Club TWiT Questions and Answers

We use a service for the club called Memberful. They use Stripe. That’s kind of the way it is.

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I joined Club Twit and got the Discord invitation and joined, but have no idea how to view any discussion in Discord. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

How are you connecting? Which OS and client are you using? When you connect, you should land in a general landing area. Along the left hand side should be the topics and channels. There are also servers along that side, so if you’re not seeing any channels, then you may need to first select the TWiT server.

This is not pictures of the TWiT Discord, as I am not a member, but here are some pics from my own bot development server. This is from the Windows desktop client.

If you start on the “Home” icon, it may look kinda stark. This is where private messages will show up later:

Hover over a server button to see the server name:

PHolder2021May07DiscordHover

Once you click on the server, you should see lots of categories of channels. Click on them to change between them:

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Once you get to the right place it will be pretty obvious what to do next. I don’t think you’ve joined the server yet. Download the Discord software for your computer or phone then click the invite link. It should open Discord in the Club TWiT server.

Let me know if you’re still having trouble - and thanks for your support!!

Okay will try. Thanks Leo! Love all the shows.

Hey @Leo ,
I’ve been listening to Security Now for ten years, and I’m really interested in joining Club TWIT. Can you let me know if the TWIT show hosts will be getting a fair cut of my membership fee?

One of the points of Club TWiT is that, with falling ad revenue, they can keep paying their regular presenters and keep the doors open.

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Since the pandemic advertising income has declined while TWiT’s fixed expenses have not. (Yes there were unfortunately layoffs because of the decreased income.) Club TWiT is about generating an income to replace the missing advertisers.

The regular hosts have had an arrangement that sees them receive a “fee for appearance” since before Club TWiT. One would presume they’re free to not appear if they don’t like that arrangement.

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We don’t give hosts a percentage of anything. They are paid a flat-fee stipend that is loosely tied to the show revenues.

We used to calculate a percentage but 1. that was a lot of work and 2. it meant a different amount every week. All our hosts prefer the consistent flat fee. We raise it when revenue goes up. We have never lowered it when revenue goes down and it’s gone down a lot during Covid. We’re just playing catch up at this point.

If you are concerned that hosts get paid fairly you could send them money direct, I guess. But TWiT is a business, not a co-op. I think we’re more than generous with our hosts and employees and I think they agree. But you can ask them if you’re worried.

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Thanks for the clarity, Leo!

I gotta say - Club TWIT is absolutely one of the best things you’ve done for the network! I love the Discord (and I wasn’t really a big Discord user). I am especially grateful for the opportunities to directly talk to some of the hosts (hey Paul and @MaryJo ) (hopefully - they felt the same afterward :slight_smile: )

I initially held off on the membership, and now I consider it the best $7/month I could be spending. Thanks @Leo and company for this new thing! It’s great!

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Agreed. Had heard of discord but never really thought I’d use it. Heard of club Twit and instantly downloaded the discord and have pretty much been running it on every device I use since that day. I pray that everyone else see’s this as such an investment into a group or family they love and that the revenue continues to grow for TWIT.

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Just to chime in from a different and maybe counterintuitive vantage point: I did not really get accustomed to using Discord for TWiT - it’s moving too fast for me, grenates too much of FOMO due to its speed, and I don’t find the time to listen/contribute live. That’s why I keep focusing on the forum.

BUT: there’s no doubt that weaving Discord into your productions a) seems like a lot of fun to the team and those involved which is fun to listen to on an empathetic level and b) leads to more unpredictable, open, and fun to follow content. Plus, going ad-free feels really great. The editing feels perfectly seamless and it really does make a difference that feels premium. Finally, the additional content in the bonus channel is a very welcome and fun look behind the curtains.

So the innovation even pays off if you’re not using all aspects of it since you’re benefiting in several other ways.

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AND a Linux Show! :smiley:

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The same here. I think, in essence, Discord is great, but it isn’t ordered, like a forum. Yes, there are different streams, but even so, they are all a jumble of topics over top of one another. When you can only dip in for a couple of minutes here-and-there, it is too much to get a handle on, so I just jump to the last couple of messages and see what is currently going on.

With the community forums, here, it is much more organized and disciplined and much easier to follow, especially if you don’t have much time, you can pick the couple of topics of interest and read and respond to them.

At the moment, when I have time, it is pretty dead and when I don’t have time it is fairly active. With a forum, with regimented topics, that isn’t such a problem, you can make a post and come back 8 hours later to read the replies, which are directly below, with Discord, you have to go through every message, looking for any that are relevant.

I think Discord would be a much better experience for us, if it was active “during the day”, and not just late evening and early morning. I think, if you are on when it is really active, and when the shows are being made, it will be a great experience. Maybe, as more European and Asian members join, it will be more active during the day for us.

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Agree with @big_D and @carbonga. I appreciate the pace of the forum where I seem better able to follow topics and carry on asynchronous conversations. This place is like a lake; the Discord is like the rapids— both offer their own joys.

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great to hear! glad it’s working out!

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Actually, none of our business!! :smiley:

I am from India, and credit card protections are not at the same level as what you have (and expect) in US. I do not leave credit card on file as much as I can help it. Not accepting “modern” payment options beyond the regular credit cards is such a bummer. I wish @Leo finds a solution involving the multitude of options (Amazon Pay, Big 2 App Stores, PayPal etc). I am not familiar with Stripe, but seems to be a Neolithic choice for a “futurist” like @Leo .

We don’t have a choice - that’s what our subscription services Memberful uses. I do believe Memberful supports Google and Apple Pay, however.