As always, thank you for being a part of the community! It’s been several months since our last update and lots of things have been happening behind the scenes, so we wanted to fill everyone in on what’s new as 2023 comes to a close. If you’re not already a member of our online Discord community, please join us today!
Table of Contents
Staff Changes
John finished his intern period way back in August and has been busy trying to beat Jeffrey’s user dispatch record, but it seems there can be only one The Hammer. Glad to have you on the team, John!
We’re sad to see James step down from his mod position for a break after years of devoted service to the community. James has been around since the beginning and has helped make the server what it is today. We appreciate you and we’ll keep your seat warm until you decide to return!
Thank You to Our Donators
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following new and return donators: S. P., Agnosia, thelinguist, awendela, John, Zachary, Gabriele S., Philipp, and soulhack.
Thank you as well to the rest of our current monthly supporters: Sandy S., mind exploration, rustybikes, acidjames, Krish, Candace, Ronald, Anthony A., Sean, and Rebecca W. Meditation Mind operates 100% on donations, so this community would not be possible without you. See a full list of present and past supporters here.
Community Milestones
We have recently hit several big community milestones. In late September, we reached 8,000 members on Discord, and in early December, we surpassed 30,000 hours of meditation tracked with Bloom on the server!
And finally, we recently reached 200 sign-ups for our free four-week online mindfulness course. (See #mc-info to learn more and enroll!)
Role Additions & Changes
In mid-August, we added the @Watch Together role, which can be used by members to organize impromptu watch parties, similar to how @meditate with me works. Since late September, it has also been used to organize official server watch together events weekly on Sundays.
In early November, we added the @hang out in voice chat role, which is also similar to @meditate with me and can be used to invite other members to casual voice chat. You can grab either of the new roles in #Channels & Roles > Customize.
Channel Additions & Changes
In late August, we added #science-geekery for all the science geeks interested in the intersection of science and contemplative practices. (There are a lot of us!)
On the changes side, most of the channels that previously required self-assignable roles to opt-in have been unlocked since the new Discord Onboarding feature offers the same functionality without roles. Head over to #Channels & Roles > Customize and select the desired options or enable channels directly in Browse Channels.
Website Resources Updates
We’ve added lots of new resources to our website for the benefit of members and non-members alike.
In late August, we hosted a guided meditation and Q&A with guest teacher Toby Sola, creator of the Brightmind meditation app. Then, at the end of September, we rebooted our weekly group meditations, facilitated by Sumit. Recordings for both are available on our Guided Meditations page and our YouTube channel.
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams & Danny Penman has been added to our Recommended Reading list. This is a great, comprehensive introduction to mindfulness meditation, based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
Our Free Meditation and Mindfulness Apps page has had three additions: Brightmind, which is not free, but includes a special code for a one-month free trial and is worth making an exception; Shellevate, a gamified meditation timer; and Mediate Your Life, which combines the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) framework with mindfulness.
Finally, we have added The Open Buddhist University to our Free Meditation and Mindfulness Courses page. With 16 courses available, you can study everything from the basics of Buddhism to Pāli and Chinese for Buddhist texts.
Bloom Bot Updates
We have made some exciting updates to our community’s custom bot, Bloom.
- Tracking and Stats Privacy
There is now a privacy option for the /streak, /stats user, and /add commands.
When set to private, streaks and user stats will be displayed privately using ephemeral messages. When a new meditation session is added privately, an anonymous entry is displayed in the channel to motivate others, but personal information (total meditation time, streak and role info) is shared with you privately via ephemeral messages.
Odds and Ends
We have made some small modifications to Rule #10 of our Community Guidelines. We replaced the word “fake news” with “disinformation,” which has a wider scope that includes fake news. We also added a note about drug talk exceptions and linked to information about identifying conspiracy theories.
We removed the MEE6 bot, which has continued to paywall once-free features to the point of being largely unusable without a premium subscription. Leveling is now handled behind-the-scenes (i.e., no cards, leaderboard, etc.), as too much attention to levels tends to encourage low(er)-quality engagement. Birthday announcements are also much prettier now, thanks to Birthdayy.
The number of stars required for a post to be added to #⭐starboard has been increased from three to five. Last but not least (maybe?), Server Guide now has icons and cleaner descriptions!
And that’s it for our December update. If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to get in touch via @ModMail or /suggest!
