One of the best parts about being a paid Discourse Blog subscriber is that you get to join the Discord server we share with our fellow independent leftist media colleagues in the Discontents collective.

This means that if you join our Discord (and if you’re going “what the hell is Discord???” here’s a handy little guide), you can now talk with readers from all of these different sites, and you'll get special access to the writers and editors behind the Discontents project. (More on them in a second.)

If you haven't signed up for our Discord yet, it's easy. Just become a paid subscriber and we'll send you a special code that will let you into the Discord.

If you already are a paid subscriber but don’t have access yet, get in touch with us at hello@discourseblog.com and we’ll send you the code! (Only do this if you’re actually a paid subscriber, we’ll know if you’re not.)

Here's the crew:

• Foreign Exchanges -- a newsletter about progressive foreign policy, by Derek Davison.

• Welcome to Hell World -- Luke O'Neil’s interviews and essays on the society that we live in.

• BORDER/LINES -- immigration news and analysis by Gaby Del Valle and Felipe De La Hoz.

• Trashberg -- Ashley Feinberg’s singular work in its new home. 

• Sick Note -- Libby Watson grapples with the American healthcare system. 

• The Flashpoint -- original reporting and interviews on the cutting edge of progressive policy by Eoin Higgins. 

• Perspectives -- a look back at history through a leftist lens, by Patrick Wyman

• Wars of Future Past -- killer robot watchdog Kelsey Atherton tracks the modern day techno-violence-state. 

• The Insurgents -- Rob Rosseau and Jordan Uhl’s podcast on progressive issues and commentary. 

• Air Gordon -- Jeremy Gordon’s blog on pop culture, culture wars, and contemporary society. 

• Cruel and Unusual -- Shane Ferro’s reporting and writing on the U.S. justice system and the carceral state. 

• Habibti Please! -- A podcast about underreported corners of the Muslim diaspora and the social movements it stands in solidarity with, by Nashwa Khan.

• All Cops Are Posters -- Katie Way’s reporting and reflection on the strange world of cop culture online. 

• And Kim Kelly, roving correspondent on labor, justice, heavy metal, and strong tea. 

All of these people, along with readers from their sites, will be part of the Discord experience.

You’ll be required to set up an account on Discord, if you don’t have one already. The desktop app is also handy, but it works fine in your browser as well. 

If you’ve never used Discord before, it might seem a little overwhelming, but really it’s simple! You’ll have a list of available chat rooms on the left-hand side, and a list of online users on the right. In the middle, you’ll have the feed from whichever room you’re currently chatting in. Here’s how it looks now:

Blog-specific channels will be open to everyone, not just subscribers to that blog, so we hope you'll poke around different rooms and help build communities around our new partners work just like you have for ours.

Invite codes will only go out to paying subscribers for each of these blogs, so we’re expecting the community feel and shared politics to remain the same. As always, our @mod team and site administrators will be around to iron out any issues, and all new members will be expected to abide by the rules in #welcome-and-rules that have worked well for us so far. We hope you’ll welcome them in and show them around our little corner of the internet.

So please join us! Subscribe and let the fun begin.