Blog:The New Dark Witch Discord

When it comes to making a community for a small Indie Developer, your primary goal is to create one using a site everyone uses the most, and make the best out of it. Make sure you set a standard and a vision for what the community is going to be like, to make other Fandoms look at you and say, "ah, why can't we be docile like these guys?", and to just make a community where even if there's negativity, it's best to control it and push it out for the best experience. This community is The Legend of Dark Witch. A goal set by two people (and another one with their separate group of friends on a different platform), and while one did the best to do it with others, the other one, didn't.

But there's nothing to stop two other users from fixing the issues of the other community, right? It's time for us to talk about something and show something to the Dark Witch Community (and for other communities and groups that have a shared interest over "The Legend of Dark Witch"): A new Dark Witch Discord. This "new" server attempts to fix all of the issues from the original to make the best experience out of what the purpose of supporting an overlooked series which is Dark Witch. Shaping the community as it is and addressing points that are in other servers that aren't present in this one. Like I've said, although nothing changed much, this server is run by the starting bureaucrats of this wiki: Blad and I. Now you must be wondering, why are we doing this? We already have the original Discord, and we can just improve on the original anytime. Well, here are some of the following issues that led to us creating a new server:

The Rules
The rules of the Original Dark Witch Discord are, and I quote:


 * "Be kind and respectful to others. This server is inclusive to everyone! This means don’t be racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.
 * Try to generally keep politics or serious debates out of this server. You can discuss them in DMs if the topic comes up.
 * Please do not fight- if you have conflict with something or someone, take it to DMs, not the public chats.
 * Do not post images that are NSFW or can otherwise be considered offensive/crude. This also includes NSFW profile pictures.
 * Don’t spam the general chats with things such as long text walls or images.
 * Things like icon changes and small, recognizable display name changes are always fine. However, please don’t change to the point of becoming unrecognizable or to impersonate someone else. "

While these rules may seem like they fit the standards for the Discord to other people, these rules have been constantly broken in the server. Some standard rules aren't even present in this server to begin with! Rules like the `keep politics or serious debates out of this server` have been broken multiple times because many of the adults in the server discuss about the issues of the world right now, and while that's a topic most servers usually can't avoid, they still have it as a rule because not only it can bring up debates that linger into arguments, it's just, `why talk about politics when you're in a server dedicated to (server community)?` it's kind of like that. Another example of a rule that's broken constantly in the server is the mention of fighting. There's a lot of users in which they've tend to start fights a lot. You may not think about it, but I've seen a LOT. and when people try talking to them to stop what the hell they're doing, it's either that they sort of `win` the argument by the admins or others asking you to just take a chill pull and let the one with the issues relax. Or, It's a tie or a never ending cycle of harassment because the Admins just tell you to just bring it in DMs, and while you can have DMs in servers turned off and such, your friend will either go into a mutual server and discuss issues about it to you (which is another rule that isn't part of the Dark Witch Server) or they ignore what the Admins have to say and still fight back for their win.

What could be added/changed?
Now, the other thing I have to discuss regarding the rules is that there's primary rules that haven't been applied to this Discord server and there's rules that aren't unique to the issues that people have in the server. Some rules include:


