The great Arkode improvement survey
For those who are new here, welcome! I and my mod team run a programming community hub on Discord and welcome you to join. It’s a great place to get support or get involved with a like-minded community. Join using the following link: https://discord.gg/BmyQyZtpEB
For those who aren’t new, this post is for you! Over a week ago a survey was published on the server to gather feedback from our active users. While a little overdue, it’s now time to publish the results. I’m also going to take things a step further though and try to explain what improvements might be on the way.
Now on to the results!:
So overall people seem happy with the general direction of the server program and the partners who have been procured so far. The only thing we need to build on now is getting new partners to fill out our topic list.
It seems as though people are using the bot and appreciate its use. Below is a list of our Arkot commands for use in the next round of questions.
Overall the current state of the command list seems like a mixed bag. Some people understand the list completely, whereas overs have no idea how to use the list. This might be why some people don’t use them. I will have a meeting with the team and see if it’s possible to re-work how commands are presented (especially now we’ll be adding more. More on that later).
Here’s some of the following I will propose to the team:
Removing admin commands from the list such as $ping
Depreciating use of unused commands such as $most-helpful OR encourage their use through better promotion of the feature.
Reworking the trivia feature for better ease of use, or clearer command listings.
If you agree or disagree with any of the above please get back to me through the #feedback channel. As with the last set of questions, here is a screenshot of the $docs-help
The commands seem a little clearer to members, but not to new users. Again, I’ll have a word with the dev team and see if we can make things as painfully obvious as possible.
Proposed changes:
Combine some $help functionality so that all server functionality is made immediately apparent to people using the $help command.
Advertise features somewhere more permanent.
GitHub integrations are something that our team feels strongly about making work. Essentially we’ve set up an organization page on GitHub for people to create and maintain group projects. This will mean that as a community we can create software under a cohesive brand and support each other in doing so. All projects will be open source, but I am considering other licenses for specific use-cases (games are a great example of something that could be collaborative but sold).
Proposed changes:
A new GitHub channel for updates on any of our projects (commits, merges, etc.).
A primary project topic can be selectable and updates will also push to that channel.
An opening up of the Arkode blog post system so users can also make posts.
New commands for checking GitHub repo and user status from within Discord.
Following the feedback, I received from both the questionnaire and from moderators the server has undergone a complete restructure. It was long overdue but now complete (although feedback is still welcome for further improvements!).
Changes overview:
Socializing channels (both text and voice) have now been combined into CHAT.
Project-related channels have now been moved to COMMUNITY PROJECTS.
Category headers have now been made “AeStHeTiC”.
Numerous computer science channels have been removed or combined.
Channel names have been simplified or made clearer across the board.
Off-topic has made a return!
I’m glad to say that overall people seem to be happy with moderation (apart from one person 😥). As always, issues can be brought to any of us and we’ll deal with things as best we can. Automatic moderation is always super helpful, although it doesn’t always get it right We’ll look into improving this.
Proposed changes:
- Explore additional APIs we can use for moderation improvement.
Lastly, here’s a look at a few basic usage details:
It’s always really useful to get more of an oversight from our members and it helps inform the decisions the team makes. I’m really glad that most people would recommend Arkode to others, and I think it’s a great note to end on! As always continue to give us your feedback and we’ll continue to make improvements! Have a great day everyone :)