Official Chaos Insurgency Discord Server

Come and chat with us on the official Chaos Insurgency Discord Server! Just join through the widget above (or alternatively this link) to get in contact with our community.

If you are new to Discord, take a look at their Getting Started Guide for a introduction to the basics. Also make sure to read to rules below before joining.

Below you'll also find an explanation of our roles and channels and a detailed guide-line on how to use Discord without a phone number.

Server Rules

§0 The Golden Rule

Be civil. Treat others as you would like others to treat you.
Behind every username is a real person that deserves your respect. Take this into consideration, and act with decency.

§1 Etiquette

1. Members should only be pinged (mentioned using @their name) when it is strictly necessary. Needless pinging or pinging entire ranges of users will lead to disciplinary action.
2. The excessive use of Emoticons, special Unicode characters or images is considered spam.
   1. Excessive use of formatting and capital letters might be considered spam too in extreme cases.
   2. Harassing users through direct messages will result in placement on the watchlist and, if deemed necessary, disciplinary action.
3. Spoilers of media should be marked as such, and be hidden using Discord's special formatting for spoilers (by placing them between pairs of ||).
   1. Intentional spoiling my lead to disciplinary action.

§2 Nickname & Profile

1. Offensive and inappropriate nicknames and profile pictures are not tolerated.
2. Users are to be informed that they can set a separate Server-side nickname independent of their overall Discord nickname.
3. There is no obligation to have matching WikiDot and Discord nicknames, though it is highly appreciated.
4. Nicknames that solely consist of unprintable characters are forbidden.
   1. Optionally, as a curtsey to the international community, nicknames with easily typeable latin letters are preferred.
5. Should a user frequently change their nickname and/or profile picture to the point where they become hard to identify, staff reserves the right to revoke their privileges to change their nickname.

§3 Age

1. The age minimum for joining the server is 15 years (just as the wiki).
   1. If a user is found being under this age, they will be banned until meet the requirement. Should the user be found to be below Discord's age limit as well, they will also be reported to the Discord Trust & Safety Team.

§4 Spam & Advertising

1. Spamming in any way is forbidden and will lead to disciplinary action.
2. Users are allowed to mention projects (of theirs and others) both related and not related to the Chaos Insurgency. However, users should be considerate when doing so. Advertising that annoys other users will not be tolerated.
3. Frequent unconstructive short replies consisting only of memes ("Chan behaviour") is discouraged and may be sanctioned should it become excessive to the point of disrupting the ambient.

§5 Admissible Content and Topics

1. The Chaos Insurgency is inherently connected to mature themes, especially horror.
2. Nonetheless, users should be careful with what they share. Content that is potential disturbing to other users (like triggering phobias) or considered NSFW (Not Safe For Work - media that should not be viewed in public) it must be send as spoilers (by placing them between pairs of ||).
3. Explicit content (gore, graphic violence, pornography) is strictly forbidden.
   1. Non-sexual nudity (this means things like classic paintings or medical diagrams) is considered NSFW.
4. Content that may trigger common fears (Arachnophobia, Claustrophobia, Herpetophobia, Trypophobia, etc.) has to be labelled as such and, if graphic media is embedded, has to be blurred by using spoiler markup.
   1. This rule is relaxed in channels of the designated Content Warning category.
5. Offensive content (meaning content that is intended to provoke one or more persons) is forbidden.
6. Hate speech and extremism of any form or any endorsement thereof is forbidden.
7. Any content revealing personal information of a person may only be posted with their explicit consent.
8. Security concerns (such as applied chemistry or hacking), especially in the context of application by the Chaos Insurgency, must be discussed responsible.
9. The distribution of illegally acquired copyrighted contents ("Warez") is prohibited.
   1. Discussion of cracking, etc. fall under the same instruction of caution as mentioned above.
10. Shortened URLs (for example via bit.ly or tinyurl.com) are only admissible with former permission by staff.
11. Flirtatious or leering behaviour, lewdness and overuse of innuendo ("thirstposting") are inappropiate.

§6 Roleplaying

1. Roleplaying may only be conducted in the designated channels.
   1. At the point of writing this guide, no such channels exist due to lack of demand. If requested by enough members, such channels will be created and these rules expanded.
2. Insisting that the Insurgency, the Foundation, anomalies, or other fictional wiki content exist in reality will not be tolerated.

§7 Invitations

1. Users are free to create invite links to the Server, provided that they are set to expire. Non-expiring invites may only be created with former agreement of staff and may otherwise be revoked upon discovery.

