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Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

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Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#291

Post by Gigachad »

jjulius wrote: post #57
jasonlotito wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. Discord is building things that users of Discord already use Discord for. They are just making it easier to set things up and manage. This is them knowing their customers.

>They are just making it easier to set things up and manage. This is them knowing their customers. Let's call a spade a spade - this is them knowing their customers, yes, but I'd hardly say they're just making things easier. It's Discord saying, "Oh, people pay for this kinda thing through Patreon? We'd actually like that money instead, please".

The existing process is super clunky. They are making it better while also making money. Winners all round. Unless you are patreon.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#292

Post by MichaelZuo »

Deukhoofd wrote: post #4

The article feels a bit over the top, if I'm reading this correctly this is just Discord becoming a direct competitor to Patreon (as many Patreons already basically boil down to "get access to my Discord server")

Definitely, and it raises an interesting philosophical/semiotic question as to what "exclusive memes" are.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#293

Post by Gigachad »

mjevans wrote: post #213
JamesLeonis wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe I'm dating myself I'm almost 40, so I think I can explain this. Discord is turn-key community infrastructure for users and moderators. Bespoke solutions have more incidental complexities compared to Discord with regard to hanging out with others and playing games. This initial gravity is what is pulling in the rest of the Internet communities. VoIP is not easy to set up and use in the best circumstances, and…

Reminder, look to what's happening on Reddit and elsewhere now for what will happen when any service has cornered the market. Even if the current owners say things will never happen, eventually deep enough pockets in search of profit will buy them out and seek that profit.

Who cares though? It’s not like I’m signing a 30 year contract with Discord. Skype already enshittified and everyone just jumped ship as soon as a better alternative was built.

When someone builds a better reddit, I’m sure people would move over too. I’ll take free stuff being handed out for as long as it’s being handed out.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#294

Post by Springtime »

Filligree wrote: post #290
Springtime wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you don't even need to create an account immediately Maybe some users have found it different recently but while this used to be the case years back when I joined (it was IRC style where you just picked a nickname and began chatting) I tried this twice again recently for someone—both with and without an invite—and it required creating an account (ie: verifying email and in another case it required a phone, inexplic…

I believe it depends on the invite. I haven't done it recently, but on the server I manage there's a checkbox for amount of verification required; the middle level is 'require a telephone number', though low is the default.

In this case the phone number was immediately required without an invite (and without joining any server yet), just using the regular sign up page as the only site interaction. While ironically no phone was required for a separate user with an invite.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#295

Post by johnnyanmac »

serf wrote: post #3

I say this as a (begrudging) discord user : I don't know what they (Discord) did right to get communities to lock up all of their community and data into such a hard-to-index walled garden. People compared the loss of what.cd to the burning of the Library of Alexandria. While I do think that was an exaggeration at the time, I worry about the loss of effort and 'thought-power' when the discord walls get even taller th…

They didn't have to do anything but make a quality app. Look at the destruction of all the open community and the burnout of moderators trying to keep them from being ridden with spam.

Not that Discord lacks spam, but being closed off has a side effect of making it harder to troll.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#296

Post by johnnyanmac »

esafak wrote: post #253
capybara_2020 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be thinking of a very different user base. I have been using discord for a while and even more so now(unfortunately) after the whole reddit thing. But normal users probably do not care about any of that. You literally have people come in and ask a question that was literally asked and answered in the previous reply. People want an instant reply, they do not want to google for an answer. And the nature of th…

That disrespects the other people's time. The rational thing for them to do is to disengage and let the lazy people fend for themselves. Which means the community becomes deprived of experts, and people who value their time, possibly becoming useless and dying. I might have put up with it as an adolescent, but there's no way I'm doing that as an adult. As you suggest, the user base evolves as a result of product choi…

>The rational thing for them to do is to disengage and let the lazy people fend for themselves.

No one ever called humans rational beings. Of course that's the proper behavior to instill in a quality, knowledgeable internet user and foster a high quality community.

We lost that battle decades ago, however. We're also losing the battle where it is okay to gatekeep lazy people. I argue the opposite: the product evolved based on user affordances, which is typically a good UI/UX paradigm to follow. If people are going to be lazy, lower the barrier of entry, and leave any curation to each server's community and moderators.

And if we're being honest: most experts aren't sharing their information on social media. Not all of it, at least. Certainly not in public communities.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#297

Post by johnnyanmac »

bovermyer wrote: post #160
msabalau wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is great for chatting and hanging out and playing and discussing what is new. Forum features are important to forum use cases. They are irrelevant when you don't care about that. It would be odd if a librarian asked "why are people hanging out at bars and restaurants, they are not good as we are at archiving information" Your question about Discord is similarly odd. A more useful question may be "why are foru…

My point is that saying Discord is universally better than forums ignores context and is not a useful comparison.

TBF, you're ignoring their context.It's clear they aren't saying it's the best archival service that lets you search for anything in seconds.

They clearly want a place of community and Discord gives that.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#298

Post by johnnyanmac »

esafak wrote: post #257
bee_rider wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is good for real-time interactions. Discord+Wiki seems to hit the forum from both sides.

That doesn't work because nobody will search the wiki when chat is around, and it might be outdated so people will ask anyway "just in case".

sounds like a Wiki problem. Maybe we should instead ask why people feel wikis are always outdated?

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#299

Post by johnnyanmac »

jghn wrote: post #47
veave wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people say Discord is bad as a forum I'm reminded of Ford's quote "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses"

Speaking for myself, I will never use voice chat. And I’ve always preferred message boards over text chat outside of very specific circumstances (Eg at work, dm to a friend)

I sympathize, but also realize that liking text message boards is an increasingly niche opinion as people are raised on Tiktok and Twtich 1and Instagram and whatnot. I'm not going to say "kids these days are too lazy to read", but it's clear that focusing on fast chat feeds and pictures/videos is a lot more addictive and monetizeable than text.

until someone cracks the code on monetizing text, we're only going to fade away. And if even top news websites are resorting to paywalls for this, that does not bode well.

Re: Discord monetization: microtransaction stores and paid 'exclusive memes'

#300

Post by esafak »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #298
esafak wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't work because nobody will search the wiki when chat is around, and it might be outdated so people will ask anyway "just in case".

sounds like a Wiki problem. Maybe we should instead ask why people feel wikis are always outdated?

Because it's probably something sucky like Confluence, and because people go back to work instead of editing the wiki to help the next person once they find the answer.
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