Karl Wilcox
89 supporters
Communications Strategy

Communications Strategy

Dec 13, 2020

Communication Strategy!? What does DrawShield need a communications strategy for? It's not some global mega-corp with an image problem!

True, but I thought it would be useful to just let everyone know where to get help, support and information.

TL;DR

Everything is on the DrawShield Discord server https://discord.gg/HDekEPwgEr, except for longer form pieces, which will be here on buymeacoffee.

What! Explain Yourself!

There are several ways that you might need to communicate with the DrawShield team - let's go through them individually

Announcements
Everything now that you need to know about Draw shield will be announced in the #announcements channel on the Discord server. This includes bug fixes, new features and gallery postings. The channel is public so you can comment, respond and ask follow up questions.

Error Reports
Errors that you report using the form on the create page will be automatically posted to
the #bug-reports channel on the Discord server There either myself or one of the Discord team will try to help you. If this is a genuine bug then it will be added to the #TO DO list.

Suggestions
If you have ideas to improve Draw shield then you can email them to me directly, or post them to the #suggestions channel on the Discord server. The latter is the preferred approach. You will get immediate feedback on your idea from me or the discord team.

Chat and Help
Come and talk to us on the "General" Discord Channel, there is usually someone around who can guide you, and there is an eager bot who can help you search the catalog, get heraldic definitions or even set you a heraldry challenge. Just type !help in any channel. If you want to talk off-topic use the "Coffee-and-cake" channel.

Longer Form Pieces
Sometimes there is a need to explain things over an extended length - complex new features, or reasons why things have to be done a certain way. For those occasions I will be creating a blog post on the Draw shield "Buy Me A Coffee" Page.


Why Discord & Buy Me a Coffee? Why Not Twitter?

I don't find Twitter to be a very good medium for providing technical support or sustaining a conversation. By the time we have entered a blazon our character count is often used up, before we even start to explain what needs to be changed to fix things! I'll still be monitoring the twitter channel, and will try to publish significant announcements but to keep really up to the minute with DrawShield news you will find Discord server the place to be.

Discord lets us use multiple channels and assign moderators, easily add images and reactions, and search for specific terms, and I'm always looking for new features to add to the ever-helpful DrawShield bot.

I've also come to like Buy Me a coffee as a blogging platform-it is easy and quick to use, supports tags and notifications - and it never hurts to remind folks about the importance of coffee to the future of Draw Shield development!

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