this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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They supposedly can be disabled in settings- but we all know that won't last. They're going full Microsoft Skype mode and it's only a matter of time.

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[–] kadu 248 points 7 months ago (9 children)

I've grown with ICQ, MSN Messenger, TeamSpeak, Skype, several local chat apps, then people obsessed with Facebook Messenger, then Snapchat... I just know any particular chatting app is a temporary fad that will eventually end, it's just their cycle. Don't get attached to them.

[–] [email protected] 86 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Same here. I'm just surprised at how well Signal is holding up.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Unfortunately it’s difficult to get people to switch to it

[–] [email protected] 48 points 7 months ago (9 children)

And they didn't make it any easier by removing SMS support from the mobile app.

It was pretty easy to get a couple of my friends to switch by saying it's just another SMS client that also supports highly encrypted messaging with other people that use Signal. Now that it's standalone, nobody will even fucking touch it.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago (12 children)

door opening sound knock knock

I can still sometimes "hear" ICQ, and that's going on almost 30 years ago now?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I still have the "uh oh" sound - use it on my phone for notifications.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Oh yeah, I've been through the same. Discord was nice while it lasted.

TS and Matrix will hopefully be the replacements I use if I can get people to switch. A lot of discord communities are heavily entrenched though, which I'm sure they're banking on to maintain momentum as the service quality continues to degrade.

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[–] [email protected] 213 points 7 months ago (9 children)

Discord keeps getting used for things it shouldn't be used for like tech support. I will be glad when it dies. Don't hide your support behind a platform that can't be searched from the web. It's not a replacement for forums and issue trackers.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I couldn't agree more. I hate that some open source projects are using discord for communicating.

[–] FinalRemix 38 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I especially hate that it's being used as a login for some things. Goddammit, let me just use my fucking email address.

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[–] dinckelman 146 points 7 months ago (16 children)

Remember the emails from 2015? The plan was to have a platform, that just works. No bullshit, no issues, just functional features.

Even when Nitro was originally added, it was 5 bucks to optional support, if you'd like to help the company. Now the same sub is 10 a month, and half of the client is unusable without it.

Not to mention all the paid account banners and borders they're selling for an egregious amount of money

[–] [email protected] 80 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Everyone is optimistically altruistic until the corporate greed comes a-knockin'

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (6 children)

The best approach to "free" things is to understand that it's never sustainable. Eventually it will have to become a paid subscription or ad supported or both.

And regardless, you're going to end up being the product if they can discern anything marketable about you from your use of the "free" product.

But just be ready to jump to the next free product.

(Obviously it's possible for there to be FOSS but that comes with some challenges as well.)

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[–] malloc 116 points 7 months ago

.. and open source projects continue to list discord as a community option to discuss items about their project.

[–] [email protected] 102 points 7 months ago (8 children)

This may actually push users into thinking about modding discord, or even better, switching to matrix

Good move discord, I like it

[–] mesamunefire 41 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I never stopped using irc (I know I'm old). There is matrix to irc connectors that are awesome. One of the benefits of open source is a lot of the protocols work well together.

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[–] fenrasulfr 102 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Considering it is free to use, with streaming, voice/video calling , it surprises me that the enshitification didn't start earlier.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago

Deffo waiting for lots of people to be on it before turning up that dial.

Seems to be the standard silicon valley business model these days. The old "drug dealer outside school giving away free samples to get you hooked" we all heard about but never saw.

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[–] whotookkarl 88 points 7 months ago (11 children)

Between a corpo job only using teams and email and international folks all using WhatsApp I kinda want to just go back to irc and stay there forever. Everything that came after it has just been worse.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 7 months ago (27 children)

The paid promotions are from videogame makers and will offer users gifts for completing in-game tasks while their friends watch on Discord.

So they're still showing ads to paying users. This shit should be illegal.

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[–] kaitco 65 points 7 months ago (7 children)

I’m shocked they’re moving to ads when I’ve been paying them $4/month for Discord Nitro for several years now. Surely, that revenue is enough for their upkeep???

[–] [email protected] 96 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It's never enough. Growth must be un-ending. Also gotta pump them numbers up for an IPO so they can bail with a pocket full of cash.

