Reorganization of BVA's Forums, Discord, and TeamSpeak is Complete!

[Evan Reiter]

Today, we're launching a streamlined version of our Forums and Discord (along with making a few minor changes in TeamSpeak). We've made these changes to improve the way our members can communicate, and to make it easier for new members to use the Forums and Discord.

 

Action Required for ALL BVA Members - visit the Social page of our website:

• If you see a "Join our Discord" button, click on it to re-verify your account.
• If you see a "Congratulations! Looks like you've already joined our Discord server" message, you're verified in our Discord. You should have the same access you had before. 
• Once verified, please use the Social page to select whether you wish to be notified (via an @mention) for things like ATC status, events, and more. 

With more than 400 members in our Discord who have joined over several years, we expect there may be a few situations where the authentication doesn't work as planned. If you have any trouble accessing Discord, please post here or send Szymon a message directly.

 

If you're interested in learning more about the changes, read on! 

 

The changes are based on a lengthy discussion we began with the community back in August: 

Here's a quick summary of the changes that members will see...

 

On the Forums, we have:

• Reorganized and cleaned up several categories, This removed redundant/duplicate categories.
• Created more pinned threads to cover things like WINGS questions, event suggestions, and more.
• Removed some outdated information, like the "Add-On Reviews" section from 2012.

In Discord, we have:

• Reorganized categories and channels to modernize our Discord and provide more relevant places to post messages.
• Improved the way notifications work, including with the option to personalize your settings via the Social page.
• Added new channels for Cape Air Virtual, at their request.
• Added several new automations and fancy features (like notifications when ATC opens and closes, although we haven't turned those on quite yet).

As with any significant change, a tremendous amount of coding and development effort went into these changes. Please join me in thanking Szymon for his incredible efforts over the past few months. Likewise, we expect a few bugs here and there. If you encounter anything unexpected, or have feedback on the changes, please let us know via this thread or in Discord.

 

Discord Channel Reorganization

 

In an effort to keep things fun while also maintaining a level of decorum for members from around the world, we have re-aligned the purpose of several Discord channels. Although you can see a general description for each channel within Discord, I'm also sharing the intention behind each of the channels here for ease of reference.

 

The biggest overall change -- and this will require a bit of learning and getting used to for all of us -- is that the #lounge channel has been re-named and re-purposed to a #lounge-and-aviation-talk channel. The intention is to keep this channel focused on legitimate aviation and flight simulation discussion. When we want to post about another game, a meme, a non-flying stream, or something off-topic, a new #games-memes-and-almost-anything-goes channel has been created. This channel is really intended to replace what the #lounge had become, and although we'll be a little more lenient with moderation there, we still expect that members will adhere to the same standards we've come to appreciate. 

 

There will be a tendency for people to (1) post in the "wrong" place or (2) try to "police" where posts are made. Let's please be patient with each other and recognize it's going to take some time for all of us to get used to the new structure. I ask all members NOT to act as "Discord police" and start accusing people of posting in the wrong spot. If you have a question about what goes where, feel free to ask...but let's not take that too seriously for just now.

 

Welcome:

• #intro-and-getting-started - a place for new members to introduce themselves. 

Notifications:

• announcements - server or administrator-posted announcements about community news and events.
• atc-status - automated or ATC-posted notifications about when coverage begins and ends (we're waiting a few days to turn these on to make sure we don't send out too many unnecessary notifications).

Squawkbox:

• #lounge-and-aviation-discussion - post general comments, 
• #group-flights - arrange fly-ins or other group simulation activities.
• #screenshots - post any screenshots (you can also post them on the forums).
• #msfs, #prepar3d, #x-plane - based on the popularity of the #msfs channel and by request, we've created channels specific to each sim. These can be used to talk about simulator-specific add-ons, troubleshooting, suggestions, and more. 
• #games-memes-almost-anything-goes - post whatever you want, within reason.

Community Support & Feedback:

This category is really intended for BVA pilots. While controllers have access to post here, it's intended that ATC questions are handled in the ATC category. In general, these channels are "question, answer". Additional discussion should be moved to a different place.

• #general-questions - post general questions that don't go anywhere else ("I can't login to the website?", "how do you get started with the WINGS program?")
• #flying-questions - post a question you'd like one of our controllers (or other pilots) to answer ("what do I need to do to enter Class C airspace?")
• #troubleshooting - post any general troubleshooting issues you have, especially as they relate to the BVA website, vPilot, WINGS flights, etc. (it's expected that sim-specific troubleshooting would happen in the simulator-specific channels).
• #feedback - share any feedback you have for us

The remaining categories are for Air Traffic Controllers and Cape Air Virtual members.

 

Air Traffic Controllers:

• Not much has changed here. However, we have taken a more active line in moderating the use of #ask-the-training-staff. It's expected that only ATC Training Staff members reply to questions in this channel. Controllers who wish to ask a question that anyone else can answer (rather than limiting the responses only to training staff members) should use #the-water-bubbler.

The Cape Air Virtual channels were created through our Letter of Agreement with the CAV Management Team. Please give them a few days to acquaint themselves to the changes. I'm sure they will provide more information in due course.

[Evan Reiter]

Known Issues:

• The !prp command is outdated and will be removed.
• Selecting the "X-Plane" notification will add both the X-Plane and Prepar3D tags in Discord. Selecting the "Prepar3D" notification does not function correctly. The X-Plane toggle should only add the "X-Plane" tag and "Prepar3D" tag needs to be managed by the corresponding setting. [Fixed]
• We are waiting to enable the automated ATC status notifications until we have had a chance to do a little more live testing.