I have been very disillusioned with social media. It has become an infested place for hate speech and lies. I find solace here in the WordPress community and on a private server I recently started on Discord. The idea for the server appeared after Skylum (the parent company of Luminar Neo and other products) decided to shut down its Luminar Insiders forums and move to Facebook. So, Discord’s Photo Challenges was born. We are presently a small community of 27 photographers from various places around the globe. We are a bit different from most social platforms. Here are some key features.
- It’s a private server. Users can only join by an invitation link. This ensures the group’s privacy against bots and spammers.
- It is for photos and not reels or videos.
- You post whenever you want, but no more than one photo a day per channel.
- You post your photo in any size you want; there is no need to resize or crop it.
- The feeds are in chronological order.
- You won’t see ads, spam, or suggestions to follow someone.
- There are channels for genres you like, e.g., macro, landscape, wildlife, etc. Presently, there are fifteen genres, from abstracts to wildlife.
- Users are considerate and only post no more than one photo a day per channel (no photo dumps).
- Users can engage and learn from one another through thoughtful comments on any particular photo.
- Two of our favorite channels are the weekly and daily photo challenges. A calendar is provided each month with the topics.
If you have questions, please ask in the comments. If you’re interested in testing the waters, please use this form to request an invitation link and include your email address.
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Nicole Sara
So interesting to read about setting up a private Discord server, I have come across this several times over the past few months, but somehow connected to using Midjourney. Now Midjourney also has a separate web version, but to use Discord for Photography… that sounds very interesting and nice too! 🙂 Is it something… almost like a Chat Room site or place, if I may ask?
Egidio Leitao
Nicole, it is a server to post photos only. We comment on the photos, but there is not really a chat room only. It is all photo-centered. We currently have 15 channels for various photo genres. The most popular is the daily challenge. Users post a photo for a daily challenge provided in a calendar. Some users make it a challenge to post 365 days of the year. Others post only whenever they want.
Nicole Sara
Thank you very much for your explanation! 🙂
Egidio Leitao
You’re welcome.
philosophy through photography
Interesting read, Egidio, sure to send an email link. Thank you.
Egidio Leitao
I replied to your email. Thanks.
philosophy through photography
I registered as a member. Thank you for all the help.
Egidio Leitao
You’re welcome. I hope you’ll share some photos here and there.
philosophy through photography
Sure, from my archive.
Thank you.
Anita
I don’t use Facebook or Instagram, only WordPress, where I have two domains. It’s great that you share this, it definitely feels like something to consider. Thanks Egidio.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for the feedback, Anita.
Pamela Zmija ~ Artist & Intuitive
I appreciate you sharing this, my heart has been pulling me back to my blog for a while and this summer I finally listened. This is where I feel more at home than social media. I’m interested!
Egidio Leitao
That is nice to go back to your blog, Pam. I just saw your beautiful post about longing. About Discord, if you’re interested in checking things out, just drop me a note using the form in my blog. I’ll send you the link. The users are laid back and post whenever they want.
Pamela Zmija ~ Artist & Intuitive
Thank you Egidio I will do that!
Leanne Cole
I have to agree about Egidio, part of the reason why I tend to only post here, with the occassional one on IG. That is really nice of you to start the thing on Discord. I’ve never been on it.
Egidio Leitao
Some friends in the Luminar Insiders group were panicking about the fact Skylum was closing that group and moving to Facebook. I had never created a server in Discord, but I’m a member of one. I decided to dive in and set it up. It was not very hard. Luckily, the users are getting used to the new server without much hassle. The learning curve is not steep at all.
Writing to Freedom
Social media is a mess that I put up with to keep connected and aware of my friends and community. I loath the ads, division, and echo chamber effects. Enjoy your photography channel Egidio.
Egidio Leitao
I am finding that I use WhatsApp more to keep up with friends than I do FB. Although I have a lot of family and friends, I seldom make time to look at FB. The ads, AI “news”, and other annoyances are very discouraging. Thanks for your wishes, Brad.
Writing to Freedom
Thanks Egidio.
solaner
An interesting approach, Egídio.
More or less a step back to the roots.
I used to have a Discord account, but never really understood what I could do with it. I even wasn’t able to join conferences hosted on Discord.
Last week, I got the confirmation, they finally deleted my account.
Egidio Leitao
Well, I discovered what I could do, and that’s why I created this private server.
solaner
👍👍👍
Egidio Leitao
On a different note, I just installed Excire Search 2026. It is a very nice upgrade.
solaner
Great, that you benefit from the update 👍
Toonsarah
While I use Facebook (mainly to stay in touch with friends around the world) and Instagram, I’m becoming increasingly fed up with the amount of advertising and also videos etc. on the latter. This sounds interesting – I will email you 🙂
Egidio Leitao
Sarah, I second your thoughts on those platforms. You may enjoy our private Discord server. Remember, there is no pressure to post. We only post no more than one photo per channel (you can post in several channels, of course). This is like your postcard series.
margaret21
I don’t use any social media platforms any more. Your photography group looks really interesting, but I’m probably not serious enough to contribute it at the moment. But I’ll certainly keep it in mind, as I love to learn from photographers like you, and others whom I’ve ‘met’ via WP.
Egidio Leitao
Margaret, if only I knew then what I know now. I’ve made good friends, and, of course, there’s family connection in some of those platforms. One of the things I like about Discord is that we agreed to post only one photo per channel per day, if we feel like posting at all. So, there’s no pressure.
Brian Scott
I agree with your thoughts on what I call (anti)social media, I have given up all mainstream and now use Mastodon and Peertube 👍
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for your feedback, Brian. I have not checked those two platforms. We have fun on Discord. Sometimes, the daily challenges are hard to match, but we stretch the concept to fit our photos.
Rupali
Thanks for sharing this message Egidio. My photography journey has started right here on WordPress and I haven’t found any other platform where people are really serious about photography. Of course I would like to be part of it and will send you an email.
Egidio Leitao
Rupali, you may enjoy this group. It’s laidback and sometimes we stretch the concept of a challenge to fit a photo we have. We learn from one another. The best part is that we post whenever we want.
Dawn M. Miller
I have unfollowed and snoozed so many people of late, I am ready for a change.
Egidio Leitao
I’m reaching that point, too, Dawn. Discord’s format is similar, but since this is a private server, we don’t get spam or ads.
Terri Webster Schrandt
I enjoy photo challenges and have learned to be a better photographer because of them. I find many social media challenges very “clique-ish.” My blog has been the best way to share my love of photography. I will email you 🙂
Egidio Leitao
Terri, I am also a firm believer that I learn by seeing other people’s photos. I responded to your email. Thanks.
Vicki
Thanks for posting this news, Egidio.
I must admit I dislike Facebook considerably due to the (what was) multiple requests to friend people I’d never heard of.
I do belong to the Australian Bird Facebook page and the Australian Native Plant facebook sites which has been, so far, really good.
Egidio Leitao
Vicki, yes, Facebook has that bad policy of showing our pages to other people. I don’t like that either. Although I still have a FB account, I don’t use that platform much.