We've gotten quite a few new people in over the last couple of days—a real wave of folks joining the Velvet Room. Welcome, everyone! Thanks for joining.
There's an introduction form pinned in the introductions channel. Some people have used that. It's not mandatory, but if you want to introduce yourself, you're more than welcome to.
If you're looking to get notified when an article drops, when we're doing a crowdfunding push, or when there's a big release—or if you just want to connect with other activists and artists—the Velvet Room has a wide variety of people. Whether it's artists like Shem Shelley or MindApe, content creators like Mark MSX or Kuhb Games, or political activists, we've got all kinds of folks who come in to lurk, hang out, be active participants.
We have a variety of channels in the Velvet Room (perhaps too many). The three main ones are:
- Chat (for chatting),
- Shitposting (for shitposting),
- Create (where you post your art, writing, music, or anything you're working on).
We like to encourage people to create things.
We recently launched a Minecraft server, thanks to Salty for helping out and getting that off the ground. I haven't played it yet, but you're more than welcome to check it out. They're working on a Houdini nightclub.
We also have a variety of niche channels—slower ones for discussion over a longer period of time. Whether it's fashion, gaming, zines, fitness, or film, we've got it all. There's even a dedicated goth channel, which has a lot of theory and esoteric discussion.
Then there are our media share channels:
- Music (for sharing music),
- YouTube (for YouTube videos),
- Materials (our image dump—dump i here, and they might end up in someone's zine or collage),
- Crate Diggers (like Materials, but for everything not an image—old software, internet esoterica, radio shows, oddities, etc.).
We have a call club too. If you're interested in voice chatting, just ping the VC Friend role. Anyone can ping it to let others know, "Hey, I'm hopping in voice chat—join me!" If you want to be pinged, just pick the role.
Then there's the Abyss. This is a pretty active part of the Discord. It's for current events, news, bleak topics—things that are hard to process and might not belong in the main chat. We like to keep the main chat's vibes positive (or at least not jarring—no one wants to open Discord to war footage). So, we put all that in the Abyss.
Don't stare at the Abyss too long. It'll stare back at you.
At the very bottom of the server, we have:
- Trouble tickets for help with software we sell (Rack-o-Matic, Anti-Style, Consciousness), so if you need support, that's the place.
So, that's a quick overview of the Velvet Room. Welcome again to everyone joining!
Bonus: We're doing a t-shirt raffle at 200 members, so tell your friends!
Oh, and if you contribute an article, make a donation, or join the $7 tier on Patreon, you'll get access to the Dracula Channels. These include:
- Our brainstorming chat
- General Dracula chat (where I talk about editorial views, behind-the-scenes stuff, and our plans for the magazine).
- Schedule Channel, where the loose monthly post plan is stored
If you want to be more directly involved, that's how you do it. $7 on Patreon, a private donation, or a contribution (like a zine or article) gets you the Dracula Role.
