Pheton Discord

Overview
The Pheton Discord is a Discord server that serves as the YouTube Animator Photon's videos community center. Along with other topics, notably as games and art. The server opened on May 13, 2020, with a single message sent by current owner Photon stating, "This server's purpose is no purpose."

Culture
Pheton's culture has been described as spontaneously random and similar to that of a chaotic neutral. This culture has been almost entirely the result of Pheton's members post the Reform Period of Pheton.

Server Structure
Pheton has over forty text channels and voice channels viewable to all members, listed and divided among six categories:


 * 1) READ ONLY - All channels dedicated to server rules and announcements.
 * 2) #announcement channel of Pheton, the channel name has been purposely misspelled as a joke by Photon.
 * 3) #rules - Governing Pheton rules and policies.
 * 4) #roles - Role assignment for members.
 * 5) #information - Detailed information about Pheton.
 * 6) #videos - Announcement channel for all new Photon videos.
 * 7) #starboard - Community-driven pinned messages.
 * 8) #verification - Currently unused, except in times of declared crisis by the Pheton Administration.
 * 9) #democracy - Photon's thoughts on democracy.
 * 10) #public-log - Public register of all actions by server staff.


 * 1) TEXT - All channels dedicated to general discussion.
 * 2) #general - The main text traffic channel of Pheton.
 * 3) #donator-chat - Previously a private channel used by those who made financial contributions to the Photon SMP, now only accessible to Nitro boosters.
 * 4) #general - The main image traffic channel of Pheton.
 * 5) #memes - Described by Photon as, "We need to keep the drinking water (#art) away from the pooping water (memes), so to speak."
 * 6) #games - Pheton channel relating to video games.
 * 7) #multiplayer - Pheton channel relating to video games multiplayer.
 * 8) #art -Pheton feedback channel.
 * 9) #rant - Described by Photon as "Rant about things."
 * 10) #suggestions - Pheton feedback channel.
 * 11) #questions - Described by Photon as, "Please don't spam me with questions."
 * 12) #emoji-suggestions - Pheton channel for server emoji suggestions.
 * 13) PHOTON SMP - All channels dedicated to the Photon SMP.
 * 14) #smp - Announcement channel of Pheton relating to the Photon SMP.
 * 15) #smp-rules - Governing Photon SMP rules and policies.
 * 16) #photon-smp-ip-address - IP address of the Photon SMP.
 * 17) #smp-guilds - Public register of all Photon SMP server guilds recognized by the Photon SMP Administration.
 * 18) #smp-codex-log - Public register of all amendments made to the Photonic Codex, currently suspended due to the suspension of Article V of the Photonic Codex II.
 * 19) #photon-smp -  The main Pheton channel relating to the Photon SMP.
 * 20) #reports - Public submissions channel for violations of the Photonic Codex II on the Photon SMP.
 * 21) #smp-capitalism -  Pheton channel relating to trade on the Photon SMP.
 * 22) VOICE CHANNELS - All channels dedicated to voice talk.
 * 23) #voice-text - Voice channel text channel.
 * 24) general-α - First voice channel with a 99 member limit.
 * 25) general-β - Second voice channel with a 99 member limit.
 * 26) general-Ω - Third voice channel with a 99 member limit.
 * 27) EVENTS - All channels dedicated to Pheton events.
 * 28) #event-announcements - Announcement channel of Pheton relating to Pheton events.
 * 29) #event-voting - Pheton channel relating to voting on Pheton events.
 * 30) #event-general - The main Pheton channel relating to Pheton events.
 * 31) #event-suggestions - Public Pheton event submissions channel.
 * 32) Event Stage Chat - Pheton events stage.
 * 33) Event Voice Chat Pheton event voice channel.
 * 34) BOTS & RHYTHM -  All channels dedicated to Pheton Discord bots.
 * 35) #bot-command - The main Pheton channel relating to Dyno and MEE6 bots.
 * 36) #crafty -  Pheton channel relating to the Crafty bot.
 * 37) #dank-memer - Pheton channel relating to the Dank Memer bot.
 * 38) #rythm-command - Pheton channel relating command use of the Rythm bot.
 * 39) Rythm General - Voice channel relating to the Rythm.

It's been confirmed that the Pheton Administration does keep an archive of previous channels on Pheton. Since the Reform Period, this archive of channels has not been publicized or known to any member outside the Pheton Administration.