(Version 1.3.0, last updated 2022-06-16)

Roles Hierarchy

Sigma - Freshmen

This is a "preliminary" role given to new members. This shows that a user is new to the community.
After interacting amicably a while (usually a week) Sigma members are upgraded to Delta.
Note: In order to protect the Server from malicious users disrupting the community, Sigma members have restricted access to certain channels and features (like streaming videos or pinging @everyone).

Delta - Members

This is the default role for members.
Delta members have no special obligations or restrictions imposed on them.

Gamma - Veterans

This is the "veteran" role. It is functionally similar to Delta.
It is only given to experienced members of the community. As a rule of thumb, Gamma members have been part of the community since before the Discord Server was started.
Gamma members should guide new users through the wiki wherever possible, and can give valuable feedback.

Beta - Mods

This is the Moderator role. Users designated as Moderator watch over the chat.
Beta members are entrusted by the Admins to keep the chat civil, manage the Server and help out newcomers.
Mods can enforce minor disciplinary action (like kicking users or demoting them to Sigma) to deal with troublemakers.

Alpha - Admins

This is the Administrator role. They maintain the Server and/or wiki.
Admins are the highest tier in the hierarchy, and their word is final.

Channels Overview

INFO

This category is read-only and meant for notifications and announcements.

#landing-page

This channel is the first thing a new member should see upon joining. It links back to this page for the rules, explains the roles and features a collection of useful links. Users can also get a pronoun assigned by the pronoun picker bot here.

#new-people

This channel announces the joining of new members. Kept visible due to a community vote, but can be safely muted and hidden.

#new-works

This channel announces new articles on the wiki. Currently not automatized, so it might take a while before new articles are entered by the staff.

#site-announcements

This channel announces important changes to the wiki or the Discord server. Can be followed for integration into other servers.

CHAOS INSURGENCY

This category bundles channels focused on the contents of the wiki.

#universe

This channel is meant for discussion of the in-universe Chaos Insurgency and the rest of their world. A good place to ask questions about lore and backstory.

#feedback

This channel is meant for requesting critique and feedback on drafts and ideas.Whilst criticism is always welcome, it must be kept constructive at all times, clearly destructive criticism is forbidden. For more info on proper critique, consult the topic "Criticism" in the Guide for new Recruits

#fanworks

This channel allows people to share non-text works about the Insurgency, like fanart, cosplay or videos.

#tech

This channel covers all technical topics, including informatics, engineering, the sciences, etc. This place also provides assistance with Wikidot or Discord, and to some extent, Web Development.

LOUNGE

This category is for recreational interaction with the community. Relevance to the Insurgency is not enforced.

#general-chat

This channel is the main chatting area where most conversations take place. This is the right place for everything that would off-topic elsewhere.

#international-chat

This channel is reserved for conversations in languages other than English.

#polls

This channel allows all members of Delta rank or higher to create their own polls for other users to answer. Polling is limited to one poll every 6 hours.
In order to create a poll, members should pose a question with multiple pre-defined answers, and clearly assign an emoticon to each. User participating in the poll can then react on that message with the given emoticon.
Answering on a poll in text is prohibited.

#memes

This channels is for sharing memes and funny pictures or clips and overall have a good time being silly.

#gaming

This channel is about all gaming related hobbies, be they video games, tabletop or TCGs.

#music

This channel is a place to share music of all kinds with others.

#food

This channel is focused on food-related topics. Due to the majority of the server population being weirdos, this often becomes a mix between #memes and #horror

#pets

This channel is for sharing pictures of cute animals and complimenting them. No negativity towards the critters allowed.

#uniformed-and-uninformed

This channel was formerly known as #anime-girls-in-uniform and is the go-to place for any defence and military related shitposting. It is also a place to share non-explicit (no nudity or gore) drawings and photographs of uniforms, real or fictional. Posts must not approve, endorse or glorify crimes against humanity.

#asmr

This channel is a quarantine zone for ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) content. It may be posted there and only there.

CONTENT WARNING

This category is for channels about topics that may not be suitable for all environments and audiences. No trigger warnings are required for content in this category, although general restrictions about allowed content still apply.

#horror

This channel is covering things falling into the horror genre. Media posted here is often meant as inspiration for article creation.

#sensitive-topics

This channel is restricted to Delta rank and higher. Its main purpose is to act as a retreat to discuss touchy, potentially personal topics that are inappropriate in subject matter for the other channels.
Since this channel is designed for mature and intimate topics, moderation of misbehaviour here is especially strict.

