Keeping the Communication Lines Open During the Annual Forum Holiday Hiatus

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Some months ago I created my own Discord community for reasons that are now irrelevant. The upshot is that it’s now a small but active community of other Zazzle Designers. Since we are creeping up on the time of year when Zazzle traditionally makes these forums Read-Only, I thought this would be a good time to publicly introduce my Discord and invite everyone to join it. Discord never closes, it’s 24/7 live chat, so it’s a great & fun option for chatting, venting, asking questions …

I myself did not understand what Discord was until not too long ago when I was coaxed in to signing up to join someone’s server. Turns out Discord is just what old-schoolers like me used to call “chat rooms”. It’s just live chat. Discord is just the name of the platform. Then there are communities, akin to the main Z forum, that in Discord lingo are called “servers”. Then in those servers (communities) there can be different “channels”, which would be like the different forum sections under the main Zazzle community. My server (community) has a number of different channels (forum topics). if you already have a Discord account, all you need to do is click on my invite link to join my community. If you don’t yet have a Discord account, clicking the invite link will prompt you to create one.

These are the different forums (“channels”) on my community (“server”).

Channels.png
Channels.png240×487 10.4 KB

With a Discord account and clicking my invite link to join my server, you can read and post to any/all of them. If you join and click the thumbtack icon in the top right of screen to view Pinned posts, you’ll see more info on what each forum is geared towards. With Discord there is no time limit on being able to edit (or delete) a comment, and you can include images, gifs, and emoticons.

I have nothing to gain from this Discord, I am not trying to sell you all anything, it’s just a fun way to chat with fellow Designers, and it doesn’t even have to be Zazzle related. I just ask that, no politics of course.

*Also Note - while there is a Discord app you can install on your phone and/or computer, YOU DO NOT NEED IT. You can join & participate strictly from your browser. Which is how I use it, as just another browser tab.

Here’s the invite link: https://discord.gg/9hAEEHJR5c 
There’s also a link in my sig if you lose track of this post. :wink:

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@ColsCreations   I had no clue Zazzle’s forums will soon be entering temporary the “Read-Only” phase (I guess I had joined here afterwards when that happened last year) but I am surly glad you have created your server as an alternative Col - thanks so much!!

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They have traditionally made the forums read-only some time in Dec until after the New Year. To give all the Mods a break I think. Can’t know when (or if for sure) they’ll do it this year but I am expecting they will.

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Hi,
I received a ‘Creator Newsletter’ on 6th Dec, which included the following:
‘Holiday Hiatus’ - As the holiday season comes to an end, we want to thank you for an incredible year in the Zazzle Community! To wrap up the holiday season, the forums will be set to read-only from Friday, December 20th, through January 6th, 2025. You’ll still be able to view existing posts, but new posts and replies will be paused during this time. Thank you for making 2024 so special—we wish you a joyful holiday season and a fantastic New Year!

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@LynnRose Interesting - until Three Kings Day. Seems I’m not signed up for those news letters either, lol. Thanks for posting this here.

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Thanks for making the discord. I just joined your server.

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Thank you @ColsCreations  for setting this up 😃 I have just joined (twice - it went wrong the first time, but fixed now!) It will be nice to be able to chat even when the Z forums take a break.

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From the other server that I am on, I have heard that is very common for people to somehow end up with two Discord accounts when signing up, something maybe with the email verification part, not sure, I was lucky and breezed through it with no problems.

Glad to have you!

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I signed up after seeing your message above on the same day.
I didn’t get around to looking at the website after that, yet I got an email saying ''Discord is focused on maintaining a safe and secure environment for our community. We’ve found your account to be in violation of our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines. As a result, we’ve disabled your account for the following reason: Discord has disabled your account for spam and/or platform abuse. Our anti-abuse measures may have flagged your account for any of the following behaviours: etc etc…
So I tried logging in and no, it’s disabled. Seems very odd seeing as I haven’t even used the account yet.

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Just a head up, you did really good mentioning HOW discord works. But I want to also make a disclaimer. Do not click ANY links in any server unless you know WHO sent it or WHERE its gonna send you. Too many times p*rn bot accounts and scammers get into servers and drop links, start DMing links to everyone in the server trying to scam somebody.

-someone who’s currently in over 50 servers and sees this happen at least once a week to one of them.

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That’s bizarre. I don’t know why Discord has such a troublesome signup/signin process. But we do have at least two members who are much more experienced with that than me and who are willing to help you over such hurdles. If you are verified for Zazzle chat they can reach out to you there.

Hope to see you join us soon.

