this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Argh, what I wouldn't give for Discord to absolutely tank itself.
Unfortunately, while the reddit "migration" was difficult, Discord would be even harder to move people from - while also not being as easy to just drop on a dime, since at least for myself there are plenty of friends on there that I don't have another way to contact...
Discord would have to be really stupid and do something really egregious though to get everyone to move off it all at once. The dream? Mumble and IRC, give me those back. I don't see that happening of course, Matrix would still be nice but it doesn't really do voice channels well.
Could pair Mumble with Discord, but I think the days of people being okay with having a different app for messaging and voice communication is over (when it comes to gaming surely) after a post-Discord world.
Also, as much as I love Mumble and its voice quality (and low latency), Discord is much more plug and play. Mumble needs microphone specific fine tuning to work well. Which is worth it for me, but is nothing you can quickly get someone else to do.
Yeah it’s always a project to get new people started with Mumble. It doesn’t feel like it should be so difficult, but people always struggle.
Ironically, I struggled immensely with forcing Discord to stop messing with my system audio settings, which is apparently something apps are allowed to do in Windows.
I'm not aware of what Discord has been doing that is causing people's concern. What are people currently concerned about re: Discord?
I accepted that it would have to start doing something eventually - it can't operate for free forever. But the only news I've heard recently is giving servers optional tools to monetise, and free users can continue to not use servers that do that. The few servers I've been in that do it are doing it ironically - donate to the sub to gain access to a channel with a giant 🍆 emoji and nothing else! Comments disabled! etc.
I wouldn't blame Patreon for somebody moving all their content behind a $20/m sub, I just wouldn't subscribe to them... so I'm not concerned with Discord until it enshittifies for users.
Just curious, why the criticism of discord? Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I haven't heard anything too negative about them - nothing like the controversy surrounding reddit, Twitter, etc.
Just a personal preference?
Not OP, but as someone who uses discord every day, I think I can speak to the general criticism. Discord has way more bloat than what is needed by most out of a communications program. They've continued to add "features" that a lot of the user base doesn't really care about, but take up visual space and operating space. Discord Nitro ads are also on the list of criticisms as it's nearly constant. I love having a place to easily interact with communities I care about, but if somehow a less "noisy" alternative came along and everyone I care about moved (lol), I'd change in a heartbeat and uninstall discord.
I cancelled my sub because as a paying customer I still get spammed with those ads popped up on top of your user panel.
I didn't know they stuck around if you upgraded. That's awful lol
A combination of personal preference, and just how much I despise what they've done in terms of making information hidden away from the internet - anything on Discord cannot be indexed (and there is no way as a server admin to allow indexing as an opt-in capability), they're just another big platform that is waiting till it hits critical mass to then start turning against its users (in my opinion).
Oh, and the fact that they couldn't care less about the Linux version of their desktop client (which is riddled with issues due to being on a grossly outdated version of Electron) also doesn't sit well with me, but god forbid you try to develop or use an alternative client... In a way, just like Reddit now I suppose.
Unfortunately, unless all of your friends are in the FOSS world, it feels useless to even entertain the idea of convincing them to switch to something else. Just another case of the "Network Effect"...
It's more the core of how Discord works then anything. The fact that it's hard for knowledge to persist, leading to channels just being people asking the same questions over and over.
And it's not really indexable or searchable, so even if people are trying to provide good information, people are going to struggle to find it.
Before I (unfortunately) budged, it was due to inferior usability (imo), bloated experience, and most notably, shitty privacy policy compared to the likes of a (self-hosted) TeamSpeak server. Discord is free because you're the product, as with any other service.
I can't speak for everyone, but my own biggest concern with Discord is that it seems to me that they're inching their way towards either an IPO or acquisition. The former would end with Discord exploiting our data as much as possible, and the latter with years of our data being put in the hands of the highest bidder. Microsoft acquiring Skype was rough; something similar occurring with Discord would be downright brutal. The thought of a corporation exploiting conversations with vulnerable friends who were committed to making very final mistakes before being talked down, emerging and/or failed romances, discussions about extremely personal events et al. is frightening.