Though a simple aspect of any NFT project, community Discords are among the most critical attributes in having a successful project launch. While some projects may not need a Discord because of their social status (i.e., ForeverBots), most other projects need to utilize Discord as a form of meaningful engagement and transparency with their community. So, what are some flags to look out for in a discord?
What to Look for in a Project’s Discord Community
Discords are a great sign of community and a true looking glass into how a project’s backend runs. There are a lot of signs that come along with how a community is operating, and one of the best to look out for is the engagement inside of the Discord. One of the best tells of a project’s legitimacy and tangibility is how people engage in chat; as an outsider looking in, you want to see genuine participation from the community.
Suppose people are helpful, speak passionately about the project un-coerced, and spend time genuinely chatting with other members on the server. In that case, it is a sign of a solid community being built.
A red flag would be if the number of users is high yet very low engagement. Look out for projects with tens of thousands of members yet only a few dozen people chatting; those are likely to be artificially inflated.
If a project is doing that, it already shows an untrustworthy characteristic that you may want to avoid. Essentially, if users are engaged and genuinely conversing in the community and not just grinding for a whitelist, it is a sign that the project in question may be worth a closer look and some engagement of your own.
Is the Project’s Team Engaged with the Community?
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While the engagement of a community is an excellent sign of a project’s legitimacy, you also have to be sure that you are looking at the team’s engagement in the community. At the time of writing, the standard approach for an NFT project’s Discord is for community moderators to run the day-to-day and direct members and visitors to the proper server channels.
The community moderators (or mods) are often culled from many different countries and tend to be directed by a lead moderator, who gets their information from the project leads or developers. Utilizing this tactic allows for constant interaction, no matter the time zone, and enables the project heads to focus on the fine details of carrying out the project.
With this said, there are definitely outliers to this model, and some of those can actually be positive for a project’s reflection. It is generally a good sign if a project’s founders are heavily involved in communication and speaking to the community.
Allowing the community to speak with the founder(s) openly provides a level of transparency that generally doesn’t come with projects, and bonus points for a doxxed founder being active in their community; this can sometimes show that they believe in their product and holding themselves responsible. Double bonus for any projects with active developers (devs) and artists!
When mentioning the team and their relations with their discord, we also must talk about how knowledgeable and transparent the staff is. Are the mods active, can answer questions, and point you in the right direction to find information? If the answer is no to any of these, the chances are that the project hasn’t quite gotten its strides yet, which is a great reason to take a step back and do further research before you invest your time or hard-earned crypto.
An Active, Growing Community is Essential to Any Project’s Success
One final piece to pay attention to is a bit of an amalgamation of the flags listed above, and it can be summed up as participation. A project that values itself in the space will likely have a very active discord with mods, founders, and community members all actively participating and willing to bring others into the community.
Byways of playing games, hosting contests and giveaways, or being active in voice chats or AMA’s, a project’s discord can meaningfully engage with its members and show that they are also a part of the establishment that is being built. Seeing a project and its team being active and engaged is an excellent sign that there is some sustenance behind their movement, and it may be worth sticking around.
Whether you’re jumping on the bandwagon of buzzing projects or scouring the web for the newest ones, paying attention to these Discord happenings can provide you with some insight needed to invest in a project comfortably.
It is essential to be on the lookout for not only the good, but the bad within any Discord group. Being aware of what an inflated or fake community looks like will help you avoid rug pulls. There are most definitely other signs of red and green flags, but with the current market at the time of writing, these are the biggest standouts.
