A few weeks ago I ran a poll to get a gauge on how people were feeling about the Discord, its content, its moderation, etc. I left it up for a while to give as many people as possible a chance to respond, and around 80 people engaged, which I think is about all of the regular users. Now I want to break down those results and talk a little about the additions and changes I intend to make.
When asked how often they use the server, 66% of respondents said they used it daily, while 25% said they used it a few times per week.
One respondent never uses it, which seems improbable, considering that they responded to the poll.
When asked how they engage with the server, the split was pretty even, with a small majority posting regularly.
When asked about their experience using the server, 87% of respondents described it as Very Positive or Positive, with the remainder being neutral, and a single respondent being Very Negative.
I’m overall very happy with these results, and I think if there’s something I can improve here, it’s engagement. By improving other aspects of the server, I may be able to raise that.
When asked about their interactions with me, 76% of users see me as being very active. 9% of users claimed they haven’t been able to talk to me, which seems strange due to me being active every day, but those people are free to DM me if they’re not comfortable talking to me in the server for any reason.
The next section is moderation, which I was particularly interested in.
When asked how well the server is being moderated, 86% of respondents answered Very Well or Somewhat Well. 10% was Neutral, and 4% was Poor.
Respondents were overwhelmingly positive about the clarity of the rules, with 98.8% saying that they thought the rules were clear.
Enforcement was similarly positive, with 82% of respondents believing the rules are enforced fairly by moderators.
95% of respondents think that the community generally follows the rules well.
A related question was about people’s interactions with the community, and 93.6% of respondents believe the community is welcoming.
Overall, I’m very pleased with these results. As the main server moderator, a lot of my interactions involve enforcement, and that can skew my perception towards being more negative than is warranted. I’m relieved to see that the sentiment towards rules, moderation, and user behavior is generally extremely positive.
Next is a multiple choice question asking about people’s reasons for joining the server.
46% joined to interact with me, 61% wanted to participate in the community specifically, and a surprising 66% joined to see unreleased content. One of the requests I got in the comment section of the poll was asking for a more convenient way to see WIPs, so I will be creating a new channel in the server where artwork WIPs and other unreleased content can be posted and archived for easy browsing.
One of the larger pain points for the server, and something that came up a lot in the comments, is off-topic posting. Roughly half of respondents said that users often stray off-topic and go on tangents unrelated to the channel theme.
As such, I will codify off-topic posting in the rules and enforce it more aggressively.
The next couple of questions were about general community sentiment, with 80% of respondents saying they felt comfortable participating in discussions, 56% saying they thought the community was kind and constructive, and 38.7% of respondents saying they felt the community was average for an online space. 20% weren’t comfortable participating, and 5% believed the server to be unusually combative.
That 20% number is definitely something I want to improve, and I think we can get there with more proactive moderation.
Only 15% of respondents use the voice channels frequently. That’s only about 12 people based on the number of respondents. That meshes pretty well with the number of people who actively play together regularly, and while voice chat has never been a large focus of the server, I could stand to host more coop games and movie nights.
Moderation of the voice channels is extremely difficult, as there are no logs, and there’s no way to have moderators present 24/7 to monitor them. People reported rule breaking in the comments of this poll, but none of the moderators have received any related reports in the server, so please come forward if you have a bad experience. A minimum level of cooperation is required for the mods to do their jobs. Just because we’re not aware of something doesn’t mean we’re sanctioning it.
Some more multiple-choice questions now. There’s not much to say about these, it’s just interesting to see what aspects of the server people enjoy, and there’s more reinforcement here for a WIPs channel to be added.
The next two polls asked about Discord as a Patreon reward, and about server roles. These are pretty minor, but 86% of respondents believed that server access was a worthwhile reward, and everyone either liked the way roles currently work or didn’t really care.
The final section of the poll was a free comment section where respondents could leave anonymous feedback. I won’t share the comments directly just to avoid any issues, but I will talk about some specific requests and common themes.
- Making the server’s themes less suggestive or limiting access to the NSFW channels.
While I do appreciate the sentiment, doing things like NoFap in a server that is inherently geared towards pornographic material seems futile. However, if you’d like to DM me and request a special role that limits your access to those channels, that’s something I can do. Just keep in mind that other people can view your roles. - Condensing the current events threads into one channel.
The main reason I use threads is because I want those discussions to be opt-in, as most users don’t want to engage with them and there’s a high potential for rule breaking. - Confusion about moderators.
Some people expressed confusion about who has mod powers, and while it’s obvious to people who have been with the server for a while and have interacted with mods, you’re right, it’s needlessly vague and I will create a new moderator role to address it. That should also help to streamline reporting. - More rules/allowed content for the porn channel.
Sorry, but I just don’t want to have to moderate it. Right now, the rules are very simple, we have very few problems with people not abiding by them, and everything is confined to one channel. I won’t turn the server into a makeshift Booru with hundreds of tags and fifty separate threads for niche interests, it’s both unfeasible and not a productive use of anyone’s time. There are thousands of servers where your specific niche interest is celebrated, but if it has nothing to do with Pinwheel or the interests of the users, there’s no pressing reason to cater to it on mine. - Enforcement is too left-leaning.
Good, I’m doing my job. - Enforcement is too right-leaning.
Good, I’m doing my job. - I should be able to discuss [political event/figure] because my position is morally right/common sense.
No. If you can’t function in an apolitical environment, then leave the server. - Some users can be very negative or only bring up topics and share content as a way to complain or bash.
This is something I’ve noticed, and it can be a drag. There are times when someone will post a link to a book they don’t like or start a discussion about a genre, for example, and several users will pile on the negativity. The loudest and most persistent people usually prevail, and it leaves very little opportunity for those who feel differently to weigh in without feeling like they’ll face backlash. I can’t really codify ‘don’t be negative’ in the rules, as it’s very subjective, but I can do more to limit ranting and hateposting. I should stress that this goes double for amateur content. Please do not post things you find on AO3 or Fanfiction.net solely with the intention of making fun of them. This hasn’t been a frequent issue, but it does run contrary to our mission of encouraging and uplifting new authors. - A user broke the rules and you didn’t do anything about it.
If you see something, say something. The community is not huge and the moderation staff is small, we all have jobs and we don’t meticulously check every post. Several times now, people have expressed frustration about an incident without ever reporting it to the mods. You can DM us at any time, for any reason. We require a minimum of cooperation to moderate effectively.
I think those are the main points that were brought up in the comments that I felt needed to be addressed. We had an equal number of comments praising the server and its community, expressing how much they enjoy interacting with it, and thanking the mods for the work they do. Some of the biggest praises went to how helpful and supportive the community can be when it comes to creativity, and how the server creates spaces for other authors and artists to share their content and engage with the community.
There are some changes and additions I’ll be making soon, but overall the poll was very reassuring. I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who participated, and thank you all for your kind and supportive feedback.
