Note: If you want to stay up-to-date without the Discord chat, you can jump to Async Alternatives right way!
Discord has become the bane of DAOs. Especially when a DAO is still in the early stages, its members use Discord to coordinate and communicate. A few bots with crypto features, and you are good to go!
But new members often struggle with these Discord servers, especially when they got many channels. And the Developer DAO has over a hundred of them, and it's not easy to stay on top of things when you don't really know where to look.
In this article, I will try to make some sense of it all and advise on dealing with the server in a sane way.
Muting Channels
My primary way to deal with Discord is to mute everything, and in the first months on the Developer DAO Discord server, I even hid all muted channels.
Seeing fewer channels calmed me, so I recommend the muting feature as the top way to deal with the channels.
Dealing with FOMO
Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is a massive problem in the crypto space right now. People are making big money by the day, and things move SO fast; you feel that you have to stay on top or miss your lucky break.
When you join a DAO, things become a little clearer because now you have boiled down the vast ecosystem crypto is to a small topic you are interested in. There are art DAOs, investment DAOs, protocol DAOs, and, like the Developer DAO, there are educational DAOs.
You can't look out for all things happening, so focusing on something that really interests you helps to stay current with the news in that space. And nobody knows if "your lucky break" might be here or there. So why not wait for it at a place that is easy for you to understand or at least interests you more than the rest of that ecosystem?
The same goes for the Developer DAO Discord server. Try to focus, don't go through every channel and make sense of it.
So, let's be a little more concrete and check the actual channels!
It would be best to start by muting everything besides the #๐ฌ-general channel and then un-mute what could be of interest.
Let's go from the bottom to the top of the list because many of the far-down channels can stay on mute.
IRL
The IRL category is for small/non-official events in a specific location.
If you don't care about meeting people In Real Life, you can skip all of them, lol.
Scroll through it and check if a location near you is available and unmute it.
The Guilds
A guild in a DAO is like a department in a company. Each Developer DAO guild got a Discord category with many private and public channels.
If any guild sparks your interest, you can un-mute their channels. Each guild has a starting channel for new members that should clear things up.
If you're new to the whole DAO thing and just wanna "look," I'd recommend skipping all the guild channels and moving on to the next category.
But suppose you like to do something practical right away and are interested in moderating, writing, or developing. In that case, I'd recommend the exact opposite: Join a guild and focus on a project and then learn about the rest of the DAO as you go.
To join a guild, go to the #๐ค-guild-select in the Developers category at the top of the channel list and use one of the emoji reactions.
You're welcome in every guild, even if you don't do anything. The Discord has many channels, so we hide the guild channels until you join them.
Just join whatever guild you want, look if it's interesting, stay there, leave, no hard feelings if you just "lurk" everywhere.
Languages Category
You might be lucky, and a channel in your native language is available. Un-mute it, and you might find some people who explain a bit to you in your native tongue, which might clear things up.
Live Events
Here are many channels related to web3 events that (will) happen worldwide. Conferences, hackathons, you name it.
You can ignore them if you aren't interested in such events right now.
Other
Everything that isn't adequately categorized, haha.
#๐-books is for recommendations on books, mostly non-fiction if you can call anything crypto-related that.#๐ฏ-collaborations is for finding people to work on a project that isn't related to the Developer DAO#๐น-gaming for crypto games, play-to-earn, etc.#๐-gm for spamming gm, which is short for good morning btw.๐ป-jobs-and-gigs if you need money #๐ง -mental-health to keep you sane in the face of all the FOMO#๐-trading to whine about the last dip#๐จ-nfts for ... well, anything NFT related really#๐ฅ-shill-your-project to promote your latest pyramid scheme#๐ค-bot-command-channel to use a bot command, so it doesn't show up in another channel
I muted everything, but trading and mental health and only occasionally looked in the other channels.
Technical Discussion
This category might be the most exciting one for new members.
Here you can choose channels related to the crypto tech and ask technical questions about it. You might find some good souls that help you with your issues or point you to some resources to get started.
Sometimes it's simply lovely to discuss tech choices.
DAO Projects
Here, projects directly related to the DAO have their channels for daily discussions.
If you want to do something for the DAO and a channel name somehow sparks your interest, un-mute it and ask the people if they need help in a project.
Like with the guilds, working on one of these projects and learning the rest of the DAO working along the way can be a good idea.
Discussing or programming something concrete can also help get rid of the FOMO.
Developers
The main category, it's a bit of a mixed bag like the "other" category. So, let's check what's happening in these channels.
#๐ฃ-announcements is for everything necessary that every DAO member should know. You get them even if you muted this channel, so don't bother to un-mute.#๐ฌ-onboarding helps you to get up-to-speed in the DAO#๐ค-guild-select is used to join a guild. You can enter every guild, no gatekeeping here. #๐-introductions for telling people who you are#๐-ask-anythingโin-a-thread for all your questions, none of them will be considered dumb, and usually, members from the community guild will monitor it.#๐ฌ-general everything really, if you only un-mute one channel it might as well be this one.#๐ผ-show-your-dev to show your Developer DAO NFT image#๐
-d_d-events for all Developer DAO events. A bot will post event dates, and you can say you will attend and add them to your calendar, etc. The bi-weekly town-hall event might be interesting for newcomers.#๐-memes is for spamming your crypto/web3 memes#๐-learning-resources is for web3/crypto-related learning material; people post what they find online.#๐-boost-your-content is for your creations, the Developer DAO people who maintain the Twitter account might tweet about things you post here.#โก-creator-spotlight is like boost-your-content, but more for people than single pieces of content. Write who you are and what you do, and you might get tweeted.#๐ฎ-probably-nothing is notable news about crypto/web3, like burger chains using NFTs or El Salvadore using Bitcoin.#๐ก-community-improvement is your go-to place if you have some excellent ideas on making the DAO better, especially for newcomers!#๐ฆ-buildspace is a start-up that focuses on teaching web3 related skills; you can join their Discord too if you want to learn something.#๐ฅ-tech-events is for events that aren't related to the Developer DAO. Some get their own channels when they're interesting enough for all DAO members.#๐จ-report-scams to stay up to date on the grifters in the crypto space. This includes scammers on the Developer DAO Discord and general scammers around the internet.#๐-dao-polls is for small polls about Developer DAO-related questions that aren't that important, like what to call the Developer DAO conference, etc.#developers-voice-text is used to talk when an event (planned in #๐
-d_d-events) is happening. Some people will use voice chat to speak, but most will write on this channel.
I only un-muted general and probably-nothing. If you're not interested in bot spam or gm's all over the place and already went through the onboarding channels, you don't need the rest.
Rules
It can stay muted, but I'd advise you to read the rules and adhere to them. The moderators will enforce them to keep the community safe and inclusive.
This channel also includes anonymous reporting if you want to report harassment.
Summary
I only un-muted 20 channels, and I'm like three months in. When I started to mute channels, I think I ended up with less than 10 and later added them as I got bored or wanted to dive deeper.
Async Alternatives
There is a wiki with any information about the DAO, its guilds, and their projects. You can read it at your own pace.
You don't need to follow every conversation all the time. The community will vote the most important things and talked about on the forum in an asynchronous matter.
Also, we have a newsletter that is released every week to tell you what's up in the guilds in the DAO in general. So you don't even have to attend the bi-weekly town hall meetings if you don't have the time.