Leveling
The Reform Period of Pheton implemented the Pheton MEE6 leveling system, awarding XP and ranking members based on server messaging and activity. According to the MEE6's information page, XP is awarded along with the following actions, "Every minute that you're messaging, you randomly gain between 15 and 25 XP. To avoid spamming, earning XP is limited to once a minute per user."

Roles
Pheton maintains a list of both unique functional and vanity roles, listed below:


 * Photon - Vanity role for current server owner Photon.
 * Admin - Functional role for Pheton administrators.
 * Moderator - Functional role for Pheton moderators.
 * Trial Moderator - Functional role for Pheton Trial Moderators.
 * Event Coordinator - Functional role for Pheton event managers and coordinators.
 * Event Host - Functional role for Pheton event hosts.
 * Unavailable - Vanity role to designate a Pheton staff member as unable to respond.
 * Muted - Functional role to reprimanded members.
 * Limited Access Member - Functional role to restricted server privileges.
 * Command Access - Functional [REDACTED BY THE PHETON ADMINISTRATION]
 * SMP Moderator - Functional role for Photon SMP moderators.
 * YouTuber - Vanity role for YouTubers on the Pheton Discord.
 * Why?/Orb/Spark/Fuel for the Fire/Donatorish - Functional role for members who have financially or through Discord Nitro contributed to Pheton or the Photon SMP.
 * Member+ - Vanity role exclusively granted to members with personal connections to Photon.
 * OG - Vanity role exclusively granted to members subscribed to Photon before May 1, 2020,
 * Discord OG - Vanity role exclusively granted to members who joined Pheton before July 1, 2020,
 * Member - Functional server access role.

Administration
The Pheton Administration is the governing body of Pheton, comprised of several staff members, automated systems, and levels of bureaucracy.

History
Almost the entirety of the modern Pheton Administration has origins during the Reform Period. During this period, Photon and Alamo were the only two staff members of the Pheton Administration, although the name "Pheton Administration" wouldn't be adopted until the SMP Period of Pheton.

At the same time in the SMP Period, Pheton appointed the first staff members post-Alamo. However, these appointments weren't directly for Pheton, rather the Photon SMP. It was only following the appointments that the Pheton Administration would find it beneficial to have these new staff members serve dual staff positions on Pheton and the Photon SMP. The appointments resulted in now well-known figures in Pheton. Notably, CatosOtherStuff, Darkraiomega5, and Expressway. As well as now-infamous figures such as Beny and Khav'ak. Notably, Alamo had a minor to no role in selecting these staff members compared to Photon, who made the final selections.

Following the shutdown of the Photon SMP, staff members serving dual positions now only served one staff position on Pheton.

The following appointments of Pheton staff took place during the 2021 May Pheton Discord Moderator Appointments. However, Alamo's removal of Beny and Khav'ak due to their inactivity and popular demand by Pheton's members on May 7, 2021, forced the appointments.

"Today's the day we wave goodbye to our Discord moderators Beny and Khav'ak. May they be remembered for better or for worse in the Pheton Discord Server's history." - Alamo, regarding Beny and Khav'ak's removal.

The next round of selections was spearheaded by Alamo, in committee with existing staff members of Pheton. Public applications were open on Pheton until May 8, 2021. The committee selected then well-known figures Ross and Malorem to be appointed. However, alongside the primary appointments was the creation of the Trial Moderator position by the committee, which appointed Oxygen and Killerwolf2503. Trial Moderators would be able to mute. However, be prohibited from banning members on Pheton.

"However, the committee found reason to no good reason to let viable candidates go to waste. As of today, the position of Trial Moderators will be established. A position meant to assist server moderation with authority to mute and keep the peace. They shall serve at the discretion of server moderators and administrators." - Alamo, regarding the creation of the Trial Moderator position.

Though not through committee, Darkraiomega5 was, through popular demand, appointed Pheton's second administrator under the justification of "balancing Alamo" by the newly appointed staff.

"also, thoughts on 2nd admin to balance alamo out maybe? cause he can be quite rash" - CatosOtherStuff, regarding Darkraimega5's appointment as administrator.

