What I’m about to post on here is something that’s been weighing on me for months and I now feel that it is time to share this. I even lost valuable sleep over this last night because I couldn’t stop thinking about how I need to use my voice and say what I need to say. Please do not owl me about this since I know why this has been decided, but I’ve come up with a possible way to make it better.

I believe that the Discord requirement for being a mentor isn’t a great thing for this site. Now, before you decide a protest and prove that it’s good, hear me out.

1. Having Discord be a requirement is useful as far as everyone being able to communicate, but it also blocks people that can’t have Discord for various reasons but want to be a mentor be singled out.

2. I’ve talked to many people (some being former mentors) and they have all said that Discord shouldn’t be a requirement for this program since it doesn’t allow some well seasoned players have a chance to teach new players what they know. They have also said that everything worked perfectly fine without the requirement in the past.

3. I as well as others that don’t have Discord have been told by other people that we should do this program since we know our way around the site, but thanks to the requirement we’re unable to do that.

4. There are already so many things that require Discord such as staff jobs which give money, so when you make a requirement for Discord to be on this, that was one of the only ways some other people could make extra money before because they didn’t have Discord. This causes an imbalance and some people to get more money than others just because of Discord.

5. Since I first joined, I wanted to become a mentor someday. The day that I turned six months and was about to post my application and I found out that Discord was a requirement, I nearly quit the site. I felt personally that it wasn’t fair that others could be something that I had worked hard for. I had even studied up on everything before and payed special attention to everything, just so I would be a good mentor. It was actually one of the only things that pushed me to be on the site and not abandon.

My idea of how to get around this requirement:

We already have a place specially made for mentors, so why not create a special thread on there for info directly coming from Discord so everyone else can have a say? The Gryffindor Quidditch Team has this and it’s worked out well in the past. This helps not only players without Discord see the info, but it could also help the people that are on Discord, but may have missed it!

As a closing word, I would like to ask that you don’t overlook or push this away as invaluable because it isn’t. I hope that someday this requirement will be changed because I know many people that would be incredible mentors on here and maybe even stop so many from abandoning the site. Thank you for your time and for reading this to the end.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Since you requested not to be contacted privately about this, we will respect that boundary and are providing our response here.

To clarify: the Discord requirement for the mentor program is not under active review. While we understand that not all users are able or willing to join Discord, the mentor program requires real-time coordination and communication across multiple teams, which cannot be reliably replicated using on-site messaging alone. Especially when communications need to be shared with users across multiple time zones and with an array of responsibilities mentors may not be fully aware of. Staff members with specific responsibilities have access to those chats and when certain needs or inquiries are made, these staff members act without being specifically contacted to do so.

While your suggestion about mirroring Discord communications on-site may appear to be a solution, it would not provide the immediacy, responsiveness, or accountability necessary for program operations. Further, what is done in sports is more often a passive role and has limited interaction in comparison to what is actually done in many of the sport chats. On site sport thread are actually a challenge for many sport teams because a majority of communication does happen on discord so the member(s) depending solely on on-site communication are often overlooked or not as engaged as other members. Sports and a Staff role are not a 1:1 in terms of what is communicated or the timeliness of the need. Mentors play a key role in user support, and having shared tools and communication standards is part of what ensures consistency across the team.

We understand that this may be disappointing, especially if you've looked forward to participating. However, participation in the mentor program is voluntary, and roles with elevated responsibility will sometimes include platform requirements for the sake of operational consistency.

I get that, but it doesn’t exactly make 100% sense. Before this was a requirement, the program worked fine, so (rhetorical question) why change a winning horse’s feed? It also doesn’t change the fact about different timezones. Yes, some people may be more active on there than here, but there are other people that spend multiple hours a day on here and don’t check Discord much at all. If I ever had Discord again, (which I won’t for various reasons I’m not willing to share) I would be way more active on here instead.