VOICECHAT

This category bundles the seldom used channels for voice chats.

Using Discord for the Privacy-Conscious

Notice

This Guide is being archived for posterity. Discord has introduced a mandatory authentication via SMS that we can not disable for our server.

Introduction

The social chat platform Discord has become a gathering place for many online communities due to its accessibility, ease of management and broad customizability. This includes us, the Chaos Insurgency, and many related Containment Fiction projects.

However, Discord is not without shortcomings — it is invasive, wasteful and at times insecure. Whilst trying to educate others about the importance of privacy and security is a noble cause, human nature is opposed to this endeavour. Whilst it is possible to connect services like Matrix to Discord through so-called puppeteer bots, this affects usability and quality of life for everyone involved negatively.

With both alternative front-ends and community migration being out of the question, how should a willing user connect to our (or any) Discord server? This document is supposed to act as guideline to using Discord as safely, privately and dignified as possible.

Overview

Discord may be used either through the browser at discord.com or through the dedicated application for desktops and mobile devices.

However, there exist major drawbacks should one opt to use Discord in the browser. Because browsers allow users a greater degree of freedom when deciding on how to interact with the service, for example through third-party extensions (for example by suppressing typing notifications) whilst limiting the information Discord can gather from users, this mode is being neglected compared to the apps.

Especially when using a hardened browser like LibreWolf, the service becomes basically unusable; Discord will require a phone number to verify the account and else ban it for "suspicious activity". Since phone numbers can not (legally) be acquired anonymously in most parts of the world, this is a massive privacy concern. Even when a phone number is provided, the quality of Discord will be severely limited: automatic cookie deletion means the platform will show you introductory tutorial messages each time log in, many embeds may be adversely affected by other Extension (e.g. uBlock Origin, NoScript, etc.), the users is forced to solve a CAPTCHA upon login, and many QoL enhancements are missing.

The problem of poor bot detection resulting in automatic bans alone is reason enough to not want to use Discord in the browser, so the remainder of this guide will explain how to make Discord run in a virtual machine on a desktop computer. This isolates the application from your main OS and allows you to feed the inevitable telemetry credible, but non-identifying information. It should be noted that this approach comes at the cost of performance, though the overhead over normal Discord operation can be held low.

Setting up the Virtual Machine

First of all, you need virtualization software. There are many alternatives on the market, though when it comes to free ones for this particular usecase, the author recommends using either Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player. The latter is easier to setup and configure, whereas the former has advantage of being open source and not nagging you about being for non-commercial use only.

With that out of the way, you need a disc image of the operating system to use on there — because acquiring Windows licenses is a hassle, just as removing the spy-, ad- and bloatware from it, you should use a Linux system. We'll be using snap packages to install Discord later, so the choice is all yours as long as it is a 64-bit version.

Set up the virtual machine. Make sure to give its virtual hard disc enough space to hold both the Operating System, its pre-installed programs and Discord. For Debian 11.2 "bullseye", 32 GB is a good value to guarantee some leftover space (after all, you might be downloading things from Discord, or want to upload something yourself) whilst still keeping everything bootable from a thumb-drive. As for RAM for your VM, you will need a minimum of 4 GB to make everything run smoothly. Since nobody in the 2020s can make native applications any more, Discord is yet another program running in a poorly optimized Electron instance which requires its hefty share of memory.

Now configure everything else you could want in the VM. It's highly advised to only connect to Discord through a VPN to mask your location, so having the entire VM only able to connect through said VPN is a good idea.¹ If you want to use the voice chat functionality, allowing the VM to access your microphone (and camera, should you really want that) is obviously required. Pro Tip: if you use voice skins or avatars, this is a perfect opportunity to apply them with a virtual device without anything in the VM being able to detect what you are doing.

Now launch the VM for the first time and complete the setup. Once you've done that, install Snap (assuming it didn't came preinstalled). These steps vary depending on your distro, but this article is a good start should you be completely clueless. Keep in mind that this is a freshly installed OS, so the account you just setup won't be automatically in the sudoers file; simply using su - for the following steps can save you a lot of cursing!

Once snap is installed, execute the following commands in sequence (sudo can obviously be omitted if you used su):

sudo snap install core
sudo snap install discord

In the meanwhile you might be wondering why we're using snaps instead of whatever package is native to your distro. The reason lies in snaps being naturally confined, preventing Discord from getting all to much telemetry of your VM. Should you encounter any problems (or get for whatever reason annoyed by the apparmor errors it causes in your logs), follow these simple instructions.