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My server is private, by invite only. The only way people can find it is if they stumble on this thread (or the link in my sig). These forum threads are indexed on Google rather quickly, but I don’t think that’s a problem. Odds still low of randos digging up the invite link and joining just to spam. [Edited to add: and if it becomes a problem, I can disable those invite links.] As is, noone has joined who can’t be identified as a fellow Zazzle designer. And if a suspicious account does show up, I do have the ability to remove/ban them.

As for links - we’ve been sharing a lot of them but we’re all fellow designer so no reason not to trust them. When you click on a link, you get a pop-up that identifies where the link goes, confirms you want to follow it, and gives you the option to check to always trust links to whatever site in the future.

DM’s (Direct Messaging) is different. From the way I understand it, other Discord members, if they know your discord name, can send you a DM even if you are not members of a same server. I am only on two servers but haven’t had any random DM’s. But absolutely, just like with Zazzle chat, if you don’t know the person, use caution and common sense.

Also, on another note: I have been calling my server a “community” since “server” sounds so technical. “Community” is easier to understand. :wink: However, I learned this morning that “Community” is what Discord calls a special type of server that IS public. To become a public Community people can find & join without an invite, your server has to meet certain criteria and you have to choose to do it. So I just want to make it clear that my server is NOT public, it’s not what Discord calls a “Community”. It’s just unfortunate that that’s what I was referring to it as without knowing it has a specific meaning to Discord.

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I highly recommend @ColsCreations  Discord server. I am having so much fun connecting in a more informal way with other Zazzle creators, and it is filled with so many knowledgeable members who are down to earth and SUPER helpful. It’s a true community. 

You should definitely check it out. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

CtrlZ Digital Designs (Amanda)

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Thanks, @Amanda23 . I think “connecting in a more informal way” really nails it.

It’s turning into a very pleasant place for support, encouragement, tips, advice, help, and just general off-the-hip conversation about anything. Everyone’s welcome, and we’re open 24/7

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@ColsCreations  

Thank you, not only for creating the “server,” but also for explaining what it is. I’ve been wondering for a long time what people are talking about when they mention joining a Discord server, but did I look it up to find out? Nope. LOL

Colorwash's Home

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That was EXACTLY me up until a few months ago. Turns out it’s just chat, and so easy I got the wild hair to start my own “server”. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I thought it was some sort of esoteric thing requiring 50 pushups or solving a physics problem in order to be accepted.

Forum withdrawal disease was due for a cure.

Colorwash's Home

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Discord is like the last 20 years of internet never happened. 

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No worries, I don’t want to put anyone off of using Discord, its an amazing free way to communicate with people. But people do have ways of making bots that jump in servers for the sole purpose of seeing who all they can scam, or post 18+ content. I was worried about that part since I know a lot of Zazzlers are older & these forums where people would be joining from are public. Beware one day you could have an angry customer join and they do not understand the server is made by and for fellow designers.

Other than that, as long as you know every person that joins. Or at least SOMEONE knows them it’ll all be fine. I think the biggest server i’m in has 11,000 people, I think your discord server will be successful but not quite to that scale. Lots of members complicates things, they have a lot of trusted mods to ban/kick people that break the rules the server owner has made. 

Something potentially fun you guys could do sometime is voice chat :slightly_smiling_face: Even newly made discord servers should have at least one voice chat channel under the list of text channels. If folks have a headset mic they can go into their (audio I think) settings of discord (google might be more help than I) look for something that says “push to talk” and you can set up a key to press when you want to say something rather than just having an open mic.

But you just click on the voice channel, and you’re in! To leave there’s a little hangup the phone icon and that disconnects you. I only suggest a headset with a mic because if you have a mic, but sound is coming out of your computer speakers, when you talk your mic will pick that up and make a bad sounding feedback-loop hehe.

Edited to add: There’s also video chat but it’s something you can toggle on/off. Its not necessary in any way to voice chat. But if you’re in a voice channel you can also stream your screen to discord (its not great quality but its free) and folks can join the voice channel and view your discord stream. Its solely going on in your server, its not being sent anywhere else, cannot be viewed again when its done. Could be a good option if folks need some hands on help, to watch someone walk them through steps in the design tool. Beware not to show your personal earnings pages and whatnot though, I imagine many folks me included want to keep that bit private. Would probably be best to have yourself inside the design tool or on that product’s page then start stream to avoid any oopsies

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I suspect @ColsCreations intends only to give us a chance to have an alternative forum, perhaps one that’s more relaxed. Voice and video chat could easily change the atmosphere, turning it into something more personal than perhaps it should be.

Colorwash's Home

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