FAQ
(aka Fried Aardvark Quesadillas, Fanatic About Q, Fuzzy Animal Quotient)
(oh, and Frequently Asked Questions. Right.)
Q: What the heck is this BONC Chat thing?
A: Juliebug (yes, _that_ Juliebug) was watching Star Trek Picard, Season 3, and thought to herself: "Self, don't you think it would be uber snazzy to be able to squee about Picard and the new adventures of the TNG crew with the old BONCers?"
"Self," she replied, "yes. Yes, it would."
And so she got in touch with Merlin and S-a-n-d-r-a and that, children, is the story of coffee and croissants.
Q: What the heck is this Discord thing?
A: It's a chat program. It's a little like Slack (but free) and a little like IRC (but more user-friendly, although, regrettably, there are very few trouts or carps to smack people with), and it's free, and, most important of all, it's mobile-friendly.
Q: Okay. How do I use this Discord thing to chat with my fellow BONCers???
A: Lucky for you, Juliebug has spent many moons doing various kinds of technical support for a large variety of products and so has come up with a very extensive guide on how to use Discord. You can find it here.
Q: All right, so who's in charge, what are the rules, and so forth and so on?
A: Juliebug, who is writing this and is slightly confused that she's referring to herself in the third person, is currently the admin. People who actually know how to use Discord may be added as mods at a later date. In terms of rules, there's the long version and the short version.
Q: So what's the short version?
A: As Gates McFadden's space-son, Wil Wheaton, would say: Don't be a dick.
Q: Uh, can you be a bit more specific, please?
A: Glad you asked! By playing with us in the BONC Chat Discord (henceforth known as The Sandbox), you agree to the following rules of conduct:
1) No homophobic or transphobic behaviour. Transwomen are cool women. Transmen are cool men. Non-binary folks are cool people. No "gender critical" behaviour allowed, nothing that a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) would spew. This is a safe place for all old BONC members, regardless of age, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.
2) Relatedly, no sexist/misogynistic behaviour.
3) No personal insults or name-calling. Many of us are well into middle age. Let's act like it, folks. (Oh god, what does it mean that The Group Kid is middle-aged??? Oof, let's not focus on that. NEXT POINT.)
4) No spoilers for Picard S3! We have a #star-trek-picard-s3 channel for S3 discussions specifically, a #star-trek-picard channel for seasons 1 & 2 and a general #star-trek channel. So discuss TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT (... did anyone even watch that one?), as well as PRIOR seasons of Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Prodigy and Picard to your heart's content, but please do not spoil Season 3 of Picard.
Please note that spoiler tags are in effect in the Picard S3 channel! You can post spoiler content using the spoiler tags (more on this in the Discord instructions) as you like, but everything must use a spoiler until a couple of days after the episode. By entering the channel on Sunday or later, you are acknowledging you will not be upset to see people discussing the latest episode in great depth. (Sunday is defined as midnight on Sunday morning in the Eastern time zone, or UTC/GMT-4.)
Not following these rules will get you a warning. Three strikes and you're out. (Please, let's not get to that point.)
Q: So what if someone is being a dick and/or breaking the rules?
A: SIGH. If someone is doing such things, please page an admin by prefacing your message with @ADMIN. For example:
@admin omg juliebug is calling me names and spoiling Picard!!!!!!
(Please don't ping @juliebug specifically for admin stuff, thank you!)
Q: Are we done yet?
A: Is that the end of your questions?
Q: I think so?
A: ... was that a question?
Q: Okay, no, we're done.
A: Spiffy.