TIL “@here” only notifies online users on Discord and Slack

I'm in a few Discord servers of friends and we get together in-person regularly. Whenever I was the one organizing an event I would attempt to ping everyone details in the Discord using @here.

After the initial ping I would usually follow-up with folks over text, which is fine and expected part of organizing. More often than not, invitees would be way more responsive over text than over Discord. I created an SMS BCC tool because of how effective texting is for organizing events.

Turns out that @here is functionally different from @everyone or @channel on Slack and Discord. @here only sends notifications to users that are currently online 🟢, not offline ⚫ or “away” 🟡. This makes @here useful for when you’re trying to play an online multiplayer game or chat synchronously... but not for planning a hang-out in advance. So none of my usually-offline friends on Discord would get my initial notification, only the follow-ups. I’ll be using @channel for this purpose from now on.

I learned this from a friend and three people including me were not aware of this distinction, so I figure I have to share this on the blog. Maybe this will help you increase the turn-out for the next event you host for Discord friends. What other Discord or Slack hacks am I probably unaware of? Send them to me via email or on social media.

Happy organizing!

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