GETTING STARTED GUIDE
We understand that joining a new community can be overwhelming so we have written this guide with some tips in case it is helpful.
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There are a few things we feel it is really important to know:
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It is perfectly ok if you break rules or find things tricky at first. This is completely normal as our community is a big, new space.
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It is ok to go at your own pace. You are welcome to get involved with what we do whenever you feel ready to, and it is ok to observe and listen without taking part for as long as you need.
Take Time to Understand the Rules:
The community rules for our Discord servers can be found on our website here: Under 13 Community and Teen Community. They are available to read within the servers themselves too (the channel is called #discord-rules). It can be heard to follow rules if you don't understand the reasons behind them, so you are always welcome to ask us!
The rules of the community were made in partnership with members themselves and often the reasons for them are to do with keeping the servers a safe and welcoming space for young people to connect in.
The rules for our Minecraft server are also available on our website [here] and all new members need to play through our Minecraft Rules Minigame server before being given access to the main server.
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There are a lot of rules to remember - so we expect that some are broken when people first join the community. This is normal and we try our best to make all members are both aware of this and able to be supportive.
It is a good idea to check that your Privacy Settings are set up how you would like, you can read more about how to do this here: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/217916488-Blocking-Privacy-Settings-
Review Your Privacy Settings:
Our Discord servers have a feature called Support Tickets which are the easiest way for members to communicate with staff if you have a problem or a question that we could help with. There are three different types of Support Tickets and these are - Minecraft Support, Discord Support and Adult Staff Support. Staff aim to reply to Support Tickets within 6 working hours and our Support Hours are between 10am and 9pm every day.
Check You Know How to Get Support If You Need It:
There may be times when you do not feel able to make a Support Ticket, in which case could ask a parent/ carer to make one on your behalf, or a parent/ carer can email the Youth Work Team at team@spectrumgaming.net to explain the issue.
Parents of Under 13 members are required to monitor private messages and group chats and to report any incidents to staff either by Support Ticket or email, if you haven't done so yourself.
In order to get support on our Minecraft Server, using the command /support is the quickest way to get help in most scenarios. However in some cases it may be better to make a Support Ticket on Discord instead.
If you have not used Discord before it may take a while to get used to. There are a few things it could be worth discovering, and asking a parent/ carer to help if you are struggling to work these things out for yourself:
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Where to find announcements, info about events and the community rules
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What counts as ‘spam’ and where you are and are not allowed to do that
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What the different channels are for
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How to join a voice channel
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Where Support Tickets are/how to get help.
We have more info about the features of our Discord Servers that you can see here: Under 13 Community and Teen Community.
Getting to Know How The Discord Server Works:
One of the first things it can be helpful to do is make an introduction. We have a channel that is just for posting a little bit about yourself so others can learn more about you. You are welcome to read through previous posts to get an idea of what people usually say, but they often include things like:
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What games you like to play
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What hobbies or interests you have
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Whether you have a favourite anime or show
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If they have any pets and what they are
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Sometimes people also put their age and their pronouns
Can You Post an Introduction?
Do You Feel Comfortable Responding to Others in the chat?
Sometimes posting your own ideas, likes and dislikes might feel too overwhelming and cause too much anxiety. If this is the case it could be helpful to start by just reading what other people are posting and building up to then responding to other members. This could be things like:
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Replying to someone to say that you think their pet is cute
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Replying to someone’s artwork to say what it is you like about it
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Letting someone know that they also like the book/game/show that someone else has mentioned.
If typing out a response feels too much of a big step at first, you could try ‘reacting’ other’s posts to begin with, using positive emojis such as a heart.
Can You Post In One (Or More) Of The Topic Channels?
If you feel comfortable posting something themselves, some ideas of what you could do include:
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Sharing a photo of your pet(s) in the #cute-pets-and-animals channel.
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Posting an image of something you have created such as art, crochet, paper craft, a photograph, an animation etc in the #creativity channel.
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Sharing something about their special interest in the #special-interests channel - it is highly likely that there are other young people with the same or similar interest too!
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Posting a meme in the #memes channel.
There are a variety of scheduled events in each of our Discord servers and you can find out what is going on via the ‘Events’ section at the top of the channel list and also the different events channels. Each Event is facilitated by at least one member of our staff team and they include things like gaming events, movie nights, art and chat sessions, coding club and more.
Information for each event is posted in the server ahead of time and it can be helpful to read through this so you know what to expect. For gaming events it can also be important to make sure that the game you need is up to date and your privacy settings are set up for multiplayer ahead of the event, so that you are ready to play on time. Staff members can help with troubleshooting, but this needs to be done ahead of time, and not at the start of the event when they need to be focusing on running it.
Some events require less participation than others, so might be better to start with if you are worried about chatting with others. For example you could attend a movie night event and not have to say anything at all, as everyone is ‘muted’ and there is no expectation to talk in the text chat if you don’t feel able or want to.
If you have any questions about an event you are welcome to open a Support Ticket to chat to staff about it.
You Are Welcome To Try A Server Event?
Understanding How To Connect With Others Safely:
We have a channel called #looking-for-gamers which you can use to ask others if they would like to play. You can ask to play any game and arrange to play between yourselves, so these are not sessions supported or monitored by a staff member.
Sometimes people can become disheartened if they ask others to play but nobody replies. It may be helpful to consider posting at different times on different days as it could be that other people who play that game may not have been available to play when they posted. It is quite normal to have to ask on a few different occasions before someone replies if it is a game that not many people play.
We advise that you do not go straight to DMing (private messaging) or in-game chat straight away when you find someone new to play with. It is important to get to know other people on the server first and to use our voice/text chat channels until you know each other better.
In addition to this, our Under 13 members are not allowed to invite each other to play on Minecraft Realms and are encouraged to use the SG Minecraft server when getting to know new people.
It Is Important To Not Invite Other SG Members To Other Servers:
One of the rules of our community is that members are not allowed to invite other members to other Discord or Minecraft servers.
There are a few reasons for this:
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Discord and Minecraft servers are incredibly difficult to set up properly and need to be properly monitored so that they are private and only friends can access them.
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There are a lot of people who have negative intent on Discord, which is why young people stay in our community, ensuring it is completely safe.
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When people are on external servers which aren't monitored, they can see and get access to explicit content which may not be appropriate for their age, whereas we can remove this instantly if it happens in our community.
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A lot of members of our community can struggle with social interaction, so there can be huge arguments/ fallouts when people talk on private servers without staff support.
If You Feel You Need Further Support:
If you have gone through and tried out the above suggestions, but feel your could still do with some extra support, there may be something that staff could help with. Please feel welcome to use a Support Ticket, or ask a parent/ carer to email us at team@spectrumgaming.net to see if there is anything that we can do to help.
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Welcome to Spectrum Gaming, we are very happy to have you here :)
