Discord Bot/Games/Rewards for Increased Activity

Describe the problem: Lack of community engagement / discord users in the general Sythe discord

Explain the change: Incorporate a bot that will reward for socializing/participating
- Points/tokens based on activity/chat
- Ability to gamble points/tokens/or other fun games
- Ability to exchange/buy something via Sythe or Sythe discord for x points/tokens (role for a month/mini's/Sythe Gold/etc) / Can make it redeem based so it's not super complex & then staff can assign this

Explain why this change will fix the problem: Allow users to receive incentive for community participation & bring some additional folks to the community side

Side-effects:
- Potential spam; would need to set boundaries or limit this type of behavior
- Only someone highly trusted (IE: Zach) would be able to make it

 

nice idea. i like it

 

Support

The way people use the internet has changed, and this has a noticeable effect on engagement.

It may be a good time to focus on discord rather than the main site, as engagement here is almost non existent, other than being a sales funnel or archive of information.

CDT could even be involved and sponsors could sponsor the games/events, as discord would likely attract more participants. Many of the CDT events onsite don't even get noticed by the majority of the community as it requires actively visiting the website and navigating the sections as opposed to receiving a notification on discord.

 

Any idea what these games might be?

 

Any idea what these games might be?

One game y'all could add is Black Tea. I used to play it in Adin Ross's Discord whenever the mods would start a round, and it was always one of the most active games.

Basically, the bot posts a message and anyone who wants to play just reacts to join. After a minute or so, signups close and everyone who reacted gets put into a random queue. The bot then starts with the first player by tagging them and giving them a random set of three letters (for example: "ATL" or "RIN" correct examples would be Atlanta or for RIN, Ring would work). That player has to quickly type a valid English word that contains those three letters in the correct order. If they answer correctly before the timer runs out, they survive and the bot moves on to the next person. If they can't think of a word in time, or they submit an invalid one, they're eliminated.

The game keeps cycling through the remaining players, usually with the timer getting shorter as the rounds go on, until there's only one person left standing. That person wins.

It's a really simple game, but it's surprisingly addictive and gets a lot of people involved

 

Any idea what these games might be?

One game y'all could add is Black Tea. I used to play it in Adin Ross's Discord whenever the mods would start a round, and it was always one of the most active games.

Basically, the bot posts a message and anyone who wants to play just reacts to join. After a minute or so, signups close and everyone who reacted gets put into a random queue. The bot then starts with the first player by tagging them and giving them a random set of three letters (for example: "ATL" or "RIN" correct examples would be Atlanta or for RIN, Ring would work). That player has to quickly type a valid English word that contains those three letters in the correct order. If they answer correctly before the timer runs out, they survive and the bot moves on to the next person. If they can't think of a word in time, or they submit an invalid one, they're eliminated.

The game keeps cycling through the remaining players, usually with the timer getting shorter as the rounds go on, until there's only one person left standing. That person wins.

It's a really simple game, but it's surprisingly addictive and gets a lot of people involved

 

This looks fun.

I would also suggest a trivia/quiz game, they generally do pretty well.

 

[icake]

Speaking as an IO psychologist, if the goal is to increase genuine community engagement, like people chatting and building relationships, this is unlikely to achieve that outcome.

Rewarding activity primarily encourages extrinsic motivation, meaning people participate because there's something to gain. While that will likely increase message volume in the short term, it doesn't create meaningful conversations or a stronger community. Instead, it'll often encourage people to optimize for the reward by spamming, farming points, or "clocking in" to earn points or tokens before leaving.

It's also unlikely to attract many new people to the Discord. At best, it changes the behavior of users who are already there. If the goal is to grow the community, the larger challenge is giving new people a compelling reason to join and stay, not simply giving existing members a reason to send more messages.

Communities tend to thrive because people enjoy participating and feel connected to others. Incentives can be useful when they complement that existing motivation, but they're generally not an effective substitute for it. If the underlying issue is that people don't have a compelling reason to socialize, a points based reward system doesn't solve that problem, but simply pays people to appear active.

The unfortunate reality is that Sythe has become, and created an environment now where sellers are encouraged to build stronger communities outside of Sythe itself. This has shifted the site's role from being a place where people actually interacted to little more than an advertisement board that directs users to external servers and communities. If the conversations and relationships are happening elsewhere, a rewards system doesn't address the underlying reason the Discord lacks activity.

Regardless, it could still be a fun addition for the small group of people who continue to use the Discord as an actual community.

 

Speaking as an IO psychologist, if the goal is to increase genuine community engagement, like people chatting and building relationships, this is unlikely to achieve that outcome.

Rewarding activity primarily encourages extrinsic motivation, meaning people participate because there's something to gain. While that will likely increase message volume in the short term, it doesn't create meaningful conversations or a stronger community. Instead, it'll often encourage people to optimize for the reward by spamming, farming points, or "clocking in" to earn points or tokens before leaving.

