51–60 of 60 posts
Does there exist a good, open source Discord alternative yet?
There was always an alternative with IRC
"Discord “has famously promoted itself as committed to being ad-free, so this step-change could impact user trust and potentially have them looking for alternative platforms,” she said. " ..For now. Eventually they have to figure out how to get paid.
They are getting paid, quite a lot. They have a quite expensive subscription which is quite popular.
Why?
My impression of Nitro is "incessant spamvertisement". I've never bought Nitro, spamming that shit in front of my face every chance it gets is not going to make me buy. The only reason they keep spamming me is because they want (read: need) me to buy.
Are there any laws against enshittification / unsustainable business practices? Sounds like an overreaction on my part, given the news is about something as small as ads. At the same time it’s an intentional worsening of the UX to increase profits. It’s possible because the provider has control over user data/community. And it’s likely not the last time this is happening. Perhaps we need more laws like in EU, so that…
That said: you can't expect a free service to handle your streaming and file uploads without some kind of revenue stream. In my opinion, services giving away free stuff with their billions of investment should be fined, because no real company with a normal profit margin can ever compete. This approach has destroyed every market it's been successful in, from ride sharing to food delivery, yet nobody seems to care when it comes to internet hosting services, probably because the majority of users benefit from the free stuff until there is no serious competition left.
Any law against adding ads to generate revenue once a critical user base has been attained would likely turn into every website requiring a subscription, or every free tier coming with ads from the get-go. I'm not sure if the people who are mad about this will accept either.
Does there exist a good, open source Discord alternative yet?
The matrix standard is the closest competitor. Synapse/Dendrite and Element are all probably the most popular and are under various open source licenses. There was always an alternative with IRC
Then there are specialised Discord features like forums, image boards, and other fancy pants channel configurations. I've rarely seen them used, but when they are used, I can't think of a way to replicate them without writing a separate Matrix client at the moment. Widgets are good for embedding web pages, but they can't do the specialised content layout that Discord supports these days.
All of these are frontend limitations: Matrix as a protocol supports all of this just fine.
If all you care about is text chat, Cinny seems like an excellent Discord clone. I don't think there's anything like that on mobile, though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I hate ads, I hope they will limit them to a small amount for free users Do you hate them enough to pay to not have them?
If you do, then that marks you as having cash to throw around, making you a more valuable ad target. So the advertisers raise their bid. It's part of the great cycle of digital content channels.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you do, then that marks you as having cash to throw around, making you a more valuable ad target. So the advertisers raise their bid. It's part of the great cycle of digital content channels.
Rather than just dunking on the conversation, what's your suggestion for how discord should monetize?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The matrix standard is the closest competitor. Synapse/Dendrite and Element are all probably the most popular and are under various open source licenses. There was always an alternative with IRC
I don't think any Matrix client comes close to Discord in terms of usability and features, though. We have native calling, but nothing quite like the audio and video channels Discord has. I also don't think Matrix has the kind of rich presence that Discord has. I also don't think any Matrix client implements the game streaming feature quite so well. Then there are specialised Discord features like forums, image board…
I hate ads, I hope they will limit them to a small amount for free users, but remember the issue Discord has been able to solve: we don’t have to waste hours anymore managing Teamspeak servers. Also it’s much more than a voice-only communication channel, it’s becoming a community, some sort of Facebook group with steroids!
It becoming a Facebook group on steroids is my biggest issue with Discord. So much knowledge, information and documentation is lost in an unindexed proprietary black hole. It‘s a chat that people started to abuse for all kinds of things just because it can be done. Often time normal forums would be more beneficial for everyone involved. Also I host my own TS server since 2019 and never had to deal with any real probl…
Normal forums have a lot of spam and moderation issues.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think any Matrix client comes close to Discord in terms of usability and features, though. We have native calling, but nothing quite like the audio and video channels Discord has. I also don't think Matrix has the kind of rich presence that Discord has. I also don't think any Matrix client implements the game streaming feature quite so well. Then there are specialised Discord features like forums, image board…
Element has a beta running for video/audio channels. I don't think other clients have picked it up yet but it should be a relatively small feature past the existing audio and video support.
I'm also not sure if the audio and video channels work like Discord's, I believe these channels are rooms that you would need to be present in; I'm not sure if you can browse other channels and servers while in a call. That said, it's been a while since I last checked.