I get that everything it mainly done on Discord, but what I don’t understand is that we want to make a community where everyone has a chance. That’s why iNPCs can’t get a stipend. It would create imbalance in the system. With this, imbalance is created anyway because certain people get bonuses because they have a specific thing while others have to just rely on ten sickles a day and the occasional errand reward if they can do it.

i want to say that i agree with Avery. in my country, discord is banned and i believe in this site there can be lots of people from this country who wants to become a mentor. additionally, there can be other people who wants to become a mentor but cant use discord because of other reasons too.

while using discord can be a good way to communicate, i believe it shouldnt be a requirement.

thank you for considering these opinions

Someone else asked me to post this for them so that their identity would be protected. This has been edited to also keep them protected.


A thing that bothers me about this site in particular is the overreliance on OOC. An RPG site is just that - a site for RPGs. I've never been on another site like this that requires constant communication between the users themselves outside RPG forums, never-mind outside of its own site alone. If there's any communication at all, it's taken care off with a few sentences. The site doesn't need a whole external website/app for users to chat. That's not the purpose of RPG sites and not how they should work.

First of all, I don't know how time zones play into this. People access/send post/contact each other via owls when they're awake/have free time/etc. It's not like we have to be awake at 4am just so that staff see us active on site. Secondly, responsibilities should be identified and made aware of upon acquiring the mentor role. Or even better, when you sign up - which they are. So I don't know what mentors could possibly be unaware of when everything is detailed in the sign-up page already. As a small side note, staff and mentors shouldn't be ambushed with more responsibilities than they initially applied for if this is what you are saying.

But why necessarily Discord? Does it have to be an external messenger where privacy can be put at risk? Again, you have almost seemingly neglected what the main issue is. Accessibility. Cool, great. Mentors and staff have access to chats on Discord for moderation etc, but the main issue is that not everyone does. Hence, owls and hidden chat forums (like the sports lockers) are our alternatives. They are in a place where people can access it. When users first join Hio, no one expects to use/download Discord as a means of "experiencing the site in its full form" if that makes sense? They came for the site alone.

Like the time zone issue, I don't get how active you want us to be. All chat-based programs and sites (Hio and Discord alike and included) operate the exact same way. It's not like the chats are deleted. Everything related to the site should stay on the site, which goes back to my earlier point about overreliance on OOC media. A user that's on any community-based forum/website shouldn't need external materials just to participate. Experiences on Hio shouldn't be scavenger-hunt level to the point where we're just going to start roleplaying on Discord. Why have owls etc on Hio if they're not going to use them? Mentors already send owls to users when they first get started and roleplay on Hio as part of the mentor program. Communication might sound accessible in that way but it undermines their "requirement" for Discord.

User support shouldn't be delegated to a site not everyone has access to. Think of it like this: if I, with a hypothetical staff account, suddenly had no access to Discord for whatever reason, how do I inquire about something if they're only paying attention to Discord? Once Discord goes then they've dug themselves into a hole for communication and "consistency" because they're neglecting the owl system. They're too dependent on Discord.

Discord sounds like (and in more cases than we realise, acts like) a Membership fee: Discord turns experiences like mentor and staff roles into the likes of a paywall/bonus feature/in-app purchase because it limits availability and accessibility for people wanting to contribute in that way. And like we keep saying, not everyone has access to Discord nor does everyone feel comfortable using.

A thing that bothers me about this site in particular is the overreliance on OOC. An RPG site is just that - a site for RPGs. I've never been on another site like this that requires constant communication between the users themselves outside RPG forums, never-mind outside of its own site alone. If there's any communication at all, it's taken care off with a few sentences. The site doesn't need a whole external website/app for users to chat. That's not the purpose of RPG sites and not how they should work.

Users don't need Discord, staff do. Players here for just the RPG elements only need to access the site. I do not understand the above statement and assume that this was edited from its original statement.

