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How Discord Went Mainstream

theatlantic.com

61–70 of 155 posts

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#61
post #46
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! What are the advantages you see with Discord over Slack for the same purpose (if any)? I figured Slack's been around longer and offers most of these things so I was curious what makes people use Discord over it. FWIW I use both happily.

I've almost never used Slack, but isn't it more institution-oriented? Can you use it for free with a bunch of friends? I'd be interested in knowing what you prefer in both, since you're using both Also, have you ever tried a free software, decentralized alternative?

I'm not who you were talking to, but while Slack was definitely intended for use by businesses, you can create a Slack "team" for free (or at least, that's what I remember). There are limits around free Slack (finite chat history) but it is possible.

> Also, have you ever tried a free software, decentralized alternative?

Which are you thinking of?

I've used Riot before, to see what Matrix was all about. The Riot client was kind of sluggish.

Anyways, I suspect the real reason people use things like Slack and Discord is not because it's the best tool for the job but because it's free for them to make a community. Typically, the person who administrates the server/team/community also has to pay a monthly subscription fee or pay to host it on a VPS, so it's only natural that people are flocking to a service which offers to let you do that for free.

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#62
post #4

maybe im just getting old but i cant really understand the runaway success of discord, it seems awfully similar to IRC to me

Here are a few things that make Discord nicer than IRC for ordinary (non-voice) chat: 1. You can start a new server right in the client by clicking a button. 2. Logs are saved server-side and synced across all your clients (phone, PC, etc). 3. You can upload images and videos to be hosted by Discord's servers. Media and links appear inline in the chat log. 4. No strange rituals involving NickServ or ChanServ. 5. Mobi…

>No strange rituals involving NickServ or ChanServ.

True but God help you if you ever lose your discord 2fa seed; you'll have to throw away that identity and start over. [1]

From their FAQ:

Note: If you do not have access to your backup codes, we are unable to remove 2FA and you will have to create a new account. Discord cannot remove 2FA or issue you new backup codes.

*1 https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/11500122107...

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#63
post #44

Does anyone know what dotcom partnerships and individual/influencer affiliate programs Discord has done? For a while, I saw many subreddit mods pushing Discord in side bars and stickied posts, often with language that suggested it was an official Reddit counterpart to the sub. I supposed it could be that Reddit management was choosing to siphon off its own user base and influence to Discord. But my suspicion was that…

I'm a subreddit mod for a decent sized esports subreddit and we have an "official" discord for our sub. Our rational for this is it provides a good medium for real time reactions to games/matches that can be shorter and more like twitch chat without having to be actual twitch chat. We noticed too that once we created the discord there was an overall quality increase in the actual posts/comments on the subreddit because most of the less thorough stuff got posted to discord instead.

It also provides a good outlet for people looking to find others to game or hangout with that share at least a few similar interests.

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#64
From the TOS:

By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. The Company does not guarantee the accuracy, quality, or integrity of any user content posted.

They also have a ban against distributing or even talking about macro/autohotkey programs, and, of course, they can see every single message and piece of content you put on the service.

It's 20XX; why is there anything but harsh condemnation for services like this? Modern communication platforms should not be set up this way.

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#65
post #64

From the TOS: By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. The Company doe…

99% of users don't care, it's a great product

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#66
post #35
post #34

My group of friends migrated from Messenger to Discord a few days ago, we are very pleased. Here's a list of what I love the most: * When a friend arrived in the evening and the others had been talking about random things all day long, the friend was often submerged by the amount of fluff to read. Discord solves this in two ways: 1) the different channels allow us to keep discussions tidy, we have a channel for rando…

Nice! What are the advantages you see with Discord over Slack for the same purpose (if any)? I figured Slack's been around longer and offers most of these things so I was curious what makes people use Discord over it. FWIW I use both happily.

One of the complaints I've had is simply that Slack limits the viewable/searchable chat history without paying

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#67
post #65
post #64

From the TOS: By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. The Company doe…

99% of users don't care, it's a great product

I agree, but that's sad, and not the way things should be.

We should hold ourselves to a higher standard instead of blindly shuffling into the tar pits. Does that mean life is harder? Yes. But no one great ever took the easy way out.

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#68
post #65
post #64

From the TOS: By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. The Company doe…

99% of users don't care, it's a great product

Most users of heroin dont care that it is harming them, but that's a good thing right?

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#69
post #26
post #12

I was a huge Discord fan, but now stopped using it for several reasons. - I can't mute some channels completely. I have raised bug reports, tried all the various options, researched everything I could find in Google about this issue. Bottom line is that "mute" is taken by Discord to be "only mute, unless I think you need to hear this", with no way to fully mute a channel. - I only use Discord in browser and it now ha…

I've never used the browser tab but the desktop client you can server mute where you also have to select "suppress @everyone and @here" if you want a true mute besides @yourname The desktop client had issues with FPS drop in games. You can disable Hardware Acceleration in the Appearance section and your FPS returns to normal. I guess you'd have to find the browser setting, maybe you can do it per tab? I'm in about 20…

The issue with mute is that if you're assigned a roll and the role is @'d you're still notified. There's no way to suppress it. Combine that with servers where you need a role to access channels and you end up with unmutable notifications from a role you can't opt-out of.

My Discord is sitting at about half a gig and I'm in 12 or so servers.

Re: How Discord Went Mainstream

#70
post #44

Does anyone know what dotcom partnerships and individual/influencer affiliate programs Discord has done? For a while, I saw many subreddit mods pushing Discord in side bars and stickied posts, often with language that suggested it was an official Reddit counterpart to the sub. I supposed it could be that Reddit management was choosing to siphon off its own user base and influence to Discord. But my suspicion was that…

There's an influencer program but it's more aimed at Lan parties and other events of that nature.

I suspect that the reason you see so many Discords for subreddits is it's free, and easy. I recall few subs having IRCs which the only other option that really compared, probably because of the barrier to entry for both the user and the admin.

Reddit did launch their own chat feature. No idea if anyone uses it, I sure as hell haven't.

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