Introducing the Discontents Discord!

We have big news to share about our private Discord server: starting today, we're joining forces with our colleagues in the Discontents media collective and welcoming paying subscribers from across our network of 15 independent, leftist sites into the Discord.

This means that if you join the Discord you can now talk with readers from all of these different sites, and you'll get special access to the writers and editors behind the Discontents project. (More on them in a second.)

We love what the server has become, and have been talking for weeks about how to build relationships between our audience and that of other journalists doing work that we love. You may have noticed guest posts on Discourse Blog appearing from many of these same authors in the past few weeks -- there’s more of that to come.  But we thought that this change, inspired by similar projects like Sidechannel, would be a quick and fun way to expand the group and build more bonds between other writers, reporters and podcasters.

Here's the new crew:

• Foreign Exchanges -- a newsletter about progressive foreign policy, by Derek Davison.

• Welcome to Hell World -- Luke O'Neil’s interviews and essays on the society that we live in.

• BORDER/LINES -- immigration news and analysis by Gaby Del Valle and Felipe De La Hoz.

• Trashberg -- Ashley Feinberg’s singular work in its new home. 

• Sick Note -- Libby Watson grapples with the American healthcare system. 

• The Flashpoint -- original reporting and interviews on the cutting edge of progressive policy by Eoin Higgins. 

• Perspectives -- a look back at history through a leftist lens, by Patrick Wyman

• Wars of Future Past -- killer robot watchdog Kelsey Atherton tracks the modern day techno-violence-state. 

• The Insurgents -- Rob Rosseau and Jordan Uhl’s podcast on progressive issues and commentary. 

• Air Gordon -- Jeremy Gordon’s blog on pop culture, culture wars, and contemporary society. 

• Cruel and Unusual -- Shane Ferro’s reporting and writing on the U.S. justice system and the carceral state. 

• Habibti Please! -- A podcast about underreported corners of the Muslim diaspora and the social movements it stands in solidarity with, by Nashwa Khan.

• All Cops Are Posters -- Katie Way’s reporting and reflection on the strange world of cop culture online. 

• And Kim Kelly, roving correspondent on labor, justice, heavy metal, and strong tea. 

All of these people, along with readers from their sites, will be part of the Discord experience, and we're planning some very special things, such as livestreams, roundtable discussions, regular hangouts, and perhaps… a podcast? (Stay tuned on that.)

If you haven't signed up for our Discord yet, it's easy. Just become a paid subscriber and we'll send you a special code that will let you in to the Discord.

If you already are a paid subscriber but don’t have access yet, get in touch with us at hello@discourseblog.com and we’ll send you the code!

You’ll be required to set up an account on Discord, if you don’t have one already. The desktop app is also handy, but it works fine in browser as well. 

If you’ve never used Discord before, it might be a little overwhelming. You’ll have a list of available chat rooms on the left hand side, and a list of online users on the right. In the middle, you’ll have the feed from whichever room you’re currently chatting in. Here’s how it looks now:

For existing Discord users, there will be some cosmetic changes, which you’ve probably already seen. We’ve switched the logo to a Discontents logo, and we’ve merged some of the previous room categories to make things a bit simpler. As we get a feel for how things are going on the server, we may weed out redundant channels (if, for instance, the labor convos at #workers-of-the-world-unite find a home in #kim-kellys-labor-corner, or Ashley Feinberg’s #trashberg opens its gaping maw and consumes #shitposts). Blog specific channels will be open to everyone, not just subscribers to that blog, so we hope you'll poke around different rooms and help build communities around our new partners work just like you have for ours.

We’re hoping to see an influx of new users coming into the space to grow the community through our partner blogs’ existing subscriber networks. Invite codes will only go out to paying subscribers for each of these blogs, so we’re expecting the community feel and shared politics to remain the same. As always, our @mod team and site administrators will be around to iron out any issues, and all new members will be expected to abide by the rules in #welcome-and-rules that have worked well for us so far. We hope you’ll welcome them in and show them around our little corner of the internet.

So please join us! Subscribe and let the fun begin.