While you do need to become a member to get rid of the ads, this isn’t a prerequisite to join the Discord. A member of our community in Discord (thanks, Parsko!) pointed out that some people were under the impression that Discord membership required becoming a paying member, and that’s not true, though it does give you access to a special section.
Philosophically, I look at The Autopian like an ice cream shop. I love ice cream, so I sort of look at everything like an ice cream shop (the economy, the Astros farm system, actual ice cream shops…) and I want our ice cream to be the best in the world. I also want to make it available to everyone. The price you pay to eat this ice cream, if you’re not a member, is that you see some ads. That’s basically it. You get to eat the best ice cream in the world and, in exchange, give us a little bit of eyeball time.
Membership brings treats. Not only do you get ice cream, you also get fun toppings, whipped cream, maybe a cherry. Or, in the case of the ice cream I had last night, you get a toasted meringue swirl on top. Again, if you don’t want to be a member or can’t afford it, we still want you to enjoy the main thing, which is the ice cream (or posts).
Discord, if you’re not familiar, is an online chat technology that works a little bit like Slack does. It allows readers to communicate with us and with one another. They also do crazy things like find cars to match numbers up to 2,500 (and beyond). It’s not a prerequisite for enjoying the site, but it does allow more direct conversation and the ability to post images/videos/et cetera.
The “Member Party Room” is just one extra room, out of more than two dozen, where we can communicate some behind-the-scenes photos or information on stories we’re working on, general adventures, and whatever person/concept Adrian is currently mad at.
If you want to join the Discord click here. And if you want to become a member, you can click here. If none of this means anything to you, you can also just go enjoy some ice cream.
Top graphic images: Discord; Members Only via Ebay seller
Okay, how do you make discord work?
I get to where it says create account, but nothing happens?
As so often with software, I find myself asking, “Who designed this?”
Okay, but does the Astros farm system make good ice cream? I’ve always found Texas in particular to be lacking in options for my favorite flavor (blackberry).
It was the best selling flavor for Klinke Brothers ice cream in Memphis until their last store closed.
Our grand parents had better ice cream than we do, in cities at least.
The Shake place in Marion AR has a hundred flavours including blackberry and rum.
I don’t know if they qualify as real ice cream, but they put real effort into it.
I order them thick.
Jerry’s across the bridge in Memphis was in Great Balls of Fire and is excellent too.
OOH. I need that blackberry rum shake immediately.
It’s fake rum, but the taste is right.
We had a cafe that had a number of milkshakes with alcohol and they were brilliant!
Some chain food places wanted their location and finally offered so much they retired, and their recipes are gone now.
People still miss the place. Very successful.
So, I am old and don’t understand Discord. Will anyone give me a rundown of it?
At it’s most basic level, it’s a chat/messaging app. There’s “channels” you can read and add messages to based on a certain topic (like this special Member Party Chat he’s referring to.)
But if you want you can use it to do video calls and send fields and all kinds of (other communication-based) things. It became dominant because it’s a great way to talk to friends while playing video games on your computer.
That’s more than I ever knew about it.
Thanks!
It’s like an IRC but without the separate clients.
IRC?
Thank you!
The Discord is really good. Even if you are not a member join.
And we don’t bite! (But get your tetanus shot)
This person does not represent us.
🙂
Are you saying that you do in fact bite?
😀
maybe YOU don’t
Join us… Post in the “intros” channel so we can get to know you.
This was me two days ago, accidentally thinking I had broken into the Discord without being a member. Briefly felt scandalous. Thankfully had a moderator on speed dial who let me know I was okay.
Now, how do you feel about Graeter’s ice cream?
There’s only one other person I know that is this into ice cream…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chVq41z1Kzk
(decent video if you like history stuff)
Another problem is I occasionally get tossed out of my recognized membership account away from my computer that requires the code to re login. While I get shit happens I don’t understand why giving a star or thumbs up is limited to members only. Sure comments but why not allow a star by nonmembers start giving them a feeling of membership. Then suggest a membership instead of blocking half the screen to accept cookies.
I joined the Discord server not long after I got my paid membership, but I didn’t really participate for months afterwards and kept on going for some time after I let it lapse. I’m not there anymore, but I recommend it to any of you who might be interested.
Also which readers have displeased me.
You don’t need to go to a special Discord space to know that we’ve all displeased you.
you’re welcome!! i try my best!!
Good point.
I’m lactose intolerant. Is there sorbet in the metaphorical discord ice cream shop?
I too am a sorbet man myself. Raspberry always hits.
Sure! I and the other mods try to make it as inclusive as possible
Screw you puny humans I need moose tracks chocolate flavor. Jk
It IS a good place to talk about your farts, can confirm.
And things that are lumpy and puffs.
Thank you for letting us know. I joined but I really want to know what you think is the best ice cream out there. Haagen Dazs? Ben and Jerry’s?
Ben and Jerry’s chocolate chip cookie dough. There is no other acceptable answer.
That’s a good one!
Mint chip Is Always The Answer.
