I’m on the VOCALOID Discord Server. Every so often, someone gets upset that Miku fanart gets posted to the #shitposting channel.

#shitposting channel is described as follows.

Channel for any off topic discussion, image dumps, memes, etc. Please use this to keep #lounge clean.

I think the thing most people take offense to is that Miku fanart is being associated with the channel title, “shitposting.” Most hardcore Miku otaku’s wouldn’t call Miku fanart shit.

I can understand that, but there’s more to the story here, and it’s not solely an issue with the VOCALOID Discord Server.

There seems to be a sentiment in all Discord servers– Don’t put your thoughts in the same channel. Organize your thoughts and put them in the appropriate channel!

It’s not a very natural way of communicating. During natural communication, I form bonds with the people I am chatting with, and naturally want to share topics of different subject matter.

Imagine having a conversation with friends, where you had to physically move to a different room to speak about a different topic. Now imagine that none of the people you were talking with would follow you to other rooms.

This concept of room switching goes against my tribalistic instincts. I don’t want to switch rooms to talk about a different subject. The people I’m meming with are right in front of me, so I’m going to talk about something and gauge interest based on their responses.

I feel the need to contest a counterpoint. “Natural communication” doesn’t really fit in text-based chat rooms such as Discord Servers. While this may be true in some sense, communication between individuals still occurs. I recognize data– names and profile pictures, as individuals. I start to associate personalities with that data.

Web chats are a low-bandwidth abstraction of natural conversation, which I think should serve to enhance natural conversation, not degrade it. Part of that natural conversation should be forming friendships. Part of forming friendships is staying in the same place as the person you’re talking to so you can hold a conversation.

This is why I prefer to spend my time in Vocaloid channels that allow as many topics as possible. If the topic of discussion doesn’t matter, the conversation can naturally drift between area 51 raids, deadmau5, and cute Vocaloid pictures. NO WAIT, CUTE VOCALOID CONVERSATION IS NOT ALLOWED IN #shitposting!

Of course, #shitposting doesn’t ban such conversation, but there is a topic expectation from various users. Some users are expecting shitposts, as if the channel is a Twitter feed with a consistent theme. I think shitposting veterans just want to talk to other shitposters about whatever’s on their mind.