New to Discord?
This guide is meant for people who are new to Discord and SciOlyID. Users who have used Discord before can skip this guide and go to “Getting Started”.
If you’re not familiar, Discord is a communication platform for communities that supports text, voice, and video. Communities can be small, such as a couple of friends, or large, with hundreds of thousands of members worldwide.
Check out Discord’s support page on getting started to learn how to create an account. Once you’re there, you can join our support server and start using SciOlyID!
You might find these resources helpful:
Discord bots
Discord bots are automated non-user accounts that can provide different services from within Discord. Moderation bots keep things clean, fun bots provide minigames, and music bots play music. SciOlyID offers two bots: Bird-ID for Ornithology and Minerobo for Rocks and Minerals.
Usually, Discord bots define a set of commands starting with a bot’s prefix. The prefix prevents commands from colliding with each other or messages sent by users.
Terminology reference
For a more detailed explanation, check out the Beginner’s Guide to Discord. The most important terms are outlined below for reference.
- Server (sometimes called guilds): A community of people centered around a common interest. Servers show up on the left-hand side in your Discord client.
- Channels: A space to talk, usually about some sub-topic within the server. Channels keep conversations organized. Text channels are denoted with the # symbol.
- Voice Channel (sometimes shortened to VC): A channel for communicating over audio or video. These are denoted with an audio symbol.
- Discord bot: A non-user account.
- Command: A message that a bot will respond to.
- Bot prefix: A string of characters that identifies a command for that bot.
Now that you’re familiar with Discord, let’s get started with SciOlyID!