[–] EvilLootbox 24 points 7 months ago

It's like how Netflix ended the basic no-ads plan to force people to either pay way more or pay a little less but be bombarded with ads. Serving ads is more profitable than letting people pay a little bit to skip them, apparently.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 7 months ago (13 children)

I never ever understood and still doesn't understand why people like Discord. It's not indexed, it's a constant background noise. It's absolutely not user-friendly. You can do better with IRC.

[–] Zoomboingding 99 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Discord is remarkable. It has seamless video streaming from your desktop or apps to any number of watchers, with multiple peopld being able to stream at once. Paired with voice chat, it's perfect for group gaming sessions, movie showings, desktop troubleshooting, video chat, etc. Besides some issues with input devices, it's always worked flawlessly for me. Plus, obviously, a persistent server for chat.

And the fact that it's fast, resource-light, and free are just the icing on the cake.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Some people are downvoting you but you're right. No other application is this all in one package. My only issues with input devices have been Windows' fault, too. I don't like Discord's closed ecosystem and data privacy concerns, but the feature set is unmatched, especially at the amount of polish they have and their price.

Side note, people please stop using it as an alternative to a proper forum.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Thanks for the point about the forums. I get why people use Discord: the things it is designed for it does reasonably well. The problem is people using it in ways it isn't made for, like forums or wikis. If your documentation, issue tracking, or patch notes are done via Discord, please stop for fuck's sake. There are much better options for this and you can even webhook them into Discord if you insist on it, but stop using Discord to replace forums.

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[–] arken 35 points 7 months ago (16 children)

As far as I understand, the sole reason is "everyone else is using it". Which also seems to be the justification for using Messenger, WhatsApp, X, Instagram et al despite knowing better. It's hard to be outside of the walled garden if everybody else is inside.

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[–] chronicledmonocle 60 points 7 months ago (5 children)

They also are forcing US users into arbitration unless you opt out by May 15th by emailing [email protected], so you can't sue them. This is similar to LG with their compressor fiasco in their fridges where they put arbitration agreement crap on the box.

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[–] stoly 58 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I'm afraid that every generation runs into this and learns the hard way. Discord isn't the first and won't be the last. The moment someone wants to become profitable, all bets are off.

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[–] Resol 46 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

They're going full Microsoft Skype mode

And I thought Discord was initially launched to destroy Skype.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (11 children)

It was only ever launched to take over their position, not destroy their program design. Greed eventually consumes all.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 7 months ago

Neo, Matrix is calling

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Please yes, pump it full of ads, discord can't die fast enougb, reddit and youtube too.

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[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please 38 points 7 months ago

Quests will show up tastefully in Discord where you can opt-in to stream your game to friends and win rewards for playing.

Every day, we inch closer to “drink a verification can” reality.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sincerely hope this will be the beginning of a D-Exodus, and that all those open source projects who made the choice to only use Discord for community communication will move to something which is search engine friendly for searching for answers.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (16 children)

mmmm, i hate discord, anybody have any good self hosted recommendations? Preferably, fully featured, or featureful, and not some random garb.

Flirting with matrix, the concept fucks. I just haven't gotten around to doing anything with it yet. I know there area few others, like revolt, which is kind of a mess, and various others in the same category.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (7 children)

In 2022, Discord had a revenue of $445 million. Maybe if they were a private company that would be enough.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/discord-statistics/

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[–] ATDA 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm down to distributed social networks and irc.

I still need to backup and cleanse Reddit but I'm just old man declaring everything turned to shit, yelling at clouds nowadays it seems.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm kinda sad to see it enshittify, for gamers and for those who find it fits their actual collaboration use case, but I also really hate the number forum-format communities that Discord has displaced or prevented from coalescing. Discoverability on Discord is terrible, as is having help available long term, as well as older advice and other content that helps newbies get the culture of a community. Even where the functionality exists, the general "real time" transitory feel of it reduces the quality of content and encourages people to be dicks, since it will all scroll by or be forgotten (if streaming) in a few moments anyway.

Horses for courses, and my old-ass X-ennial self thinks Discord has been pressed into service on a lot of courses where it's terrible.

[–] werefreeatlast 25 points 7 months ago (2 children)

This is the future!

10 years from now....

I needed to go 💩 poop and I had to wait for a Home Depot ad before I could open the lid. I flushed but I had to learn about Spandex hot pants before the water rushed down.

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