 * Keep topics exclusive to the channel its designed for. (Like the general chat being discussed about Dark Witch, and the art channel for usually Fan-art for it, too) `
 * An extension for the `no fighting` rule: The admins make the final decision, and that final decision ends the fight no matter what. Taking this into DMs doesn't make things any better, and the admins making the final say would assure the ones arguing that they both (or one or the other) had something wrong, and they mustn't do it again or it'll lead to kicks and bans.
 * Alternate accounts of course, aren't allowed in the server. I've had one in there before, and it didn't last them a single 30 minutes to instantly realize that it was me. It wasn't against the rules, but they'd mention it'd lead to an instant ban. Other users that had alternate accounts that were banned but would like to come back, will talk to the Admins in DMs so they can come back, but I've still seen their alternate account(s) still present within the server itself. The server isn't big enough (~175 members), so they can just look at the list of members, spot the alt accounts, and kick them. But they didn't in this case.
 * The mention of self-loathing or committing suicide. This is self-explanatory. It doesn't have to do with the Discord itself, and it can make other people think differently all because of your actions. Hell, if this is NAN-A himself, the best thing is to just let it slide, and not make the situation any worse. But for users, other users don't want to hear it, but if you're having issues, try toning it down for the very least, or just get lucky if anyone asks if you want to talk about it with you.
 * I'm surprised this isn't even mentioned at all, but in the voice channels, no mic spamming. I've seen this happen in the Discord quite a few times. Not a lot because the members barely even touch the voice channels, but it can still happen, and this isn't included in the rules.
 * Mixing the `don't be (homo/trans)phobic rule with the impersonation and NSFW disclosure rule: Although this may be odd, mixing these together would make a large statement on the importance of why these rules are usually considered important in their ways. Something like this: "No kinds of inappropriate text or speech are allowed to be discussed in anyway. This includes but not limited to: NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content, racist, sexist, any type of offensive jokes, using the N-bomb, or harassing other users for personal reasons. With this, you cannot include any form of this in a profile picture, a nickname, hinting at it in text/voice channels, or even just coming in this server to have an argument with a person or a group."
 * And of course, the best rule of them all: Don't misuse the @everyone, @here, or @mod unless it's a big announcement, or you need to discuss an issue with the mods themselves privately. I've seen multiple cases in which that when you're showing dominance against your enemy in a fight, they'd try to mention the mods a lot, and it could fit as harassment in some way due to the repetitive nature. Honestly, in some cases, the admins deserve it (more on this later) because there's somethings about them that doesn't fit what a mod or admin should be. No, it's not the popular Discord Mod meme.

And that's pretty much it. Outside of clarifying smaller rules, the rules need to get polished, and the admins should look at the server more to make sure people are abiding to the rules properly, so they don't set their asses kicked of banned from the Discord. While I'm on this topic, I should also discuss about...

The Admins/Mods
In the original Discord, for a server with ~175 members, the need for Mods isn't particularly necessary because the count is too small, and the admins are doing their best to manage the Discord from any issues. But in this case, I'd say that regardless of if they're doing their job, they should add more to them. Now, how are these mods in particular? They got 2: Klinsyatari (the owner), and Flora (the only mod), and assuming that they're good friends from the start, that's probably the reason Flora is the only member with Mod. The only reason they decided not to add more is for the reason that there's isn't enough members in the server, and that they're good with that they have. This statement alone is something I totally disagree with. Here's why: In addition to the imperfect rules above: The mods themselves aren't into Dark Witch much compared to when they've first founded the server, so interacting with the server affects this too with them not talking much, and not only this, but when something bad happens, they're not 100% available to help finish the situation off as it'll take some time for them to come and then they'll address the issue.

While we also got two mods (Blad and I), we at least care a bit about Dark Witch (even it's on a slight decline due to the known issues of Brave Dungeon: The Meaning Of Justice), and we know that if we were to adapt a server that's going to be huge, we're going to have to stick to it unless we decide to cancel it and let the original keep it's stuff, which we won't forget. We want to make sure that the members themselves are behaving themselves, too. Another crucial part to the original that has yet been fixed to this day.

The Community
Oh gosh, the community of Dark Witch is insane. Insane in both good and bad ways. However, for this blog, I'm gonna focus on the negative side of the community as the negative always gets outshined by the positives because of how the community is like. They perceive themselves as the perfect community topping notorious ones like Undertale, My Hero Academia and whatnot. You may not believe that fact, but I've seen it. you've probably don't. This leads to several issues within the community that doesn't get fixed. Some of which were issues from my previous blog addressing the already present reviews of the International Community already. I'll paste them here to save some time. Some of these are still true to this day upon other users' reactions to what they have to say about other Dark Witch Entries:

"One thing being that there would be people who start to doubt everything I say that is usually an opinion. For instance, when I would say something like, “Simeone is probably the worst villain in the series due to her appearance being vague and only coming to get Zizou after ruining her plans,” people would usually agree or disagree with this opinion, which is completely fine. But when people go to far to talk about how my opinion is the worst thing you can say about Simeone or The Legend of Dark WItch 3 altogether is kinda rough. i just said my own opinion, and they have to show why my opinion is wrong in long texts and whatnot."