Staff Positions
The Pheton Administration currently has nine members in five different staff positions. They are listed as follows in the Pheton hierarchy:


 * Pheton - Photon, the owner of Pheton and the head of the Pheton Administration. This position is regarded much more as a formality.
 * Admin - Alamo and Darkraiomega5, Pheton administrator (Alamo holds the Chief of Staff position through seniority), second-in-command, and managers of daily internal server operations and lower staff positions.
 * Moderator - CatosOtherStuff, Expressway, Malorem, Ross, serve as enforcement of Pheton server laws and policies, given the ability to issue server mutes and bans.
 * Trial Moderator - Oxygen and Killerwolf2503, appointed by Pheton administrators, serve as enforcement of Pheton server laws and policies, given the ability to issue server mutes.
 * Event Coordinator - CatosOtherStuff, Darkraiomega5, Ross (dual-staff position), organizers of Pheton Discord server community events.

The Pheton Administration governs as an oligarchy. With Photon serving as the current head of state. This is contrary to popular belief that the server is a direct democracy.

The Pheton Administration employs the use of the following Discord bots to assist in moderation:


 * Dyno, server rule and policy enforcement.
 * MEE6, server staff member audit log.
 * AltDentifier, server border admissions and security.

Server Rules & Policies
Between May 2020 through November 2020, Pheton maintained fairly lax rules with little to no enforcement. Until the Reform Period implemented what is now known as Pheton Legacy Policy, written by Alamo. These reformed rules and policies were in force from November 19, 2020, to June 28, 2021. Pheton Legacy Policy's reception has generally been considered a positive one on Pheton due to the establishment and preservation of server stability. However, Pheton Legacy Policy was overturned by Piss Orb Policy, a set of rules and policies primarily written by Photon to address Pheton member's objections to Pheton Legacy Policy. These objections were often companied by criticisms of Alamo.

See also: Criticism of C_Alamo

Piss Orb Policy is the current governing set of rules and policies on Pheton, visible in the #rules channel. The Pheton Administration sparsely makes changes. Alamo maintains the text of Piss Orb Policy. The text of each main rule of Piss Orb policy is listed below (each rule's sub-points can be found on the Pheton #rules channel).


 * 1) Spamming is strictly prohibited
 * 2) All forms of harassment and personal attacks are prohibited
 * 3) Posting of NSFW content is strictly prohibited
 * 4) Raiding is strictly prohibited
 * 5) Advertising is prohibited
 * 6) Leaking of Personal Information
 * 7) Terms of Service & Other

The Pheton Administration has established an Enumeration Clause, establishing assumed necessary and proper powers that aren't explicitly mentioned. Alamo first introduced the concept of enumeration on Pheton. During enforcement of Pheton Legacy Policy, Photon overturned an overarching enumeration clause. However, then was restituted during the implementation of Piss Orb Policy by Photon.

"The Pheton Administration shall reserve the right to reprimand as seen necessary with assumed authority." - Piss Orb Policy.

Moderation Procedures
Pheton's moderation procedures are fully detailed in the #information channel, they read as follows:

"The Pheton Administration categorizes reprimands by a manual moderator-issued and automatically issued infractions. Manual moderator-issued infractions (manual "Warn" commands) are issued for violations of standing Pheton policies and laws described in #rules and are administered as described:

Manual Infractions


 * First infraction - Warning issued.
 * Second infraction - One-hour server mute.
 * Third infraction - One-day server mute.
 * Fourth infraction - Permanent server mute, under review for a permanent server ban.

''Pheton Discord server moderators reserve the right to bypass the first infraction and issue two infractions with administrative discretion. Pheton Discord server moderators reserve the right to reprimand automatically issued infractions as policy regarding automatically issued infractions would dictate."''

Automatic Infractions

"Automatic Infractions follow separate courses of action for different actions. All courses of action allow three chances to desist with automatically detected inapposite behavior, with each of those chances consisting of one warn and one mute. Should inapposite behavior continue following three chances, a day mute is enforced.

Pheton Discord server moderators reserve the right to intervene in the courses of actions of automatically issues infractions.

The different courses of actions and length of reprimanding mutes are described as:

Banned words - One-hour mute (recognized the Pheton Administration's word blacklist described in #rules).