First of all, I don't know how time zones play into this. People access/send post/contact each other via owls when they're awake/have free time/etc. It's not like we have to be awake at 4am just so that staff see us active on site. Secondly, responsibilities should be identified and made aware of upon acquiring the mentor role. Or even better, when you sign up - which they are. So I don't know what mentors could possibly be unaware of when everything is detailed in the sign-up page already. As a small side note, staff and mentors shouldn't be ambushed with more responsibilities than they initially applied for if this is what you are saying.

Mentors should be aware of the expectations required of the role before they are added to the team. We also have since Feb 2025 required Discord for the Mentor role. This is a part of the sign-up. I do not understand how they are being ambushed with additional responsibilities. Being a mentor is again not a requirement, members can quit the role at any time and are aware of the tools required for the position.

But why necessarily Discord? Does it have to be an external messenger where privacy can be put at risk? Again, you have almost seemingly neglected what the main issue is. Accessibility. Cool, great. Mentors and staff have access to chats on Discord for moderation etc, but the main issue is that not everyone does. Hence, owls and hidden chat forums (like the sports lockers) are our alternatives. They are in a place where people can access it. When users first join Hio, no one expects to use/download Discord as a means of "experiencing the site in its full form" if that makes sense? They came for the site alone.

Being staff is not experiencing the site in its full-form. We have plenty of long-term users who have never been staff or were staff only briefly before realizing that staff was not for them. Discord does offer better interaction with community members, but it is no more required than posting in Let's Chat as a social outlet. Discord specifically is a platform that is widely available, free of cost, and does have a high degree of personal security for safety. In the over 20 years I have managed communities, we have [read] always used an external platform as a staff team to maintain communication, even if the playerbase at large was not a part of the real-time chat platform. This is not unique to large, active communities such as ours. There are numerous communities with smaller playerbases that do not use any external platforms. These communities may be preferable.

Like the time zone issue, I don't get how active you want us to be. All chat-based programs and sites (Hio and Discord alike and included) operate the exact same way. It's not like the chats are deleted. Everything related to the site should stay on the site, which goes back to my earlier point about overreliance on OOC media. A user that's on any community-based forum/website shouldn't need external materials just to participate. Experiences on Hio shouldn't be scavenger-hunt level to the point where we're just going to start roleplaying on Discord. Why have owls etc on Hio if they're not going to use them? Mentors already send owls to users when they first get started and roleplay on Hio as part of the mentor program. Communication might sound accessible in that way but it undermines their "requirement" for Discord.

We use owls and forums in addendum to discord. For example, in the development of this response there is an active ongoing conversation regarding the response to make. We frequently have real-time communication to verify understanding. But there is so much more than that involved in discord communication, I cannot articulate the full breadth of communication because it is dynamic.

User support shouldn't be delegated to a site not everyone has access to. Think of it like this: if I, with a hypothetical staff account, suddenly had no access to Discord for whatever reason, how do I inquire about something if they're only paying attention to Discord? Once Discord goes then they've dug themselves into a hole for communication and "consistency" because they're neglecting the owl system. They're too dependent on Discord.

I do not see evidence of this. I am responding on site here to "suggestions" that have been phrased more like complaints and demands. We respond to owls. We participate in on site communications in OC areas. We have Indexing protocols for account changes and updates where the entirety of the communication is on site. We have a tech support forum that we respond to.

Discord sounds like (and in more cases than we realise, acts like) a Membership fee: Discord turns experiences like mentor and staff roles into the likes of a paywall/bonus feature/in-app purchase because it limits availability and accessibility for people wanting to contribute in that way. And like we keep saying, not everyone has access to Discord nor does everyone feel comfortable using.

Discord has no cost, the word choice "membership fee" and "Paywall" are inaccurate. Discord is an additional requirement to participate in a completely optional staff role. In the same thread that users may not feel comfortable joining and using discord, we do not feel comfortable placing someone in a staff role without discord due to previous challenges we have had to deal with regarding users that did not have discord but were on the team.

