KCD Community Meetups

Meetups are voice/video chats hosted and managed on the KCD Community on Discord.

KCD Community Meetups help develop friendships within the community to make the world a more pleasant place to be for all of us.

When a host starts a meetup, anyone can join to listen in or join in the discussion. A meetup could be around a specific topic or just an informal get-together. You could play a game together, collaborate on a solution to a problem, practice a talk, discuss a book or movie, give a demo of your work, chat about world events, or really whatever else you want to do (provided you follow the code of conduct).

So, what is it?

It's conceptually similar to clubhouse:

• You can follow other users to be notified when they start a meetup
• You can schedule a meetup at a specific time (one-time or recurring) and folks can opt-into getting notified when you start
• You can start an impromptu meetup

Everything works within Discord via the KCD Discord bot and the ?meetup command. By default, when your meetup starts, the bot will create a voice channel for you and everyone to join (the channel will be deleted when it's empty but no sooner than 15 minutes after it's created). If you want, you can use Zoom instead by including a zoom link in your meetup details (if you want the meetup recorded, this is the recommended approach).

So, how do I use it?

Once you've joined the KCD Community on Discord, then go to the #🤖-talk-to-bots channel and type:

?meetup help

This will list the available commands you can run. Like this:

Following other people

All meetup-related stuff happens in the MEETUPS channel category. In there, you'll find a #➡️-follow-me channel where you'll see everyone who hosts meetups. You can follow them by adding an emoji reaction of ✋ to their message.

When you follow someone, you will be notified in the #🔔-meetup-notifications channel any time they start a meetup.

Getting followers

To add your own message to the #➡️-follow-me channel, think of a good bio to describe yourself and the kind of meetups you plan to host. Then go to #🤖-talk-to-bots and use the ?meetup follow-me command. Here's an example:

?meetup follow-me Put your bio here

Then you'll get a message in the #➡️-follow-me channel and people can start following you.

If you'd like to update your bio, simply run the command again until you're happy with it.

If you'd like to remove your follow me message, add the ❌ reaction to it and the bot will delete it. You can always recreate it, but KEEP IN MIND this is a destructive operation and when you do this you will lose all your followers.

Starting a meetup

Anyone can start a meetup at any time. To start a meetup, go to #🤖-talk-to-bots and use the ?meetup start command. Here's an example:

?meetup start Title of your meetup

This will create a voice channel for the meetup and notify all your followers.

If you'd like to use zoom instead of a discord voice channel, simply include the zoom link at the end of the command:

?meetup start Title of your meetup https://zoom.us/j/761555341

Keep in mind that if you do not have a paid Zoom account, your meetup will be limited to 40 minutes if you have more than two people in your meetup.

Scheduled meetups

You can find all the scheduled meetups in the #⏱-upcoming-meetups channel. If one of them looks interesting to you, then add an emoji reaction of ✋ and you'll be notified in the #🔔-meetup-notifications channel when the host starts that meetup. If you'd no longer like to be notified of that meetup, then you can remove your emoji reaction.

Tip: if you're following that host, then you don't need to bother because you'll be notified of every meetup they start anyway.

Scheduling a meetup

If you have a meetup you would like to plan in advance, you can add it to the schedule in #⏱-upcoming-meetups for people to opt-into being notified and plan for. To schedule a meetup, go to #🤖-talk-to-bots and use the ?meetup schedule command. Here's an example:

?meetup schedule "The Subject of the Meetup" and some more details about the meetup go here

You can also use multiple lines
Make sure to include the day and time (and timezone). An everytimezone.com link could be helpful.
Include a zoom link if you'd like to run it through zoom instead of discord

This will add your meetup to the schedule and it will notify all your followers in #🔔-meetup-notifications that you've scheduled a meetup (so they can plan for it).

Starting a scheduled meetup

When you're ready for your scheduled meetup to start, go to the #⏱-upcoming-meetups, find the message for your meetup, and add a 🏁 emoji reaction to it. This will create a voice channel (if necessary), notify all your followers and those who opted-into notifications for the scheduled meetup, and delete the scheduled meetup message (read more about recurring meetups below).

Canceling a scheduled meetup

If you'd like to cancel a scheduled meetup, locate it's message in the #⏱-upcoming-meetups channel and add one of the following emoji as a reaction to it:

• ❌ if you want to cancel and notify your followers (and those who opted-into notifications for it) that it was canceled.
• 🛑 if you want to cancel and NOT notify anyone it was canceled.

When it's canceled, the bot will delete the message. You can schedule more meetups if you'd like, but KEEP IN MIND that canceling a meetup is a destructive operation and you will lose all opt-ins (✋ reactions) when you do this.

Updating a scheduled meetup

If you'd like to update an existing scheduled meetup, go to #🤖-talk-to-bots and use the ?meetup schedule update command. You need to provide a link to the scheduled message (long-press on the message or click the three dots next to it and click "Copy Message Link"). Here's an example:

?meetup update https://discord.com/channels/715220730605731931/801954718984175657/812228747973230622 "Updated Subject" and any additional details

Don't forget to put the day/time/timezone if it's for a specific time!

This will update the scheduled meetup message.

Scheduling a recurring meetup

By default, once a scheduled meetup has been started, it's removed from the schedule. If you'd like the meetup to happen regularly, then you might want to make it a recurring meetup. To do this, simply add the word "recurring" before your meetup subject. For example:

?meetup schedule recurring "The Subject of the Meetup" and some more details

This does everything a regular scheduled meetup does except instead of deleting the message when you start the meetup (by adding the 🏁 to the message), the message will remain and the bot just removes the 🏁 so you can start it again another time.

Where do we send links/text etc.?

Anywhere you'd like. You can use the #💬-meetup-general-chat to drop links during your meetup if you'd like. If you're on Zoom, you can use the built-in chat in Zoom. Or, if you plan to make heavy use of text-based chat for your meetups, then you can request a text chat channel be made. Bring it up in #💬-meetup-general-chat and we'll get you set up.

Conclusion

We really hope that you enjoy using Meetups to connect more with people and develop lasting relationships with people.