It’s unfortunate that today, I have to write a guide about transitioning from Discourse to Discord. But some things have to be done earlier or later, right?
The official announcement detailing the reason behind the migration can be found here: [Important] Transitioning from the Hopscotch Forum to Discord
Since this forum will eventually close down permanently, you may export your forum activity data if you wish.
Chapter 1: Setting up Discord
What is Discord?
Discord is a top-rated chat app for all ages to hang out with in real life and online friends. Discord runs on a freemium model, meaning most features are free to use, but some customization boosts are behind a paywall. Don’t worry, though - if you’re a casual user who doesn’t want that fancy animation on your profile, you won’t need to pay to enjoy the platform.
Discord, just like the Hopscotch forum, has a web-based version of the app, but it’s also available on iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and Mac as a downloadable app.
Creating an account
Using Discord requires you to create an account - this is how they distinguish whether it is or 
talking.
Once you have downloaded and opened the app, click on the button labelled Register - if you’re on the web-based app, you will find that button under the huge Log in button. Then, enter your credentials - you should expect to be asked for your email address, a creative new password, a date of birth, a display name and a username.
You’re good to go!
Joining the Hopscotch Discord server
Once you have successfully created a Discord account, you may now join our official Hopscotch server! You will be asked a few questions such as what specifically you are interested in;
Then, you will be brought to the onboarding screen, where you will find a handful of quests to accomplish!
On the left side, you have the navigation panel, where you will find all the server’s categories, channels and forums - the new terminology will be explained in Chapter 3. I invite you to explore all these channels at your own rhythm!
Personalizing your watching channels
By default, only a few default channels will be shown to you. You can customize that, by adding topics you’re interested in! Scroll all the way up in the channel list panel and click on “Channels & Roles”. There, you may customize your watching channels:
- Selecting “Chatting with other users” will add you to the Memes channel, the Starboard channel and the Icebreakers channel;
- Selecting “Sharing art of videos” will add you to the Multimedia channel;
- Selecting “Making external projects” will add you to the Modding channel and the Non-Hopscotch channel
Although this is an option for educators, selecting “Using Hopscotch in my class” will add you to the Teachers channels.
Want even more control? Under the same page (Channels & Roles) go to the “Browse Channels” menu and you may manually toggle each channel and category on and off!
Chapter 2: Understanding the Difference Between Platforms
The core difference between Discourse and Discord is the type of platform. Discourse is a “civilized discussion” place, an organized text-based forum, whereas Discord is a chiller place with real-time chatting and online statuses; the atmosphere itself is different.
Moreover, the “civilized discussion” nature of Discourse makes having a lot of topics something very natural, not confusing, because topics are hidden behind a category or a subcategory, keeping everything organized and neat. However, this will no longer be the case with Discord, since channels (aka topics in Discourse) are not hidden behind a category; they are rather all shown on the left panel. For our server to be intuitive and easy to use for everyone, we unfortunately have to sacrifice some general topics from Discourse.
One important difference between Discourse and Discord is that you do not have permission to create channels (aka topics) - instead, there’s a new concept called a forum channel, in which you may create your post. I understand that the new terminology may be confusing - this is why we are giving y’all time to fully transition between platforms!
Unlike Discourse, Discord is centered around real-time texting - which means you may react to a message (aka post) with a handful of emojis, something you wouldn’t be able to do in Discourse. You may also create a thread under a message or forward a message, but I’m afraid that exceeds the goal of this guide, which is to provide basic however important information for a smooth migration between these two platforms!
A non-exhaustive list of dropped features
- Edit histories and private collab topics requests are replaced by a ticket system; See Chapter 3 → [Hopbot Tickets] Requesting a Private Channel
- Tag lists no longer exist; only official ping lists exist: Events, Product News, Server News and Icebreaker;
- We do not accept requests to create personal ping lists.
- Quoting no longer exists; a similar implementation is forwarding;
- Bookmarks no longer exist; a similar implementation is a pin, but they are visible to everyone, and only leaders can pin messages.
- Discord does not understand HTML tags; only markdown will be formatted. See Chapter 4 → Message Formatting for more information.
Chapter 3: Community Structure
Server Structure
In the server, you will notice different categories: General, Projects, Community, Academy and Feedback. This section of the migration guide is not to provide a detailed explanation of what every single channel is for, but rather give a general guideline to everyone; you are welcome to explore the other channels and forums on your own at your own pace.
- The General discussion channel, under the General category, is where most discussions will happen;
- This channel is the equivalent of YCTAHH/RCT.
- The Showcase forum, under the Projects category, is where you may showcase your latest projects, or create your very own post for all your projects!
- This forum is the equivalent of the Project Updates category.
- The Code-help forum, also under the Projects category, is where, aside from the General discussion channel, you may ask for help for your projects!
- This forum is the equivalent of the Debug My Code category.
- The Icebreaker channel, under the Community category, is where you get to answer triweekly weird questions!
- This channel is the same topic as our current icebreaker topic.
- We have not implemented an icebreaker submittion system yet; for now, you may submit icebreakers via our ticket system. See Chapter 3 → [Hopbot Tickets] Requesting a Private Channel
- The Server-ideas forum, under the Feedback category, is where you provide feedback to better organize our new server!
