I will say this is important also because of the international nature to most sites and the audience to build up any kind of communicative spirit, atmosphere or community you have to let people speak in something understandable by both parties.   Not everyone speaks english or has that comfortably recognisable for themselves, in any case its far quicker to post a smiley then sentences

People are far more responsive to a picture or icon then maybe long sentences.    If it was me, I'd say discord is ideal because its so open to post all kinds of screenshots if need be.  Perhaps thats too open for most places and requires alot of moderation.

So thats your focus to give freedom but also some restriction to prevent spam or overuse by just one especially new user