It's also unlikely to attract many new people to the Discord. At best, it changes the behavior of users who are already there. If the goal is to grow the community, the larger challenge is giving new people a compelling reason to join and stay, not simply giving existing members a reason to send more messages.

Communities tend to thrive because people enjoy participating and feel connected to others. Incentives can be useful when they complement that existing motivation, but they're generally not an effective substitute for it. If the underlying issue is that people don't have a compelling reason to socialize, a points based reward system doesn't solve that problem, but simply pays people to appear active.

The unfortunate reality is that Sythe has become, and created an environment now where sellers are encouraged to build stronger communities outside of Sythe itself. This has shifted the site's role from being a place where people actually interacted to little more than an advertisement board that directs users to external servers and communities. If the conversations and relationships are happening elsewhere, a rewards system doesn't address the underlying reason the Discord lacks activity.

Regardless, it could still be a fun addition for the small group of people who continue to use the Discord as an actual community.

Very good points.

I can definitely agree from my own experience over 10+ years here that Sythe has gradually shifted into more of an advertisement board. I think part of that is simply how people use the internet now. Forums gave way to Skype, and now Discord has become the place where communities actually form.

I'm curious what your thoughts are on why some vendors still manage to build active Discord communities from Sythe traffic and other sources. It seems that, despite Sythe largely functioning as an advertising platform, a number of sellers are still able to attract people into communities where they stick around and engage.

Do you think those communities eventually transition from extrinsic motivation (joining for a service or product) into intrinsic motivation (staying for the community), or is there something else at play?

As a seller myself, I have joined many Discord communities. A lot of them I rarely interact with, but some have become significantly more active than Sythe itself. In my experience, a big difference seems to be that they provide reasons for people to return beyond simply buying or selling. Eg: events, giveaways, discussions, and other activities that give members something to participate in.

It makes me wonder whether incentives are ineffective at creating a community from nothing, but can be useful when combined with an already existing sense of community.

One other thing I find interesting is that Sythe seems to have a visibility problem when it comes to retaining users. Even when CDT puts effort into events and community initiatives, many users simply never encounter them because they require actively navigating different sections of the site. Meanwhile, Discord communities naturally put conversations, events, and announcements directly in front of users while they are already present and engaged.

Sythe has been very successful at attracting users looking for specific services, but I wonder whether the challenge now is less about creating events and more about making sure users actually see and participate in them.

 

We, the CDT, have been working on a Quiz app. It currently functions as a one off event.
I'm down to expand this and have it function more as a daily interaction bot. Trivia, Wordle, or replicating that Black Tea game are all possible.
I don't think we have to connect it to on-site rewards. Leaderboards and potentially Discord roles would work just fine I think.

 

[icake]

-snip-

That's a good point, and I'd separate acquiring members from retaining members.

Most vendor Discords acquire users through extrinsic motivation, i.e., people join for a service, support, or access. The communities that become genuinely active are the ones that successfully transition users toward intrinsic motivation, where people stay because they enjoy the conversations, build friendships, and feel connected to the community (old Sythe).

From a professional perspective, incentives aren't inherently bad, but they rarely create intrinsic motivation where none exists. They reinforce existing behaviors rather than create genuine engagement. There's also a difference between community activities and participation rewards. Events, discussions, and tournaments create reasons for people to interact, while a points system primarily rewards activity itself.

Most users are already visiting Sythe, but they're doing so with a specific goal, which is finding a service for OSRS, RS3, WoW, or other games. After that, they're all transitioning into the seller's Discord, where the actual communication, support, and community building happen.

Sythe has effectively become a place users visit to complete a task rather than a place where they build connections. Visibility plays a role, but I don't think it's the root issue. Even if CDT events were more visible, I suspect participation would still largely come from the same users because visibility creates awareness, not motivation.

Realistically, the only way to significantly increase Discord (or site) activity would be to change the current user flow and consolidate more of Sythe's community within its own Discord. If sellers were required to host their communities within Sythe's Discord rather than moving users into separate external servers, it would create the critical mass necessary for more organic discussion and interaction.

A good comparison would be a mall. People may initially visit because they want to shop at a specific store, but because everyone is operating within the same environment, additional social interactions naturally occur. The current model separates those interactions into individual "stores," meaning Sythe creates the initial connection but loses the ongoing community.

That said, the current model likely continues because it is simpler to maintain and, based on seller donations, appears sustainable. Rebuilding a community ecosystem would require a significant shift in priorities while also introducing additional risks, such as Discord terminations (which can be mitigated through server backups, auto-joins, etc.), bot requirements for each vendor, etc. Compared to the current structure, the benefit may simply not be seen as worth the additional complexity.