I get that, but it doesn’t exactly make 100% sense. Before this was a requirement, the program worked fine, so (rhetorical question) why change a winning horse’s feed? It also doesn’t change the fact about different timezones. Yes, some people may be more active on there than here, but there are other people that spend multiple hours a day on here and don’t check Discord much at all. If I ever had Discord again, (which I won’t for various reasons I’m not willing to share) I would be way more active on here instead.

The system did not work fine when discord was not required. Some of our horses lacked the shoes they needed to run the race. Discord benefitted communication between members, claiming (people were being overlooked that needed the next mentee), and urgent messaging to the team from the staff, and challenges contacting some members once added.

I get that everything it mainly done on Discord, but what I don’t understand is that we want to make a community where everyone has a chance. That’s why iNPCs can’t get a stipend. It would create imbalance in the system. With this, imbalance is created anyway because certain people get bonuses because they have a specific thing while others have to just rely on ten sickles a day and the occasional errand reward if they can do it.

I am just going to reiterate all of the points:

While it’s true that the mentor program previously operated without Discord, the change was introduced in response to the evolving needs of the team—particularly around responsiveness, coordination, and timely resolution of user needs. Over time, we encountered recurring challenges with mentors who did not use Discord: they were often difficult to reach, slow to respond, unaware of important updates (such as “save the next mentee for X”), or overlooked entirely when they themselves requested a new mentee. These issues accumulated over a prolonged period and directly impacted the experience for both mentees and the mentor team. As a result, the decision to require Discord was made with the goal of ensuring consistent and reliable support.

To be clear, Discord is not a “perk”—it is a tool. Participation in the mentor program is optional, and the expectation of Discord access is clearly stated up front so users can make an informed choice. We do not ask for personal details or explanations—only that those who take on the role are able to communicate within the platform selected for team coordination.

That said, this is not a broader site-wide requirement. There are many other ways to participate in the community, such as event planning or contributing to the site newspaper. However, even in those roles, Discord provides essential advantages in real-time collaboration, and those without access may still encounter some limitations.

User support is not being shifted offsite. We remain responsive through owls and forum threads, and internal systems are very much still in use. But Discord enables coordination among the staff handling those issues. This is an internal communication tool, not a user requirement.

Finally, regarding what comes after Discord—this isn’t new. I’ve managed online communities for over two decades. Platforms like IRC, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Chat, and forum-based group messengers have long been a staple of community management. Discord just happens to be the current tool of choice. If or when it’s replaced, another collaborative space will take its place. That’s not a failing of this model; it’s a reflection of the evolving nature of live, large-scale communities.

This is my closing statement that I don’t expect or want an answer to.

First of all, we’re not complaining and making demands. We’re just trying to point out things that we think could be fixed.

Second, I’m on a Harry Potter site even bigger than this place that doesn’t use Discord or anything outside of their system to do things and it’s been active for over 20 years without it.

Third, even though there are those things addressed, there is still the problem of imbalance in money and what Victoria said about it being blocked.

Thank you for your time, but for now I will stop this for now, but not forever.

You have been consistently rude in this conversation. In Let’s Chat, your tone has been passive-aggressive, and you've repeatedly used guilt, exaggeration, and emotional pressure to force a point that has already been addressed. This behavior is not constructive, and more importantly, it’s not welcome.

Your conduct has made several users uncomfortable, both presently and in the past. That is not a subjective opinion, it is a pattern that has been observed and expressed by multiple members.

If you truly feel that this site and its values do not align with your expectations or sense of fairness and have identified communities that suit you better, I encourage you to explore them. You’ve mentioned other spaces with values and policies you admire, perhaps you will find their version of inclusivity more compatible with your ideals.

We’re going to continue building a community here with the standards we’ve outlined. You are free to stay or to leave, but this continued antagonistic tone will not be tolerated.

I don't know, I might have brought this up before but just wondering if we can have a In character study place? like the library or classrooms? I think this would be a cool idea.

I present to you the study room