Over 20 years later, and Willow’s words are still true! Here at Elysian Fields, we’ve always tried to keep up with the times, including keeping up with the main social media trends. For the last four years, we’ve had a vibrant discussion group on Facebook; however, Facebook has decreased in usability over the last couple years. It has continued to have issues which cause some significant hassle for the Mods and for our membership, and which we finally had to admit might never resolve. (We aren’t even going to get into the madness of Facebook’s algorithms.)

So, the Mods took a solid look around and started discussing the future of our social media here on EF. Then we started exploring some alternatives. Which leads us to now:

For the last couple weeks, the EF Mods have been beta-testing a customized and (if we do say so ourselves) rather spiffy Discord server with a small population of EF Facebook group members—all of whom have helped the server become even spiffier. We truly can’t thank them enough for their bravery and enthusiasm in beta-testing with us!

Which means, as of today…. the Elysian Fields Discord server is open to the entire EF community!

If you’re familiar with Discord already, this post probably requires little other explanation (but stick around anyway, because we have some important details about the server below). 

If you’re NOT familiar with Discord, imagine that all the best parts of 90’s chat rooms have been reinvisioned with modern sensibilities, neat options, and zero dial-up.

Trust us, it’s fun.

However, we also know that change can be hard and sometimes scary, which is why the Mods have been working very, very hard to ensure that every single member who joins the server has the support they need to gain their new platform legs. When you enter the server, you’ll notice an entire category labeled “UC Sunnydale Orientation.” That category is filled with helpful information, plus a student helpdesk staffed by some stellar “Orientation Leaders” who will be around to answer all your questions and help guide people’s interactions around the server.

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If you don’t yet have a discord account, you can sign up for one at https://discord.com/register . (Discord also has detailed sign-up instructions at https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033931551-Getting-Started if you’d like them.)

Once you have a Discord account, you can join the server using the following link: https://discord.gg/5r9suMGRQY 

IMPORTANT: Please read all of the server rules and review the channels map before interacting! You MUST have your server name set to your EF penname or you will not be admitted into the server. Instructions on how to change your server name are written out in the #rules channel.

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So, what’s happening to the other social media accounts?

The FB page will remain as an official announcement platform, but the FB discussion group will be archived on March 15. So, if you’re currently a member of that group, you’ll still be able to view all the posts and comments after that date, but no one will be able to add posts or comments, and no new members will be admitted. We’re choosing to archive the group instead of deleting it because there’s a lot of history in that group which we want to preserve.

The EF LiveJournal account will also be closed on March 15. 

As we move forward, you’ll notice that the social media icons on the EF homepage will update to reflect these changes.

And that’s all for now!

If you have any questions, please let us know below. We look forward to exploring Discord with you!