Discord is locking people out, please help or suggest alternative
November 8, 2022 3:47 PM Subscribe
I'm helping organize a bilingual online conference this weekend. We need a web-based text chat with automatic translation (probably via a bot) OR a workaround for Discord's overzealous anti-spammer measures.
Last year discord wouldn't let some people create accounts because their IP addresses were blocked or something. It seems to be happening again this year. Our plan was to ask people a few days before the conference to check and make sure they were able to log in, and to create accounts for them if they couldn't. But apparently discord is now requiring phone numbers for account verification. Major last-minute problem.
We need to use something that has a seamless translation bot. Budget is zero. We have a donated translation bot for discord.
We use Zoom for video workshops with simultaneous interpretation, but Zoom chat has no translation bot. At this late hour, we are committed to Zoom.
The Discord bot is very straightforward: We create an English and Spanish version of each channel and the translation bot does automatic translation between them - all messages in the English channel are translated and posted in the Spanish channel, and vice versa.
1) Are there other Discord- or Slack-like chat platforms with comparable translation bots? (bots that require user interaction to translate each message need not apply)
2) Failing that, is there a way to create a handful of temporary guest Discord accounts people can use if they have trouble registering? When I attempted it earlier today the account was immediately blocked for "TOS violation" and Discord support has been less than helpful.
Last year discord wouldn't let some people create accounts because their IP addresses were blocked or something. It seems to be happening again this year. Our plan was to ask people a few days before the conference to check and make sure they were able to log in, and to create accounts for them if they couldn't. But apparently discord is now requiring phone numbers for account verification. Major last-minute problem.
We need to use something that has a seamless translation bot. Budget is zero. We have a donated translation bot for discord.
We use Zoom for video workshops with simultaneous interpretation, but Zoom chat has no translation bot. At this late hour, we are committed to Zoom.
The Discord bot is very straightforward: We create an English and Spanish version of each channel and the translation bot does automatic translation between them - all messages in the English channel are translated and posted in the Spanish channel, and vice versa.
1) Are there other Discord- or Slack-like chat platforms with comparable translation bots? (bots that require user interaction to translate each message need not apply)
2) Failing that, is there a way to create a handful of temporary guest Discord accounts people can use if they have trouble registering? When I attempted it earlier today the account was immediately blocked for "TOS violation" and Discord support has been less than helpful.
I am not sure of the specifics, but Slack seems to have apps offering multiple translation options and a translation bot. (It looks like the first linked option includes a free option and a free 30 days with all features)
posted by amtho at 4:15 PM on November 8, 2022
posted by amtho at 4:15 PM on November 8, 2022
Best answer: I've been in a discord channel where they had a bot relay chat to an IRC channel and it would also relay whatever was going on in IRC to discord as well. Not sure if metafilter has an IRC channel somewhere but could that be a possible work around?
posted by QueenHawkeye at 4:55 PM on November 8, 2022
posted by QueenHawkeye at 4:55 PM on November 8, 2022
Response by poster: That was roundabout and I did not expect it to work, but we have an old-school technical volunteer, and it worked. If you say something in an English language IRC channel, it gets related by bot to Discord, a bot translates it into Spanish, and then the Spanish gets whisked back to the Spanish language IRC channel by bot. Bots everywhere! It worked! Thank you!
posted by aniola at 8:55 AM on November 11, 2022
posted by aniola at 8:55 AM on November 11, 2022
Response by poster: And the IRC is browser-based and easy for the end user to use. We used libera.chat which is a server for web client kiwiirc.
posted by aniola at 8:57 AM on November 11, 2022
posted by aniola at 8:57 AM on November 11, 2022
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posted by aniola at 3:50 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]