You don’t have to do anything with the feelings I’m sharing with you. I’m not looking for compliments or praise, and it’s been made abundantly clear by some that my feelings are inconvenient or make them feel uncomfortable. This post is an explanation about what’s going on with the Discord server as there’s been a lot of speculation.
If you’re on the Discord server, you may have noticed that some of the channels are no longer visible. They aren’t gone – I made them private for now as I decide if I want to keep this server going or not. Everything is there the way you left it, but only available to me.
I’m an extrovert: I started the Discord server because I wanted to connect and talk about cosmetic chemistry during the pandemic and beyond. I thought it’d be fun to hang out and create formulas on the fly, troubleshoot problems, generally have a laugh: Instead, I feel like the mum at a party who’s shooed off once she’s dropped off the snacks and drinks. I don’t need to be the centre of attention or the life of the party, but it would be nice to feel like after all the work I do to make these things happen, I have a place to kick back and have some fun.
It started to feel like very few people read what I write on the blog or know that I have huge sections on ingredients, concepts, and a formula directory under “resources”. Most people, it seemed, just grabbed the formula and went, which is thoroughly depressing and has made it hard to be enthusiastic about writing over the past month or two.
For a number of reasons and a number of users, I don’t feel welcome on my own server.
I’m sure many of you think I’m thin-skinned and should just ignore whatever’s bothering me, but I can’t – someone has to moderate the channels. On top of the normal interpersonal issues, there’s a whole lotta misinformation being shared with links to sites I don’t think at all credible, and I don’t want to seem like I’m endorsing them.
A while ago, I decided to stop interacting on the channels, and realized I felt so much happier. I found my enthusiasm returning, and my writing more joyous. Earlier this week, I made two channels private as a test to see how I’d feel with eliminating the Discord server entirely, and so far, I’m feeling pretty darned good without them.
My blog, the Zoom workshops, the Discord server – they’re all restricted to subscribers, but not everyone respects that. I’m asking for a single dollar a month for a starter subscription to access all of these things, to keep the blog free of ads, sponsored content, affiliate links, and all that other marketing stuff, which I think is more than fair for what I’m offering here.
Because I know there are non-subscribers in the Discord chats, please don’t share any materials from the blog or e-books there. Instead, please link to the post in question.
If you aren’t a subscriber to the blog, the Discord server isn’t for you.
For the second month in a row, the Lotioncrafter coupon has been shared online. This discount is given as a gift to my readers out of the goodness of Jen’s heart, and it’s upsetting to see it abused. Making the channels private has absolutely nothing to do with the sharing of this coupon, contrary to a popular rumour, but it does have something to do with feeling disheartened.
I don’t know what will happen with Discord. I vacillate between deleting the server entirely and leaving a channel or two open, maybe going private and invite-only for a small group. I’ve always said I’ll stop doing all of this when it stops being fun, and honestly, Discord stopped being fun for me quite some time ago.
Don’t worry – the blog isn’t going anywhere! I love this blog, it brings me such great joy, and I’d be completely lost without it! It’s taken me a while to realize this, but that joy and love for what I do evaporates when I step outside it. I guess social media really isn’t my thing, eh? Thanks for listening.