If there’s one thing Cats fans love almost as much as Kentucky basketball, it’s talking about Kentucky basketball.
Before the Internet, you were limited to just the fans you were around in person – and if you were the unlucky soul who was the sole Cats fanatic in the middle of enemy territory (like, say, the middle of North Carolina), you didn’t have many options.
Now, though, you can reach any fellow Kentucky fan by joining the right communities…and no one does it better than Discord.
If you haven’t heard of Discord – or think it’s just a place for gamers, not sports fans – then this blog post is for you. Here’s a quick rundown of Discord, how Blue Chips uses it, and why it’s the premier place to chat about UK sports live.
Why Discord Rocks for UK Fans
We may be biased, but we genuinely think there’s no better way to interact with UK diehards than Discord.
Here are a few choice benefits:
- Communication is in real-time; if you want to celebrate a monster dunk as it happens with your fellow fans online, you can do it
- Everything is organized so you don’t get lost in the convo
- You can let your personality shine in ways that ordinary message boards can’t
- It’s easier for community organizers to interact with members and vice-versa
- There are more ways to talk than with just text
- Discord is growing insanely fast; there are new UK fans joining every day
At Blue Chips, we take it a step further by giving Discord members an extra incentive: a first look at some of our newest NFTs.
It’s also how we hand out some of our in-demand giveaways that you can’t find anywhere else.
Discord is the place where fandom lives in this age, and that’s why we created our Blue Chips server. If you want to show everyone else just how much you bleed Kentucky blue, there’s no better destination.
What Is Discord?
Discord is a real-time instant messaging service that lets you talk and hang out with friends, family, and fellow fans via voice, video, and text.
Available on your phone or via an app on your computer or tablet, Discord lets you join online communities called servers. Servers are collections of places where you can talk shop with others, ranging from chat rooms to voice chat channels.
For those who have horror stories from the Wild West days of public chat rooms a couple of decades ago, don’t worry – Discord servers are invite-only. That means when you’re in a UK fan server, you’re talking only with UK fans who were invited to be there.
This is what our Discord server, Blue Chips, looks like:
There are two types of places you can interact in our server with other fans:
- Text Channels
- Voice Channels
Our text channels are where you can talk via text. These channels are marked by the hashtag (#) symbol, usually organized by category. They look like this:
Use these channels to share pics and GIFs, upload files, and interact in other ways with your fellow fans via text.
Our voice channels are where you can talk with your phone or computer’s microphone. When you’re in a voice channel, it looks like this:
Channels exist for just about anything. If people want to talk about it, they can create a channel for it, whether it’s text, voice, or video.
As you can see above, we have channels for game day chats, NFT talk, hilarious memes, and the top 10 UK hoops moments this season – and more. (It’s these channels that will give you an exclusive first-look access to new NFT drops before anyone else…)
You can also use video and do things like share your screen, stream from your computer, watch other streams, and video chat with others in the community.
It’s an awesome tool that gives you countless ways to join in the discussion with Cats fans who are just obsessed as you are.
How Do I Get Started?
The first step to get in on the action is to download the app (on desktop, phone, or tablet). Don’t worry, it’s free.
You can download the app from the following places:
You don’t have to download anything if you don’t want to, though; you can access Discord through your browser.
Next, you’ll create an account. You’ll need an email address and your date of birth. You’ll also create a username and password. The username is what will be displayed in the server so people know who you are.
Discord will then ask you to claim the account by verifying your email address, so check your inbox. You can also verify your phone number to make it more secure and easier to log in from your phone, but that’s optional.
Once your account is created and verified, you can customize your Blue Chips profile, including adjusting your settings (especially if you plan on using video and voice), adding an avatar, changing your username (if you want), and more.
Finally, you’ll just need a link to our server. That’s it – once you’re in, you can jump in the Kentucky hoops convo right away.
(For more information on the ins and outs of Discord, check out Discord’s own beginner’s guide to the platform.)
Join the Fastest-Growing Community for Kentucky Blue Bloods
If you have UK colors in your veins, there’s one place you need to be: the UK Blue Chips Discord server.
It’s the fastest-growing community online for full-time fans like you, whose Kentucky fandom is a 24/7, 365-days-a-year obsession.
Now that you know the ins and outs of the platform, you can get started and jump right into the convo.
We’ll see you on game days and every other day. Go Cats!