated forums or chat groups with actual professionals or trained staff who can handle these things much better and offer guidance and help.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-15 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-16 02:33 am (UTC)(link)partially; you owe it to your mods, too, and the community members who follow the rules. rules are just words, and they are very easy to ignore or forget about in the moment of poor mental health. we had a similar rule among others, locked down the channel behind a role that mods had to apply manually to an account after the user DMed one with a small summary of the rules in their own words (to make sure they read the rules, and also to make sure people weren't just stumbling into the vent channel), and even enforced a 5 minute slowmode on it to give people time to think about what they were going to say and prevent spam. did not stop the occasional bombshell.
tl;dr: it takes a village to keep a village from burning down.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-16 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)At the end of the day, I think rules are necessary because of the fact that these online spaces arent actually communities. Rules should keep venting to every day things. And while people (or maybe just people like me) respond with sympathy, the sympathy isnt real unless you know the person. I've had a person I helped during these vent sessions turn on me because when they realized I was assisting only out of obligation, they got even more upset. But I don't know them and can't magically manifest feelings out of nothing. Even tho I wanted to help.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-16 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)you're completely right! rules are very necessary, especially for tense spaces like a vent channel, and even moreso when young teens are possibly added to the mix. the part that rules plays relies on the community working together, however, in the roles that they play. community members can ping or DM mods when something comes up, and mods can follow through to make sure that the space is following community rules for everyone while offering guidance where they can. rules work when everyone works together.
and this follows into your next point: it's not just you who jumps to helping. it's a completely normal reaction to seeing someone else in distress even when you don't know them. you might not be able to completely sympathize with a person you don't know, but you *can* genuinely empathize simply because you're both human, and you can reasonably understand that the feelings they're having aren't pleasant/feelings you'd want to experience similarly. that's usually where these situations start to fall apart and rules go by the wayside- people often jump immediately to help first and forget the rest. this isn't a bad thing, but it can lend to the chaos if it all takes place in the public where everyone can see and interact.
imaginably, you did what you could with what mental bandwidth and experience you had. we're not always equipped to deal with that kind of situation coming out of nowhere, from people who we don't know well enough to give the help they need. they were in a vulnerable place, probably dealing with things out of your wheelhouse. it sucks, but they are responsible for their feelings and expressions. the best you can do is your best.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-19 12:05 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-19 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-19 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)as stated by aeq in september 2022, "all links posted anywhere a player can enter text on our website must adhere to [flight rising's] Terms of Use or Rules & Policies" (https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/fl8/3107585/22#post_52241377).
this means that to post discord links on the site have to follow their TOS or can be edited out or deleted by staff if they want (the discord doesn't have to get rid of the vent channel since FR staff have no say in that, but must NOT have one if they want to advertise it on FR) in accordance with this Forum Etiquette section:
"Do not post “vent,” “pet peeve,” or “unpopular opinion” threads"
as channels are technically threads (though antiquated, as threads are a function now), vent channels on a server would make them no longer advertiseable on FR.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-19 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-19 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-19 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-20 04:06 am (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-24 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-24 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)I remember that lmao. Glad that chat isn't in the server anymore but yeah it literally was 99% normal adult conversation... and then that guy was the remaining percent
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-24 12:52 pm (UTC)(link)If your FR discord is allowing/encouraging posting any sort of content that will get deleted on the forums, you can't link it, and many common vent topics fall under that category, being current events, politics, abuse, death, mental illness/medical stuff, etc. Staff won't go into the discord and demand certain channels to be deleted, but they'll remove the links to it on site and whoever posted the links will probably get warned.
Similarly, if your discord allows the use of swear words that would get censored on site, they wouldn't want you to link it for that reason either.
However, when it comes to lighter topics that staff may consider unwelcome / spam on their on forum but aren't inherently unfit for FR's audience such as "unpopular opinions" and "pet peeves", I highly doubt staff will care if your server allows people to bring those topics up. They're gonna be much more worried about whether you're inviting discussion about emotionally heavy/adult topics on your server than if you're letting someone's "pet peeve" slide.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-26 01:51 am (UTC)(link)yeah, you actually could, because FR staff will delete links on the forums that redirect to discords containing content that isn't allowed on FR. it's not really getting the discord "in trouble" in the traditional sense because like i said, staff has no say on what goes on in the discord, but removing links (which is a form of advertisement) is within their ability.
all you have to do is report the post with the discord link. if it doesn't get reported, staff isn't omniscient and won't take action, which is why it goes under the radar most likely.
Re: Vent Channels on Discord
(Anonymous) 2024-05-21 03:59 am (UTC)(link)When I was a kid and I didn't know any better (and had no support system), I was one of those kids who was way too personal in the vent channel. I regret it a lot-- it wasn't helpful for me, and it wasn't good to the people around me.
It just isn't the time and place for it. The average flight rising server member is not equipped to respond to (serious) vents in a productive and healthy way, even if they have the best intentions.
There's something to be said for community mental health and social support networks, but vent channels are not that and I can see that clearly now that I'm an adult and looking back in hindsight.