What is Discord?
Escape Collective’s community is accessible via Discord. At its simplest, Discord is a text, voice and video chat application with some similarities to an online forum. However, Discord’s rich feature-set and customisation makes it an amazing platform for establishing and supporting communities of all manner of interests. There’s a great overview available here along with a useful glossary of Discord terms.
What can I expect from the Escape Collective Discord?
The Escape Collective Discord provides you with access to the Escape Collective crew and the broader membership community. Here’s a few examples of what happens on Discord:
- Access an ever-growing knowledge base of member-requested tech Q&As
- Join in active discussions around current and upcoming races, along with taking part in Escape Collective watch parties as the race unfolds.
- Join in channels based on your personal interests, cycling-related or otherwise
- Connect with local communities of Escape Collective members based on your location-preferences
- Attend live podcast recordings for the Escape Collective podcasts
- Join the Wheel Talk crew as they watch and commentate on women’s racing
- Connect with the Escape Collective crew for behind-the-scenes info and advice
How do I access Discord?
Your welcome email included an invitation link to access Discord. Please accept that invite as your first step.
Once you have accepted your invitation you can then login to Discord and access the Escape Collective “Server” in a variety of ways:
Web: https://discord.com/
Desktop Applications: https://discord.com/download
Brand new Discord users will default to the Web interface when they open their Invitation Link. After that point any interface can be used (or several at once!).
Logging in
When you first accept your invite and login to Discord you will be presented with a welcome screen:
You’re welcome to start exploring the suggested channels (a topic-based place to chat) from here or hit the I’ll just look around for now text to dismiss the screen and land yourself in the #rules channel.
Discord will immediately prompt you to “complete a few steps” before you’re allowed to post any messages:
- Tap the Complete button to start the process.
- There are two tasks to complete:
- Verify your email address by hitting the Verify button.
- You’ll receive an email with a button to click to verify your email address. You won’t be able to proceed until this is done.
- Read and accept the rules.
- Please read them and follow the spirit as well as the letter of each rule. They’re phrased in a friendly and accessible way, and are important to ensure that Discord upholds Escape Collective’s values of a friendly, accessible and radically welcoming place for all cyclists, cycling fans and cycling adjacent people.
- Once you’ve read them, select the checkbox that indicates your agreement and hit the Submit button.
- Verify your email address by hitting the Verify button.
At this point you’re now ready to get into Discord. It’ll look something like this (web/desktop view):
To explain the layout:
- The narrow panel on the left (with the circles) is a list of servers (a community) that you’re a member of and also provides access to your Direct Messages (DMs).
- The second panel from the left is a list of channels in the Escape Collective’s Discord
- The right panel is the content of the currently-selected channel
Setup your Profile
Discord allows you to maintain two profiles.
There is an overarching Discord profile that applies to all Servers you’re a member of. Here you can set:
- Your profile image (Avatar)
- Your profile banner colour
- A small bio
There is also a distinct Server Profile for each Discord server in which you are a member. Here’s where you can set a nickname for the server.
What is Nitro?
When setting up your profile Discord will highlight “Nitro” to you as an upgrade option. Nitro is Discord’s “paid” tier for users. You can unlock additional features and functionality for your account by subscribing to Nitro. As a Nitro user you can also choose to grant “boosts” to the Discord servers you’re a member of. Server Boosts allow the server to unlock more functionality on the server itself.
You’re welcome to upgrade your account however there’s absolutely no requirement to use Nitro for the Escape Collective. Also, the server is already fully boosted.
Channels
The channels shown in the side-bar are the default set of channels that are available to all users. Channels are grouped into categories.
Scroll to the bottom of the channel list to find the Information category. Here you’ll find a #how-do-i-use-this-thing channel which has some great resources to get you up and running on Discord.
Additional Channels
Beyond the default channels there’s a whole lot of other channels you can add to your sidebar. These channels are region and interest-based. To select your region(s) and interests head to the #channel-chooser channel at the top of the channel list.
Here you’ll find a bunch of drop-downs where you can select various regions and interests. Once you make your selections your user will be updated and new associated channels will appear in the sidebar. You can return to the Channel Chooser at any point to revise your selections.
Spoilers ?
As the Escape Collective covers current racing events there are some channels that may include race results and other spoilers. If you’re catching up on a race after it has happened it’s best to avoid the spoiler-friendly channels until you’ve watched it yourself. Spoiler-friendly channels have a siren in the channel’s name: ?
The expectation is that all race-specific discussion will stay within Spoiler channels until 24 hours after the race (or stage) has concluded.
How do I post?
To post in Discord:
- Select the channel that’s most appropriate for the content you’re intending to post
- For text-based channels you can type a message directly into the channel
When posing a question or starting a new discussion topic please consider hitting the “+” button to Create Thread:
- For forum-based channels use the New Post button.
How to reply
In text based channels there are many ways you can reply to others while taking part in a discussion:
| Method | When to Use |
| Message directly in the channel | When partaking in the current active discussion/topic in the channel. |
| Create Thread | If you believe your reply will spark further discussion it can be very helpful to move the discussion to a dedicated thread within the channel. We also recommend that sensitive topics, such as disordered eating, racism, transphobia, etc. be discussed in a thread so any discord members who are affected by the topic can choose whether or not they want to engage. A simple content warning like: “CW: Eating Disorders in the Peloton” as a thread title will help people curate their experience supportively. |
| Quote the message you’re replying to | When typing a message you can enter the “>” character and then a space to create a quote: | This is quoted text You can cut and paste an older message as a quote to reference it when typing your message. |
| Use the “Reply” option | When responding to a message that is no longer part of the active discussion/topic in the channel. Or when the message you are typing will be hard to understand without the context of the message you’re replying to. Note: the person you are replying to will receive a notification. There is no need to use the Reply function when responding to a message directly above your own message. |
Where to get help?
If you have any queries at any time there are two support channels available for queries:
- #support – A text-based channel where you can ask any queries
- #support-forum – A forum-based channel for questions which will grow into a knowledge base of Q&A over time.
One of the Escape Collective crew or the Discord moderators will get back to you soon!