- The Feature-ideas forum, also under the Feedback category, is where you provide feedback for the Hopscotch app!
- Last but not least, the Bug-reports forum, also under the Feedback category, is where you report bugs from the Hopscotch app!
You might be wondering, where did most of the forum games go? Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a previous chapter, the migration of the platform will inevitably lead to some topics being abandoned. If enough people want a forum game back, feel free to suggest it under the Server-ideas forum and we will discuss it! This goes the same to some general topics such as Nerdy Math Topic.
Additionally, you might have noticed we don’t have Farmbot anymore!! Because the migration was announced to us so unexpectedly, I (Tri-Angle) didn’t have the time to migrate @Farmbot to our new Discord server. But fear not! We do plan to move our beloved bot over the winter break… with some tweaks. To be discussed!
Leadership Organisation & Community Expectations
You guys are by now used to having the leadership team keeping a close eye on things. Once we have fully migrated to the Discord server, our presence will most likely significantly decrease. There will no longer be any heavy moderation since we trust y’all to keep the community tidy:
- Respect each other;
- Keeping discussion topics in their correct channels;
- Avoiding unnecessary spam and chains;
- Respecting others’ opinions;
- Be friendly with non-forum newbies;
- Overall, helping maintain a positive atmosphere!
Although we aren’t 100% sure in which direction this will go, the goal of the leadership team will most likely be maintaining a positive atmosphere, moderating against spam/scam accounts, and involving in community activities such as organizing in-app competitions and server contests.
I’m not saying we are letting you down by migrating to Discord - but rather, we are letting y’all know we trust you enough to loosen the rules and create a more promising environment for making new, lifetime-long friends.
Last but not least, as the first wave of members joining the Discord server, we hope you will provide as much feedback as possible to make our new community better than ever!
Reporting Messages
We expect you, a forumer who understands online safety, to report any harmful, scamful or hurtful message immediately. This way, we are ensuring the new Hopscotch server is a safe and lovely place for us, an online family.
To report a message, hover your mouse (on a desktop) or long press (on a mobile device) the harmful message. Then, look for Apps then click Report Message. This will alert us and we will take a decision ASAP!
It’s important to NOT click on the red Report Message!! You MUST look for the Apps menu, in which there is the report button that will alert a Hopscotch moderator. The red Report Message will alert a Discord app moderator!
[Ticket system] Requesting a Private Channel
If you want to start a private collaboration channel with your friends, you may request a private channel by executing the command \request with your channel name and your description/reason.
Then, the leadership team will receive the alert and review your request. Don’t hesitate to add as much detail as possible to your description to avoid back-and-forth clarification questions.
yes, hopbot!
You should see this screen when you successfully send the private channel request. Please be patient, we are humans with real life duties, not ChatGPT (no way)!
Chapter 4: Additional Features and Tips
Disabling Friend Requests
If you do not feel comfortable to friend people on Discord, it’s perfectly understandable. Right-click (on desktop)/long press (on mobile devices) on the Hopscotch server’s icon, go all the way down to privacy settings and toggle Direct messages and/or Message requests off.
Adding Hopscotchers as Friend
This subchapter covers the do’s and don’ts when friending a friend on Discord. If you are worried about somebody private messaging you, please read the Online Safety tips in the Server Guide
When migrating to Discord, one of our goals was to give Hopscotchers a better place to socialize and chat with friends. With adding a member as a friend on Discord, we certainly do not want to restrict you from it. However, it must be done cautiously;
- Do not start to friend everybody; only friend people you know well and who are true friends. Friending someone should not be a norm but a privilege for close online friends.
- Never feel offended if someone declines your friend request. They may not be as comfortable as you are with friending people on an online platform. It’s not anything personal!
- Respect others’ privacy and boundaries; not everyone may be as open to private messaging and such. If someone prefers to keep interactions within the Hopscotch server rather than through private messages, please respect their comfort level.
Always be mindful of online security; avoid sharing personal or sensitive information, such as your address or contact information. Even when building friendships, it is important to always prioritize online safety!
Message Formatting
Unlike Discourse, Discord has no HTML formatting (any text formatting that requires angle brackets <>) nor BBCode (any text formatting that requires square brackets []). Instead, it uses Markdown, a rather well-known text formatting you guys know;
- Bold text uses double asterisks (
**) around the text - Italic text uses single asterisks (
*) around the text Strikethrough textuses double tildes (~~) around the text- Underlined text uses double underscores (
__) around the text - A heading uses 1-3 hashtags (
#) in front of a heading, from 1 hashtag being the biggest title to 3 hashtags being the smallest title - A bullet list uses a dash (
-) or an asterisk (*) followed by a space in front of a list item- To create an inner bullet list, insert two spaces in front of the dash or the asterisk
- You can do the same thing with numbered lists by using a number followed by a period and a space, such as
1.
An inline codeblockuses single backticks (`) around the text, whereas a multiline codeblock uses triple backticks (```) a line above and below the code-
A blockquote uses a single greater-than sign (
>) followed by a space in front of a text
Additionally, hidden texts use double pipes (||) around the text, except this is not a Markdown syntax but a Discord feature! You may also create timezone-adjusted dates using this tool - thanks AE!
