We’ve added a Global Fixers Discord Server to facilitate around-the-clock around-the-world repair collaboration amongst Fixers.
Unfamiliar with Discord? It’s a communication and collaboration platform that is popular with gamers. It supports chat, voice, and video, file and image upload, etc. enabling both real time and out-of-sync communication and knowledge transfer. Like everything: this is an experiment exploring Discord’s capabilities and features and, of course, its effectiveness.
How are we gauging Discord’s effectiveness as a collaboration platform for promoting repair? At the moment the (admittedly lofty) objectives are:
-Blur the roles of Fixers and participants/presenters with the goal of making “everyone a Fixer.”
-Reach a younger overall demographic with the message that repair is possible.
-The moonshot: a wholesale change in the consumer mindset vis-a-vis their consumption.
All Restarters – and any current local community repair volunteer or aspiring repairer – anywhere in the world – are welcome to join;
-Sign up at http://bit.ly/fixitcoachsignup, select the “ONGOING: Repair via Global Fixers Discord Server” option to get an invite to the Global Fixers Server.
-PM me, @james or @Jessika_Richter for an invite to the Global Fixers Server.
And we’re interested in your experience with both the Discord and the Global Fixers Server on-boarding process, let us know if you encounter any difficulty.
2021-10-16 Repair Day Update: the Global Fixers Server is turning into a great resource for knowledge sharing and training amongst repairers where they can broaden skills, share skills, cross-train, and bring items they can’t repair for help (“stumpers”). And it’s attracting a younger, digitally native demographic that our repair efforts typically don’t reach; e.g. we’ve got lots of middle schoolers and high schoolers signing up. However: I acknowledge that Discord seems overly complex to navigate, at least at first.
Therefore I’m pasting the reply email you get when you fill out the form at http://bit.ly/fixitcoachsignup below to save you some steps.
Please contact me directly anytime if you need help getting up to speed with Discord: Global Fixers and I’ll help or get you help.
Happy Repair Day, -Peter
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Welcome to the Global Fixers Server!
ALREADY HAVE A DISCORD ID? If yes: log in to Discord BEFORE clicking
on the invite link below (avoids “unclaimed account” and “Unable to
accept invite” errors)
NEW TO DISCORD? The Global Fixers Server is only one of many servers
on Discord, so Discord asks you to choose a generic, general ID (or
just accept Discord’s default ID (it will be something like
“something#1234”)) IMPORTANT: remember this ID (and the four numbers
and your password because you will need it to log into Discord in the
future.) (You will edit the nickname associated with that general ID
below for the Global Fixers Server.)
You can use Discord through a web browser but apparently Discord
works much better if you download and run the Discord app
Discord may prompt you to initialize a server, you can ignore that.
Once in the Global Fixers Server: edit your nickname: Right-click
(or CTRL-click on Mac) on the Global Fixers mended cross in the upper
left hand side and select “Change Nickname”, change to your real first
name and your location (e.g. "Peter Berkeley CA US”)
The “chit-chat” channel is the initial channel for text chat, you
can supplement that with a simultaneous voice/video channel
TO OPEN A TICKET: Start a new text channel for a broken item by
opening a ticket: while in the chit-chat channel type “-ticket open
[typeofitem]-[make]-[model]” (no quotes and no brackets) and it
should create a new text channel with that name (see the ones already
created.)
Optional: Consider Discord’s Light theme, it seems more welcoming:
-In the lower left click on User Settings (the gear icon)>Click on
“Appearance” (Left hand menu)>Theme, click on the “Light” radio button
Most of us are new to Discord: feel free to play around /
experiment; we can fix/delete any egregious errors.
Ideally: view the Global Fixers Server as your virtual repair “home”:
invite other Fixers from your local community to hang out here too.
Here’s the invite link (Remember: log in to Discord first if you
already have an account): https://discord.gg/WZd4xWd
I’m interested in your experience with both the Discord and the Global
Fixers Server on-boarding process, let me know if you encounter any
difficulty or if something could be made easier.