Great! We just got Discord running in your virtual environment. You can open it either with snap run discord or through the icon (the icon will only show up after a restart, because reasons). Now onwards to actually using Discord!

Setting up Discord

Before you can use Discord, you need a Discord account, duh. Because Discord doesn't like browsers, vis supra, we're going to do as much as possible of this through the desktop app.

First, you'll need an e-mail address. You could use your main one for this, sure, but in the spirit of compartmentalization, you better create one specifically for this purpose. You can either use a paid service like AnonAddy, or just take a minute to create a new one at a privacy-friendly service like ProtonMail. Since you're only using it to verify your Discord account and not for leaking classified information, something simple is perfectly acceptable.

Now, open the Discord app and chose to sign up. Choose a nickname, give the e-mail address you just created and enter a birthdate. Keep in mind that Discord's TOS do prohibit anyone under 14 from using the service, and that viewing channels marked as NSFW requires you to be age 18 or above.

After signing up this way, you'll get a confirmation e-mail; click the link therein. Please make sure that the web browser you're using for this is connecting from the same IP as the Discord app, else that might be suspicious.

With that done, you should now be able to use Discord.

Setting up Discord

Customizing your profile, joining servers and adding friends is left to you — if you need help, Discord has luser-proof tutorials for that. But what you want to do now is setting up your Discord for enhanced privacy and security.

First, navigate to User Settings ➤ Privacy & Safety, there disable "Use data to improve Discord", no matter what the begging pop-up might say. Same for "Use data to customize my Discord experience". If the option "Allow Discord to track screen reader usage" is one (it shouldn't) disable it too. These three are the most invasive telemetry.

When you're already here, you can also disable to let everyone add you as a friend — this helps massively in reducing spam and unwanted contacts.

If you are extremely afraid of connecting to non-Discord domains, you should also go to App Settings ➤ Text & Images and disable under "Display Images, Videos and Lolcats" the category "When posted as links to chat" and also "Show embeds and preview website links pasted into chat" in the next category.

Finally, go to Activity Settings ➤ Activity Status and disable "Display current activity as status message".

Optionally, you can also go to App Settings ➤ Linux Settings and disable autostart of Discord at system start-up, should you have to configure proxies or whatever after starting the VM to prevent leakage, etc.

These should be everything important in the scope of this document, at least until another Discord update shuffled everything around anyway.

Maintaining digital hygiene on Discord

If you're reading this, you're probably aware of the fundamentals already: don't click on any link you come across, nobody is giving things away for free, don't do anything to dox yourself, and having your DMs open is an invitation for edgy teens trying to get you into the "Blue Whale Challenge".

Keep in mind there is no auto-delete for all your messages, and automatizing a clean-up is bannable due to "self-botting"; so be prepared for anything you share to stay indefinitely on Discord's servers. On any upside, deleted messages appear to be actually gone for good after no more than 2 hours when Discord discards them.² Don't rely to much on this though.

Keep in mind however that Discord's detection of these "self-bots" is very poor (somewhat ironic, eh?), and it is possible for everyone having access to a channel to scrape all messages in there. You may also be scanned and automatically registered in databases run by shady bots or by "cyber vigilante"-nincompoops à la DiscordRep which are fond of leaking everything they can find all across the web. Although this is a problem universal to humans, remember: There is no confidentiality whatsoever. Always assume every conversation to be public.

Conclusion

This wraps up the instructions to minimize risk of exposure and leaks when using Discord for the paranoid bunch of our users (<3 you folks). Whilst no OpSec will ever be enough to cover all edge cases, this is probably as safe as it gets. If you are not a target to an APT, these should be more than reasonable measures — consider you are using WikiDot right now, a platform not particularly known for its trustworthiness either.

And in case anyone wonders: nothing you are doing here is strictly violating Discord's ToS (not legal advice). Should you use this method to circumvent restrictions (like evading a ban), that can get you in trouble, but as long as you stick to legitimate uses, you'll be fine. After all, Discord wants as many people as possible to use their service, so if nobody gives them a reason to persecute masked users, they won't put money into doing that.

However, depending on what country you're in, as little as having a VM installed could raise suspicion and/or be illegal. Knowing the laws and regulations of your current residence is up to you.

Footnotes

1. Discord may detect "something going on" if you log in from certain VPNs or the TOR network. You better ask for the experience of others before you decide for one for this particular purpose.

2. There is an exception: Admins and Mods have the option to report a message to Discord's Trust and Safety Team when deleting, in which case there is obviously and copy retained for them to investigate.