A community manifesto
Community chat should feel like more than a channel list.
Taverns makes community chat customizable with familiar text and voice, themed spaces, expressive profiles, discovery, and connected worlds.
- Keep useful structure
- Bring back atmosphere
- Let conversation lead somewhere
Published by MEKASMITH Co., Ltd. for Taverns. Reviewed
Give credit where it is due
The sidebar won because it works
Channels, categories, and member lists are good at organizing conversation. Taverns uses that familiar grammar too. The problem is not the sidebar itself. The problem is treating organization as the full extent of community design.
When every space inherits the same visual shell, efficient navigation starts to hide the language, rituals, art, and memories that made the group worth joining.
Efficiency is not belonging
A well-sorted conversation can still feel interchangeable
A community feels alive because people recognize its regulars, know where different conversations happen, remember shared events, and understand the jokes on the walls. Software should support that culture instead of sanding it down.
Give the room a personality
Let communities control the atmosphere
Tavern themes
Shape chat and member-list backgrounds, colors, fonts, and hall icons.
Expressive profiles
Use backgrounds, display styling, effects, and avatar decorations.
A richer reaction language
Share custom emoji, stickers, GIFs, reactions, and animated imagery.
Rooms with purpose
Use forums, announcements, events, rules, polls, and voice halls where they fit.
After the message
Conversation should lead somewhere
A planning hall can lead to an event. A guide can live in a forum instead of being buried. A creator community can grow toward a Wonder that people can play or visit.
The goal is not to manufacture engagement. It is to give the relationships already forming in chat more places to become memorable.
The foundation stays
This is not an argument against chat
Taverns keeps text, voice, forums, roles, permissions, events, polls, and moderation. The aim is to make that foundation feel like a place people chose, not software they tolerated.
Clear answers
Frequently asked questions
Does Taverns replace familiar chat navigation?
No. Taverns keeps halls, categories, roles, member lists, and other familiar community patterns while adding more identity around them.
How can a community look different in Taverns?
Owners can customize themes and hall icons, while members can use expressive profile backgrounds, styling, effects, and avatar decorations.
What happens after chat?
Communities can organize events and forums, discover other Taverns, and connect with the wider platform of player-created Wonders.
Your next gathering place