 * Mass mention - One-hour mute (recognized as over eight mentions in a single message).
 * Emoji spam - Fifteen-minute mute (recognized as over ten emotes in a single message).
 * Link spam - Fifteen-minute mute (posting links in an interval of time smaller than three seconds).
 * Duplicate text spam - Fifteen-minute mute.
 * Discord server invites - Fifteen-minute mute.
 * Fast chat spam - Fifteen-minute mute.
 * Image spam - Fifteen-minute mute."

At the end of every month, the Pheton Administration will dismiss all infractions given out during the previous month. However, dismissing infractions are at the discretion of the Pheton Administration.

Inception Period
The Inception Period lasted from May 13, 2020, to November 19, 2020. The Pheton Discord exclusively existed as a Discord server for the Photon YouTube channel. Mainly just to notify all server members of new Photon YouTube videos. Photon served as the sole owner and moderator of the server. Not much official documentation by the server administration of this period exists. However, the server's loose rules and enforcement of this period created a much more chaotic environment. The server's relatively small member count (200 - 400 members) kept relative peace according to existing records. However, witness testimony exist to the contrary.

Reform Period
The Reform Period marked the end of the Inception Period. Represented by the implementation of partial or total restructuring of the Pheton Discord's rules and structure. Executed under the recent appointment of C_Alamo as Pheton Discord administrator following their previous appointment as Photon YouTube stream moderator.

All rules and channels underwent notable permission changes and expansions to provide more structure and order. This first mass use of Discord bots for server-wide rule enforcement began during this period. Automation of MEE6 and Dyno were employed to enforce new rules installed to replace the previously lax server rules of the Inception Period to further cover the Pheton Discord's rapidly growing member count (400 - 500 members).

The Reform Period is the shortest of all periods. Only lasting from November 19, 2020, to November 27, 2020. However, its effects shaped the current day Pheton Discord. While the Reform Period has seemingly provided the Pheton Discord with order and security, there have been criticisms voiced against certain Reform Period changes. Notably, the new rule clause, "Image macros, memes, and copypastas that are not relevant to the channel which it is in will be removed. Please use #memes."

SMP Period
See Photon SMP Server for further reading.

The end of the Reform Period's short timespan was marked by the beginning of the SMP Period on November 27, 2020, with the opening of the Photon SMP Server. Which fundamentally changed the Pheton Discord's purpose and use. Photon hosted a livestream on the day of the Photon SMP's opening. Leading to a mass influx of new members into the Discord server. As a response, the Discord server administration created the present-day SMP category to direct all discussion of the Photon SMP to dedicated channels. Since then, the SMP category of channels has expanded to a present number of eleven channels dedicated to the Photon SMP.

Following another livestream by Photon in which the Photon SMP Ender Dragon was defeated, the Pheton Discord had fundamentally gained a new purpose as a hub for all Photon SMP activity and discussion.

This influx of attention and members from the Photon SMP sparked the need for new server moderation. Agreements were made between the Photon High Command to appoint new moderators under C_Alamo. Moderator applications were opened on December 31, 2020, with multiple server members applying. Following days of review, on January 2, 2020. The announcement was made by C_Alamo, who declared that CatosOtherStuff, Koovaek, and Your Expressway To The Stars would be appointed Pheton Discord moderators. Further moderators would be added following SMP Moderator Applications, notably Darkraiomega and Beny.

Further events such as the SMP Dragon Egg Tournament would bring even more attention and members to the Pheton Discord.

Post-SMP Period
The Photon SMP was discontinued on February 20th, 2021. A second server was established, but only lasted a week due to lacking interest and factional infighting.

Photon was not keen to add more events onto the large and expensive SMP project, a project that wasn't very successful at this point. The SMP has been dead ever since, with no intention of recreating it until after 1.17 proper has released. Photon has since focused more on Terraria content.

The SMP has been less active since then, as the SMP was a large source of attention on the server.

Beny and Koovaek resigned as discord moderators on May 7th, 2021.

The server has declined since then noticeably into late 2021.

Notable Members
The Pheton Server is host to a multitude of notable members that have made a name for themselves on YouTube, the Discord server itself, or the Photon SMP Server.


 * Adventurer32, Terraria and Bedwars strategist YouTuber.
 * Terrasteel, Terraria and Hypixel strategist YouTuber.
 * AKurbyBurby, distinguished Photon SMP member.
 * Furret, suggester of the Photon SMP.
 * Canadian Empire, distinguished member of Pheton and Photon SMP.
 * Chug_Oh, infamous server rule violator.