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Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

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Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#151

Post by 2iP1zbR »

fish45 wrote: post #77

Speaking as an 18 y.o. doing my first year college online, I wouldn't have made it through quarantine without Discord. I've a server with my high school friends and since Discord lowers the barrier to join a voice call so much it's super chill to just hop in a channel when doing homework or playing a game or whatever else, and anyone else who's free can join. I really wish there were competition, but there's nothing…

> Teamspeak, which has other problems

like server admins viewing the IP addresses of other users in the server, if that counts

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#152

Post by InitialLastName »

tinus_hn wrote: post #82
vkou wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IF you want a really ridicilous example of Microsoft's inability to deal with UX, try changing literally anything that has to do with sound in Windows, and tell me how many separate sound-related configuration applications there are, and what are the paths to opening them. Then, ask someone who never used Windows XP to explain to you what each of those configuration applications is responsible for. (So they won't be…

One of the reasons of course is that every driver feels the need to add their great pane to the control panel applet, so now Microsoft can’t change anything to the applet or all the drivers break.

3 of those settings panes are baked directly into Windows 10 and have nothing to do with any 3rd-party drivers.

If the sound isn't enough, the power management is even worse. I count at least 5 different panes to configure different subsets of screen saver, sleep, hibernate and power on/off behavior, all from Windows itself with no 3rd-party software involved.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#153

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

toolz wrote: post #121
echelon wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My username and favorite aliases were taken. Discord allows anyone to share the same username. It appends a nearly invisible hash to disambiguate, and you can even change it. Discord does usernames right.

hmm, so on public discord servers if someone copies my nickname and pretends to be me, someone might not easily notice? Seems like a pretty readily used vulnerability. I remember back in high school on AIM someone made a username very similar to mine and said some nasty things to a girl I was talking to - she told me to stop talking to her and I didn't figure out why until years later. I imagine the same exploit coul…

Depends on the setup of the Discord server.

Many servers have different "roles" created, though often they're just nothing more than a title and a different color for your name when chatting on the server. If you don't have the default role on your server, then anybody would probably notice the fake person is a fake because they'd have the default role color.

Second, servers can require that your account have a verified phone number for you to join or chat on it, which raises the barrier a bit for creating fake accounts.

Finally, even if they join a mutual server and send you a private message, when you view the message, you won't see the private message history of the conversation with the real account, giving away that it's at the very least a new account.

Overall, it's harder to impersonate on Discord than it is on AIM, but still certainly not impossible.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#154

Post by kevincox »

aclelland wrote: post #142
hguant wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data mining. They've got a huge corpus of information available to them that they haven't monetized yet (as far as I'm aware). Also, and I don't mean this flippantly - stickers and shit. People want to look different, and selling a sticker or custom emoji pack would bring in money. You see this with Nitro a little, I believe they're experimenting with it

Yeah, as long as you run the desktop app they'll keep track of what games and apps you have running (even if you disable the app sharing to your friends) which seems like it would be _very_ valuable to most gaming related companies. Edit: If you want to confirm this you can use their data export feature and check it. One good thing about that tool is that the data is well formatted and easy to parse

This is the reason that I much prefer to keep apps in my web browser. Sandboxing is a valuable feature. (And the desktop client is just a web browser anyways)

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#155

Post by miketery »

lbotos wrote: post #132
rakoo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matrix the protocol is not there yet. Element, its main client, lacks too many features to have the same experience: - No concept of servers (in discord parlance). Its equivalent (matrix spaces, in https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/blob/matthew/msc177... ) is in progress - No included audio/video calls. You have to link them manually and use a third-party stack, such as Jitsi - Even if you have Jitsi the exper…

> - No included audio/video calls. You have to link them manually and use a third-party stack, such as Jitsi To be explicit, no group audio/video. I run my own Matrix server for my partner and I and it uses webRTC based audio out of the box for 1:1 calls which we use every day, and sometimes video. No Jitsi enabled in my config. (I only share this so other readers can gauge if Matrix can meet their needs.)

What client do you use on your devices to talk via the server?

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#156

Post by remir »

etempleton wrote: post #127

I just don’t see what Discord’s path towards profitability is. Are they going to try to start an online store again? Sell enough Nitro subs? I think they are playing hard ball for a better acquisition deal, but they risk being irrelevant before ever getting a better deal.

Pretty sure a "Business" edition is in the plan.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#157

Post by magicalhippo »

formerly_proven wrote: post #45
wayoutthere wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brand; the days of “technological advantage” as a differentiator are over. Technology progress has plateaued in a great many industries over the last decade so it’s all about the product experience these days. Honestly tho, Google could instantly leapfrog its competitors in the space by acquiring Discord. The Google ecosystem is desperately in need of a decent collaboration tool and everything Google tried to build i…

> Brand; the days of “technological advantage” as a differentiator are over. There is a vast gulf even in terms of „just working“ between garbage like Microsoft Teams and something like Discord.

I find this "Teams is garbage" vs the experience at our company quite interesting.

We've been relying on Teams since the pandemic broke out. Us devs had been using it before just for chat and such, so was obvious fit.

Teams voice, video and screen sharing just works for us. Heck, today I helped my coworker with an urgent issue via a Teams call while I was hiking in the mountains. He shared his screen and I viewed it on my mobile phone, so I could talk him through a workaround. Worked smooth as ever.

There are some points where it's not as smooth, especially search is a pain. But basic functionality like chat, voice and video just works for us.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#158

Post by kevincox »

etempleton wrote: post #127

I just don’t see what Discord’s path towards profitability is. Are they going to try to start an online store again? Sell enough Nitro subs? I think they are playing hard ball for a better acquisition deal, but they risk being irrelevant before ever getting a better deal.

Discord has started giving me popups and adding sparkles around UI elements that I need to pay for. I thought the premium "Nitro" was a nice option but I guess it isn't popular enough? Either way it seems that now they are nagging hard to get you to pay.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#159

Post by hpfr »

echelon wrote: post #108
lrvick wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not matrix?

My username and favorite aliases were taken. Discord allows anyone to share the same username. It appends a nearly invisible hash to disambiguate, and you can even change it. Discord does usernames right.

Usernames don’t even matter that much thanks to nicks (display names) which are available in Matrix (and unlike Discord, they are available in DM’s), and furthermore, you can get an account with a smaller provider that federates if you really want a username taken on matrix.org.

Other Discord features like servers aren’t there yet, but “usernames” doesn’t seem like a real deficiency.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#160

Post by Ericson2314 »

ergot_vacation wrote: post #49
coldpie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how tech startups work, isn't it? Use investors to build a product with no business model, then the founders cash out via purchase or IPO, and soon after the fact that you have no business model comes to light and the product falls apart trying to find a business model, while users move on to the next shiny thing with no business model.

Glad I'm not the only one thinking this. Seems obvious, but I always felt like I was missing something. How is it that most of the tech/SV world is just the same con being run over and over again, yet it keeps working? Does it operate on the same psychological glitch as a lottery? Do the giant corps buying these startups all think "I know how it's been in the past, but surely THIS startup WON'T turn to shit the momen…

Yes, the model is entirely built on acquisitions, where discord itself can't be profitable, but part of Microsoft it can deliver value by deepening the mote around everything else.

Many things are only valuable as a public good or part of monopoly. Such is funny relationship between monopolization and socialism.

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