Discord banned a ME/CFS server

There’s something a little perturbing about subreddits getting very excited about nootropics that other nootropics subreddits are simply too square and conventional to even imagine. A quick look at r/nootropicsfrontline doesn’t assuage that disquiet much.
 
Hopefully shouldn’t be too hard to self host an instance of one of those open source chat platforms.

I don’t really care what the content is, I think the implications of certain (non illegal) communities being banned from these services is pretty grim.
 
The whole 'the world isn't ready for this information' schtick makes me wary. Conspiracy theories and harmful medical advice proliferate in such spaces.

My bet is that Discord is purging those alt-med spaces that encourage unsupervised drug use (or drug use of any kind).

They may want to avoid lawsuits (they may want to avoid liability for any disasters that occur due to advice given on those servers), or they may be taking a responsible stance to curb the spread of misinformation in the wake of COVID.

It may also be a step to prevent guerilla marketing by shady nootropic sellers. There's no regulation of what's happening in spaces like that, which increases the risks.
 
Wits_End said:
Having experience with Discord, I'm surprised pwME can cope with it. It drives me potty trying to work out who's replied to what, and the colours are horrendous.
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100%
it is exceedingly difficult to find the threads (channels) you are looking for in Discords with hundreds of channels.
 
Wits_End said:
Having experience with Discord, I'm surprised pwME can cope with it. It drives me potty trying to work out who's replied to what, and the colours are horrendous.
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I use Discord regularly, but there are at most only a few people on the channel, and usually only two of us. Used carefully its useful. We use it primarily for gaming.

Any voice chat situation with a lot of people is typically a problem, and not just Discord.
 
I'm hoping to get more information on the "500 members MECFS server". I participate regularly in a lot of chronic illness discord servers. Some are MECFS focused other are more broadly focused. Discord groups have become important support systems for many people with chronic illness and/or disability. Loosing those communities would be devastating for many people.

I don't know a lot about the Nootropics Frontline community but it does sound like they were promoting some really experimental medical treatments? Also wondering if Discord thought they were associated with "American Frontline Doctors" which spread COVID misinformation.

So was the MECFS community discussing anything controversial? Does anyone know how/why they got on Discord's radar?

Just read an article on Discord changing their TOS to start moderating medical misinformation:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/25/22950432/discord-new-privacy-policy-community-guidelines

it is important to know why certain communities were banned so that many of us can protect the existing communities.
 
Welcome to the forum @RenWmn
Discord New Privacy Policy Community Guidelines said:
Discord is also targeting hate speech by expanding its protected attributes to caste, gender identity, age, serious illness, and more.
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I thought that line from the Discord Guidelines was interesting. So people with ME/CFS and Long Covid are theoretically protected from hate speech.
 
So I've done a lot of research in the past day to try to discover why certain medically related discord servers were banned. First off, this is not a judgement on anyone who were banned or their communities. I won't be sharing specific community names or people. I'm sharing this information solely so people can know how to protect their discord communities and personal user accounts.

From what I gathered, back in January of this year Discord banned certain servers AND any of the server members that participated in any server discussions. The reason seems to be blatant coordinated efforts for buying, selling, and trading medications. It sounds like these were wide spread practices on these servers. It wasn't just discussing medications or treatments. It wasn't because they were chronic illness related servers. It sounds like people didn't have to be directly involved in these specific practices on the server, just participating in any way on the server was enough to get banned. There was an ME/CFS discord server that lost their admin, moderator and members from these bans, but that server is still there. The bans don't seem to be related with their participation on the ME/CFS server but participating in servers that engaged in the activities mentioned above.

I welcome anyone correcting this information. I'm just trying to get to the truth.
 
RenWmn said:
So I've done a lot of research in the past day to try to discover why certain medically related discord servers were banned. First off, this is not a judgement on anyone who were banned or their communities. I won't be sharing specific community names or people. I'm sharing this information solely so people can know how to protect their discord communities and personal user accounts.

From what I gathered, back in January of this year Discord banned certain servers AND any of the server members that participated in any server discussions. The reason seems to be blatant coordinated efforts for buying, selling, and trading medications. It sounds like these were wide spread practices on these servers. It wasn't just discussing medications or treatments. It wasn't because they were chronic illness related servers. It sounds like people didn't have to be directly involved in these specific practices on the server, just participating in any way on the server was enough to get banned. There was an ME/CFS discord server that lost their admin, moderator and members from these bans, but that server is still there. The bans don't seem to be related with their participation on the ME/CFS server but participating in servers that engaged in the activities mentioned above.

I welcome anyone correcting this information. I'm just trying to get to the truth.
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Sounds like a reasonable theory to me. I moderate a Discord server and Discord is relatively strict about what it allows to go on through its platform.
 
For those like me completely ignorant about Discord and about nootropics, here are a couple of articles I've found helpful:

Nootropics are drugs and herbals that people are experimenting with to try to achieve cognitive enhancement. The most common purpose seems to be students to try to do better in exams, and older people worried about losing cognitive function with age.
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/features/nootropics-smart-drugs-overview

Beginners guide to Discord:
https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045138571-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Discord
It's a platform for gamers to talk to each other and other groups to communicate. It seems to be a variation on forums, slack, reddit, facebook etc.
 
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