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Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

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Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#211

Post by sascha_sl »

Ombudsman wrote: post #100
ivraatiems wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better than being a hellscape in 6 months-2 years due to forced integration with Teams.

I think Microsoft is smarter than that, look at Github for example, people have largely forgotten it's owned by MSFT. They would have left Discord as a gaming platform and used it's tech in Teams instead. Teams is so behind Discord in all areas except video quality.

I don't think GitHub staff has forgotten. Actions are straight up Azure Pipelines. The code is a huge mess. If I didn't know better I'd say it's obscured by design. Check out the actions/runner repo if you don't believe me. They polished them very well for the hosted version, but the cracks show if you try to use the self-hosted version.

I can't believe anyone at GitHub is particularly thrilled about having a Microsoft technology that broken imposed on them.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#212

Post by Topgamer7 »

w0m wrote: post #163
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…

We used Vent like this for a decade; we just always had a big call going at all times with my HS friends post graduation.

God there's a name I haven't heard for a decade or so.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#213

Post by uzakov »

sascha_sl wrote: post #202
ripdog wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wasn't talking about mass data collection used to sell advertising, he was talking about a the admin of a server with maybe a dozen users having access to his IP, which potentially could be used for DDOS or geolocation. The kind of 'data collection' which could have visible impacts upon his life.

Discord has the same issue, essentially everyone who works in a somewhat technical role has access to their moderation tools that have zero auditing and reports of abuse (reading people's DMs "as a joke") are not uncommon. Discord also refuses to delete any data you give them. Deleting a Discord account sets a lockout flag, changes the nickname to "Deleted User" and resets the avatar to default. That's it. They don't…

> Discord has the same issue, essentially everyone who works in a somewhat technical role has access to their moderation tools that have zero auditing and reports of abuse (reading people's DMs "as a joke") are not uncommon.

This is the first time I hear of this, can you please link a source?

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#214

Post by sascha_sl »

Rapzid wrote: post #208
selimthegrim wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has there been an exodus of talent from Github if they are leveling salaries?

Probably an influx of talent. They suddenly started shipping stuff after the acquisition..

Very poorly polished stuff, to be honest. Before, they always seemed to take great care in making their core product (and the API for it) great. The only thing I can think of that was similarly unpolished was GitHub Enterprise.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#215

Post by cblconfederate »

RobLach wrote: post #169
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.

Note: Discord has 14x more active users than Slack. Discord has a technology and feature superset over Slack. The Discord audience is becoming the professional audience just about right now.

i bet facebook has more users than linkedin but doubt anyone would pay a subscription for it

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#216

Post by dvh »

snorrah wrote: post #175
dvh wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mobile website. Back in the old day it was possible to join without registration. Just visit the project invite link and start typing. Then it required registration but still worked on mobile. Now it no longer works on mobile, you just get "install app or GTFO". I've stopped using discord then.

It works fine on mobile. https://imgur.com/9PiRQTI.jpg

It does not work on mobile. When you visit invite (as new user would), e.g. here https://discord.com/invite/trbteNj it will automatically open play store with discord app. It cannot be disabled.

Additionally, when you visit discord.com shortly there is login button visible but then it disappears and only install app button is visible, login is no longer possible.

(It is possible that old users have some cookie settings that allows them to use mobile website but new users can't)

Tested in chrome in Android 10

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#217

Post by sascha_sl »

uzakov wrote: post #213
sascha_sl wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord has the same issue, essentially everyone who works in a somewhat technical role has access to their moderation tools that have zero auditing and reports of abuse (reading people's DMs "as a joke") are not uncommon. Discord also refuses to delete any data you give them. Deleting a Discord account sets a lockout flag, changes the nickname to "Deleted User" and resets the avatar to default. That's it. They don't…

> Discord has the same issue, essentially everyone who works in a somewhat technical role has access to their moderation tools that have zero auditing and reports of abuse (reading people's DMs "as a joke") are not uncommon. This is the first time I hear of this, can you please link a source?

The Discord subreddit has a few threads about this, but it has always been an open secret back when the Discord Developers guild still existed. I'm pretty sure it got axed because some staff members got too memey about abusing their database access.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#218

Post by jfim »

ripdog wrote: post #201
Topgamer7 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or someone with knowledge could port scan you and actually attack you to gain a foothold in your network.

Of course, but it seems fairly unlikely that the average gamer is running public-facing internet services.

There are some games that run peer to peer connections, and for those to work, they require inbound connections to work. As far as the security of the average game codebase is concerned, I'd say it's pretty terrible as nobody really audits these codebases for buffer overflows/RCEs.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#219

Post by aloisdg »

kevincox wrote: post #154
aclelland wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Your settings are limited in the browser. I dont know why..

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#220

Post by O_H_E »

lrvick wrote: post #86
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…

Why not matrix?

Not @fish45 but as someone in a similar situation, probably because "people our age" where already using it for gaming. Simple network effects. Nobody got out of their way to compare the best alternative from a technical and privacy related perspectives.

People just started using what they were used to, and now Discord is freaking emourms in that area. High school classes, university cohors (ie. CS'24), university program (ie. Electrical Engineering), specific sources...etc everybody around me is using discord.

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