Gotta be honest and set my vote for Cherry Garcia.
Neither
Gelato?
I like gelato, but ice cream is fine.
All about the quality.
I like the Japanese flavours for not being overly sweet.
Blue Bunny made excellent pure flavours like cinnamon, green tea and peppermint.
Peppermint and cinnamon are fantastic together.
I hate extraneous stuff like cookie crumbs and twizzlers. I’ll make an exception for bits of peppermint, but otherwise fruits and nuts are the only acceptable non smooth items.
Walmart is the only carrier for blue Bunny here, and their selection is horrible.
They never carry the specialty flavours, which is all their good stuff now.
Peppermint and cinnamon are best in hot weather, so they only sell it in January now.
I have to go 100 miles now to buy espresso ice cream at trader joes.
150 miles away the next city east has a good selection, mango and so on.
Cold stone Creamery too which is good, if expensive.
Coming out of the desert, I found a coldstone in Nevada, and got amaretto ice cream, with a little coffee ice cream as a shake. Brilliant!
I suggested some variants on the spumoni theme to blue Bunny.
They produced three.
Primary was peach, mango and passion fruit, sold for a summer.
Another was mango sorbet I think, paired with a very light fluffy vanilla custard.
I think they called it something else.
It was so light you could eat a container at one time.
Nice! Thanks for the detailed reply. How do you keep the ice cream from melting when you buy it 100 miles away?
The first time I carried some home it was 250 miles and 19 degrees, so I just tossed it in the trunk. So worth it!
Mostly I put it in coolers with frozen water bottles Trader Joe’s sells cheap, but I’ve used bagged ice and dry ice before too.
I try to keep it in the air conditioning too.
Last trip was in a cardboard box with 20 frozen bottles. Did okay.
You can pre order and they’ll keep it in the big freezer bundled in sixes.
Impressive!
Everybody thought it would melt in the trunk!
First of all, thank you for offering this to non members. Second…
(begin “old man yells at clouds” routine)
I guess it’s good that we are spoiled for choice with venues for personal online communication, but… I already have a Zoom account, a Teams account, a Facebook Messenger account, and a Reddit account. Heck, I probably still have a Skype account. (Does Skype still exist?)
On top of that, I’ve probably opened and abandoned accounts on dozens of other services in order to communicate with various individuals or groups. I’m so tired.
(end routine)
Skype was shut down by MS about 4-5 weeks ago. Your address book should have transferred to Teams.
All Skype is shut down?
I wonder my Yahoo Groups ID still exists. The one I used to joint the Prius group, when it was between concept car and first gen. The idea of using backdriving of a motor to reclaim your KE and do your braking and charge a battery is, in retrospect, obvious. At the time it was mindblowing and a triumph of invention and engineering.
Yahoo Groups was killed off a few years ago, so unless it was tied to something else, it may well be defunct.
How else would you do it?
How else would you reclaim and reuse that energy that is otherwise lost as heat on deceleration? There are stupid ways to do it, but my point was that Toyota thought of it and did it, in a smart way that AFAIK hadn’t been done before.
I always thought it was a very old idea.
I once ran a hand carved German carousel and the only braking it had was reversing the electric motor.
Many tons with steampunk electrics.
Amazingly it survived politics and runs in a museum now.
Try that app to eliminate subscriptions you are paying for and not using. Do t pedal that other crap here. Haha
I know Members Only jackets have been a bit of a joke for the past 3 decades, but they’re surprisingly comfortable and if I dare say so, stylish. I own a blue one like that guy up there on the left, a teal one a bit darker than that guy on the right, and a black one. Much like the Autopian discord, I recommend them!
Ah, the 80s. If you didn’t get a chance to experience them, you were short changed in life.
Ahhh, days were different…I had a MO winter jacket, with a coyote fur edged hood.
I will be making (myself at least) an actual leather Autopian jacket at some point. Racing style, teal with white and black accents, Autopian as the primary “sponsor.” Throw on CorkSport and Mikstore as well, since those two are where all my parts come from. And the new Mazda Spirit racing stuff. Problem being I move in six months, need to save about $7k to do so, and all my stuff goes in storage for a while after I get there.
So… we’ll see when it actually happens.
If you can move for that, you’re doing well.
Try to negotiate a fixed rate for storage.
Mostly crooks out there now.
People talk about how ephemeral fashion is these days but that’s really nothing new. In my high school in the 80s it seemed like one week EVERYBODY was wearing Member’s Only jackets. The next week we weren’t. See also: Coca-Cola clothes (especially the rugby shirts), Z.Cavaricci jeans, woven leather loafers…
Ugh, those Sonny Crockett woven leather loafers. I was not unhappy when those went out.
Guess jeans, Spuds MacKenzie shirts, parachute pants…
Lol, my high school actually banned Spuds McKenzie shirts!
Same and also Corona and Bart Simpson “Underachiever” shirts.
Join us! People there are awesome- just watch out for spoiled milk.
The spoiled milk is fine, it’s the Yankeys that worry me.