Discord revoked the partnership of the subreddit server for Final Fantasy XIV. According to Discord support, the reason was pornographic content posted in the server’s “Not Safe For Work” channels. However, this new regulation regarding NSFW channels was not communicated to the server admins.
Being accepted into the ranks of Discord Partners brings many advantages for a server and its admins. They receive better quality for their voice chat channels, free Nitro status for the admins, and further benefits that make managing their communities easier.
Consequently, the admins of the Final Fantasy XIV subreddit were unhappy to suddenly lose this status.
No free Nitro
What exactly happened? According to the server admins of the Final Fantasy XIV subreddit, they were contacted by Discord support a few days ago, stating that Lolicon pornography had been repeatedly posted on their server. This involves sexualized representations of children or young girls in anime or cartoons, which violates Discord’s Terms of Service.
The Discord support gave the admins 48 hours to remove the content under the threat of completely deleting their server, and additionally, the Final Fantasy XIV community server was stripped of its partner status.
Partner status gone for now
After the admins complied with the demands, they requested if they could get their partner status back, only to receive a strict denial.
“Your community does not meet our standards”: In a response email, Discord support informed the admins that the loss of partner status is permanent.
The moderation and users of the server did not meet the standards of a Discord partner. It even went so far that users complained directly to Discord support about the behavior on the server, according to the email.
In doing so, support referred to the rule that pornography and NSFW channels are prohibited for partners.
No NSFW channels for partners
The big problem, however, is the way the new rule was implemented: Servers like the FFXIV subreddit lost their partner status practically overnight.
A search in the Google cache shows that the new guideline regarding NSFW channels was only added to the rules on the official Discord site a few days prior and therefore was only communicated to the admins from the FFXIV server in the form of warnings.
In the past, various users had inquired with Discord’s Twitter several times whether such channels are allowed on partner servers and received positive responses.
That was lifted when we added the NSFW feature! Please keep in mind that Partners are required to follow the ToS/Guidelines still!
— Discord (@discordapp) November 5, 2017
A Discord representative stated in the Reddit thread on the topic that they failed to properly document this rule and communicate it to the partners.
The FFXIV admins talk about hypocrisy: The admins of the FFXIV server do not see why they and their community should be much worse than the rest. Profanity and pornographic content are by no means a problem exclusive to the FFXIV server.
According to them, Discord servers for games like League of Legends or World of Warcraft are just as bad, if not worse. They present screenshots of search results for insults as evidence. They ask, why are those servers not being punished as well?
Discord community is concerned
Consequences for other communities as well: While the admins of the FFXIV server deny all allegations about Lolicon content on their server and emphasize that this content has always been strictly prohibited, there are also other uninvolved communities that have no understanding of the rule changes.
The Discord server of r/Gaymer, a community for LGBT gamers, for example, was also used by its members to discuss their sexuality and cope with it.
It has been a very positive environment, especially for people who have just come out, said one of the members. This opportunity for exchange has now been lost due to the deletion of the channel, unless the server admins voluntarily give up their partner status.
Whether Discord will further tweak these rules in the future is unknown. However, the revocation of the partner benefits from the FFXIV subreddit is said to be permanent.
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