The Coos Singers on Discord

What Discord is

Discord is a free app for group conversation. It works like a group text message, except the conversation is split into separate rooms called channels, so the chat about carpooling stays out of the way of the chat about the music. You can use it on a phone, on a tablet, on a computer, or in a web browser without installing anything at all.

It costs nothing. Discord does sell an optional paid upgrade called Nitro. You do not need it, and nothing about The Coos Singers requires it.

Why you might want it

Email is good at one person telling everybody something. It is poor at a dozen people having a quick back and forth. Discord fills that gap. It is a good place to ask a question about a tricky passage between rehearsals, sort out a ride, share a recording somebody found helpful, or simply keep up with the people you sing next to.

It does not replace email. Rehearsal notes and anything official still go out to the members list, and those announcements are also kept on the Announcements page. If you never join Discord you will not miss a thing you need to know.

Getting the app

Pick whichever of these suits you. You only need one, and you can add the others later.

• iPhone or iPad: open the App Store, search for Discord, and install it. The icon is a white game controller shape on a blue-purple background.
• Android phone or tablet: open the Google Play Store, search for Discord, and install it.
• Windows or Mac computer: go to discord.com/download and run the installer.
• No install at all: go to discord.com/app in your web browser and use it there. This is the easiest way to try it, though the phone app is much better at letting you know when somebody replies.

Making an account

The first time you open Discord it will ask you to register. It needs an email address, a password, a username, and your date of birth. Discord requires the date of birth to confirm you are over 13, which is a legal requirement on their end rather than anything to do with us.

Discord will then email you a link to confirm the address. Click it. If it does not arrive within a few minutes, look in your spam or junk folder.

You get two names, which confuses almost everybody at first. Your username is your unique handle, all lowercase, and nobody really sees it day to day. Your display name is what other people actually see next to your messages, and you can set it to your real name. Please do, so the rest of us know who we are talking to.

Joining our group

Once you have an account, use the invite button at the top of this page. It will open Discord and ask you to confirm that you want to join. That is the whole process.

A group like ours is called a server in Discord's wording, which sounds far more technical than it is. It just means our corner of the app.

Finding your way around

Down the left you will see the channels, each one starting with a # symbol. Tap one to read it, then type in the box at the bottom to say something. That is genuinely most of it.

Two things worth knowing. Typing an @ followed by somebody's name will notify that person specifically, which is how you get an answer from the right singer. And scrolling up reads back through everything said before you arrived, so there is no hurry to keep up in real time.

Turning down the noise

This is the setting most people wish they had found sooner. Out of the box, Discord will buzz your phone rather a lot.

On a phone, press and hold our group's icon in the left column and choose Notification Settings. On a computer, right click the same icon. Set it to Only @mentions and your phone will stay quiet unless somebody is speaking to you directly. You can also mute a single channel the same way, or mute the whole thing for an evening.

A word on privacy

Anyone else in our group can see your display name and anything you post. They cannot see your email address or your phone number. Discord itself is a company like any other, so treat it the way you would treat a public bulletin board at rehearsal: fine for arranging a ride, not the place for anything you would not want repeated.

The invite link on this page is only shown to signed-in members, so please do not post it anywhere public. Passing it to another Coos Singer is exactly what it is for.

If you get stuck

Write to [email protected] and somebody will walk you through it, or find one of us at rehearsal and we will get you set up in about five minutes. Discord changes its app from time to time, so if a button is not quite where this page says it is, that is why.