[Galadriel55]

Soriman, I think you put up a good defense of Discord. As someone who had no idea what it is, I think you made a good case. However, as you say in the end, what does it have to offer that the Downs doesn't? Being popular? With me personally, popularity ranks so low among a list of reasons to do something, it's almost a nagative factor. We already have a way to stay in touch on a themed site, with members and mods and admins having different permissions. Why switch? Moreover, those of us who were here for a while are very attached to this particular site - it's layout, format, colours, all of it. Why would we go elsewhere?

As for the spam, I think you speak from ignorance on that count. The reason the Downs is not overrun by spammers now is not that a group of people didn't yet choose to come here and wreak havoc, as you seem to imply, but because of a lot of hard work from the admins in making the site security so. There used to be quite a few spammers around and had to be cleaned up one bh one before BW and team adjusted the "entry requirements" to the site" to a much more individualized screening process. So the idea that if it works here it will work anywhere does not necessarily stand.