Updating self hosted apps

Updating Self-Hosted Apps: Why It Matters Now and How to Do It #

Remember that controversial Discord AI moderation tool? self-appointed volunteers moderating communities? Returns that it was just a contract extension for $588M, which only goes to 2025? #

As the AI recursion conversation unfolds, Discord users return the original Discord moderation AI and ChatGPT, the latest and most controversial moderation tools. If you’ve seen Discord’s new moderation tool and immediately thought about training good examples for ChatGPT, read on. Whether on Discord, Discord, Slack, Mattermost, or custom self-hosted apps like matrix, you’re facing a similar challenge. How to address harmful, trolling, and spammy behaviors while complying with user privacy and terms of service? The AI is powerful, doesn’t just understand toxic content, but can also communicate with you, remind you, ask you for further information and so on. The difference between knowing and truly understanding can be eliminated by the moderation AI. In Discord,

• Users first floated the idea of open-sourcing Discord’s moderation tools nearly two years ago. The goal? Provide an alternative to Discord’s moderation servers and advanced AI capabilities for Slack and mattermost self-hosted communities. Meanwhile, Discord didn’t immediately respond, leaving open-source developers to venture into less known moderation tools, forming a community of developers around these tools.
• Discord’s new moderation AI’s response compares to real worry from a large community of moderators, journalists, and users.
• Moderation AI are expensive and not usually up for inexperienced self-hosters. While open-sourcing moderation tools may threaten Discord’s core business, it also presents a growth opportunity.
• Discord’s slow response to open-sourcing its moderation tools holds it back from cementing its place as one of the self-hosting tools many depend on.
• ACING Discord’s self-hosting and growth strategy, summoning experienced self moderators who can work in a direct community, creates a profit-driven advantage, whatever Discord’s growth has allowed in the past.
• Maintenance can be done through a single freelancer, reduced costs (hard disks are way cheaper than servers), and a transferred labor force.
• Hiring experienced self-hosting moderators is far more affordable now.
• Discord may not need a large in-house team, nor 500,000 servers broken when dealing with open-sourcing its activation key.

But Discord’s existing ambition into moderation AI can become a tier-1 productivity tool. How? #

“[I would use it as] an administrative tool inside some product/design software. A mundane example would be uploading content in discodain with (chatgpt), followed by a command like “admin add comment” that would just allow the ai to write a comment on my behalf”. By integrating ChatGPT into your tools, you can use a text-based model to automate mundane tasks that were previously difficult or impossible.

How can Discord improve open-sourcing its moderation tools? #

Supply faster patching to Discord #

• Announce weekly patching plans: Specific topics (driver bugs, stability fixes, bug fixes, and new features)
• Whenever something breaks, join Discord first for a “blame game”, and create a new release candidate as promptly as possible.
• Give Discord moderators prioritized access to beta versions. Borrow insight from Discord’s “Server Boost” regaining that clarifies “Pro-beta”.

Remove “paid vs. self-hosted” entrance creating a better user experience #

For moderators,

• Serve them with easy-to-read moderation logs. For experienced moderators, streamlog condensed in multiple formats and on demand. For self-hosted moderators use a profile/commenting system that aggregates relevant information. Then include “seen” buttons for object tracking.
• Include a “Call for Moderators” button. Will this button advantage seasoned self-hosteders and attract them? Saying yes to this will push them back, but few will choose a new, unfamiliar moderator. We should ask why many self-hosted provide moderation pages for grown-up services. *We’re indexing them so users can even track back 2.5 million oldest post. **Encourage Collaborations.
• Break the “one community, one moderator” that asking questions, encouraging discussion, and assembling documentation
• Create a GitHub organization where Sysadmins and Administrators help Discord maintain its self-hosted moderation tools. Host a valuable forum and discussion board to bring Discord’s moderation community together. AI for moderators
• As you **train the dataset your own self-hosted community’s bizarre and most toxic users to create a more effective moderation tool, you retain moderation ownership. Collaborate with experienced self-hosted moderators on your forums to get their feedback.
• Set nodes - server shard function.

Will Discord join self-hosted communities? #

Discord is complex and ambitious. Without board members, admin software, and unlimited resources, it’s perfectly positioned to adequately respond to all customer requests and product problems, if only it found the right motivation.

Will Open-Sourcing Discord’s Moderation AI supplied to a profitable business? #

Encountering Discord’s self-hosted community will benefit not just the business, but everyone involved. Being available to everyone, Discord may return the favor recently. Or the community may provide more features and tools for Discord, presenting a lot of opportunities for Discord’s engineering and maintenance teams. This could be a very effective way to identify and screen potential hires for Discord.

For You #

Looking into Discord’s infrastructure and releasing a possible open-source Discord version opens it up for improving your own Discord community. What kinds of benefits and features would users like to see?

• A wider range of moderator tools?
• More community moderation features?
• Integration with other self-hosted tools? Giving users a streamlined, user-friendly way to create their own Discord servers may revolutionize the open-source community.

Next Question #

How should the community contribute back to Discord? Many self-hosted communities thrive improving and appreciating tools and providing historical data to maintain relevant versions. Help Discord become a bigger utility tool for every other open-source self-hosted community and Discord users. Embrace onboarding new users and setting up self-hosted resources for younger users.

References #