Say Hello to My Little Friend, Discord
A Community Builder Extraordinaire!
A Community Builder Extraordinaire!
Whenever I mention I’ve been talking to my “Taoism groups,” I inevitably receive questions and statements like, “What is a Taoism group?” or “There are groups of Taoists?” Yes, there are.
The Boy and the Yin-Yang
How Taoism Found Memedium.com
My own journey into Taoism is well documented above, but I left out an important tool. A secret sauce, if you will - Discord.
Discord is a social network, but the Twitter/Facebook/Instagram kind of network. If you’ve used the chat app Slack, then you’re already familiar with Discords usage and features. If not, here is the run down.
Users can create a community which is usually centered around a specific topic, like Taoism, for example. Once created, other users can join your server and chat, talk through video and audio, and discuss inside different channels. Originally created for gamers, Discord has broadened it reach into having a community for just about anything you can imagine!
During my cancer scare of 2019, as I delved deeper into Taoism, I began to search for any community where I could ask questions and learn. I quickly stumbled upon a Discord community named Tao-Zen Exchange which I’m still a member of today and help administrate. It was there I learned which translations of Chinese texts I should read, which text to start with, and ask questions without feeling stupid.
When I joined, the community had around 80 members. It now has nearly 350 members and contains years of thoughts, discussions, and friendly debates amongst the wisest people.
A few months ago, I created a new Discord community for my publication, The Taoist Online. I wanted to give the writers and editors a place to call home, ask questoins, and build a team. I saw how to big publications ran like a business, and I liked that. It felt like I was reading a magazine or a newspaper rather than just some online blog. I could learn about each writer and what they wanted out of Medium.
If you’d like to join, feel free! It’s not just for Medium writers or even writers at all. If you just want a fun community you can chat with sometimes about whatever you’d like, feel free to come by!
Here is the invite link!
TheTaoistOnline
Discord is the easiest way to communicate over voice, video, and text. Chat, hang out, and stay close with your friends…discord.gg