"Now speaking about friends, a LOT of the members from The Legend of Dark Witch Discord, have a tendency to show their selves as good people, but when I actually friend them, they become horrible people."

"Although most of the bad people left, there were still some that were there that I still didn't like. ...if they say something, and I disagree with it, they'll try to hide away from everyone because the one thing I said was horrible enough to scare them for a bit." These were some of the issues I've at least experienced within the Discord, and it appears to me that I'm not alone in this saying, too. Here's some screenshots upon permission from Blad about issues he had with some members.

Coming from me, this is ludicrous. Just how can some people have the nerve to say something like this to someone? They're so braindead to think that giving a not recommended review is a pointless move of expanding and making the Dark Witch Fandom more accessible. A bad review is supposed to be used as a way of pointing out the issues you personally have with the game to make it better, if the developer chooses to listen to the core audience, but the community is so corrupt that giving a bad review is giving no respect to the creator at all. This goes especially for the top one, in which said user decided to just "hop out" when they heard about the developer supporting NFTs, and just like him, most of the ignorant, bad people left the Discord server because they didn't care enough to learn about the information and the behind-the-scenes about the business, but they decide to come back and say something like this. Once again, this is stupid of them, and I can go on even more about the community, but It'd be too much for me to talk about. But I will say this:

Why make a server when the developer isn't a good one?
This is the hardest question I have to answer. NAN-A is the developer of Dark Witch. simple as that. But he's known for doing questionable things to other people to make the games better but also not kind of better. Look at Brave Dungeon: The Meaning of Justice. The game was shown to be the true sequel to the original Brave Dungeon, but over the years' worth of works, it became a relentless pile of glitches, bugs, and complaints. Nightmare was implemented way before NAN-A made it public, but it was never play tested, and it was the western community that pointed out all of the glitches and softlocks that it had, and it took them 30 versions to get it all fixed. He also pointed to the fans that there would be a "new" boss, but the new boss was just Zizou with Mati. Nightmare is the same as the original, but with layouts provided by some fans, Mati and Zizou looks the same, and their duo revenge attack has a name that contradicts what they're aiming to destroy: The Destroyer of Gods. This contradicts their attack because it's implicated that they're destroying gods, but in this case, they're destroying humans (and some beasts). It may just be a Google Translation issue though: Another big issue with Brave Dungeon 2 that it's a laughingstock. This, the bugs, and the constant reuse of sprites, sound effects, and the instruments used in Raito's composed music for this game. You might as well give a broad but true statement that there can't be a Dark Witch game without any of the issues that it already has A statement that people begged that the next game after BD2 to not have at all.

Not to mention, NAN-A willingly advertised this game using straight up NSFW without giving any care to take it down whatsoever. He doesn't even give a shit to the fans that report the big, but obscure glitches that people can come across, which is not, and I mean, NOT how an Early Access game works. Look at Core Keeper, Phasmophobia, and Farthest Frontier. some games that actually listen to their fans for bugs and reports. Hell, even Sky: Children of the Light, another game with poor development management at least cares a BIT enough to patch out bugs that would affect other players. If you're not going to give a response and patch out the damn bugs people report in an early Access game, you shouldn't be an indie developer at all. This is coming from an upcoming one who's learning how to become one, and honestly, INSIDE_SYSTEM is showing a lot of the issues indie development can have and what can be avoided. I thank you INSIDE_SYSTEM for teaching me some of the ways.

The Big Conclusion
For all the stuff mentioned, while we want to make another place to fix the issues with the original Dark Witch Discord, we already have to suffer regretting making it if the developer is like this. But as fans, we have to make somewhat of a connection to others sharing our opinions and cleaning out the negativity. listening to other people's suggestions, apologizing for those who's been wrong, and kicking the true bastards out of the Discord. This, will be the new Dark Witch Discord, and we'll even try giving out some events to make everyone active and whatnot. Like a true dedicated unofficial Discord. if you have something against this, just leave it in the comments of this blog. We even tried reaching contact to the mods about the issues that their server has and they don't bother fixing any of it, so it gives us the perfect chance to do so.