Ah, finally some active discussion on the thread. I'm caffeinated so I'll contribute a few sentences*.
* - we all know what this means
To recap:
It has been recognized and agreed upon that there is a need for improvement in staff accessibility/visibility. See: Col's last paragraph, every one of Alyssa's replies, and the poll.
The suggested solution and corresponding pros/cons so far:
Move [some] staff channels or create new channels in the public discord that are visible, so that players can see who is actually online (staff) and available to reach out to.
+ Increased staff visibility and reach-ability* (The main goal)
+ Encourages Discord activity all-around
+ Reduces unnecessary staff pinging/messaging (a benefit to both players and staff)
- Risk of clutter or confusion (if too many channels are moved)
- Risk of improper usage (historical precedent)
And a few points I'd like to reiterate for easy reading:
If implemented as restricted-access (staff join only) channels, people will not join for the sake of trolling.
Using Discord's automatic AFK timer, it'll be possible to reduce AFK mod presence in the channels.
^ From what I've read and remembered so far.
Edit: Not sure where to insert this, so...
"Poking" was a great feature on TeamSpeak, and the nearest similar option on Discord is @ pinging. But if we can't be sure that we're @ pinging someone who's actually online, then we're left with the less than ideal options of either mass-messaging in #staff-help and hoping someone sees, or bothering staff that we know one-by-one until someone's available.
My own thoughts on the matter:
The way I see it, the current situation is an opportunity. If MCSG can generate greater amounts of traffic and activity on the Discord, it will lead to larger amounts of players on the server, and in turn, greater inclination to donate for perks. I think of it as an opportunity to generate a cascade effect.
Everybody knows that big names attract interest. In this community, there's two types: Content creators and staff members. Right now, content creators are not the focus; it's beta, we all know that. Staff members, however, are not in shortage.
Right now, I imagine most of the player base is from existing, community-loyal members. If they see that their old mod buddies are online and available to chat on the MCSG Discord, they'll be a lot more inclined to hop on this Discord rather than their private ones - something that I know is happening, and is likely to be a much larger issue with Discord than it was with TeamSpeak with time, considering it's free to make servers.
To me, I don't even feel like the "Staff accessibility" factor is the main problem. My personal take is that the server is partially dependent on the Discord, and the Discord is partially dependent on staff presence + activity.
Meaning: If there's no staff active, then the Discord is dead. And if the Discord is dead, then so is the server. (I say "dead" but I really mean "less populated/active than it could be")
Ah, darn, I got into a discussion about the speed of light in Nitro Chat and lost my train of thought. Found out how time travel works, though! #Worth
But of course, it's not like the Staff -> Discord -> Server thing is a one-way street. For the time being, however, MCSG doesn't have the online playerbase to push back onto the Discord all that much and flow up the stream of my little cascade theory, forcing staff members onto the public Discord. And even if it did, then we're back at the original problem of: How do we reach the staff members, if they're on another Discord with DND turned on? (Not that DND is a bad thing to have)
Okay, well all that speed of light, time travel, Einstein's special theory of relativity nonsense has gotten me to forget what else I was going to say.
I'll finish with this:
The Discord has been around for almost half a year now, and I do think it's time to address the lack of visible staff presence. It's a different platform from TeamSpeak and needs to be treated and adapted to accordingly. There is no equivalent to
If the suggestion of moving some channels from the staff-only Discord to the public Discord is inadequate or problematic, then I strongly suggest finding another way to accomplish two goals:
1. Generate activity (both general public and staff) on the Discord voice channels.
2. Clearly delineate which staff members are or are not available, so that players do not mistakenly contact/bother unavailable staff.