The validation process in game via DISCORD is using a webhook to confirm the Discord account you provided is a real account in Discord. Once done, it updates your nickname to match the option you used (character or account) from in game. Over the years, we've built some tools to help us communicate from the game to Discord. We have plans to use this to help with how announcements are handled as well. With the auto-publisher bot that we have, it is possible to really engage with a wide range of players using Discord.
None of your data is shared or used outside of this during the authentication process. It is simply used as described above to link who everyone is so that we can continue to use Discord in a manner that works for us. As for the phone number validation step, that is done through Discord as an extra security layer and nothing that Simutronics or the GemStone IV game staff have access to. It's mostly used as a spam filter.
This is all very new right now, any consideration for read-only channels will be discussed at a later time.
Wyrom, PM
This message was originally posted in Help for Players, Official Website, Wiki, and Forums. To discuss the above, follow the link below.
http://forums.play.net/forums/19/210/3361/view/133
