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Discord Alternatives, Ranked

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Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#131

Post by Sadzeih »

lakshikag wrote: post #66
mgrandl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it’s so odd that none of the open-source alternatives have this feature. No video calls are not an option. We need video/voice rooms!

You might be interested in https://kloak.app I believe. It's a privacy-first alternative. It's still in early alpha days, but have most of the things set up. Oh, and we’ve got voice channels with screen sharing in beta too.

How do you plan on funding it? Also, the landing page mentions "You own your community data" but it just looks like you own it and allow us to access it?

Seems to me you're just re-building discord.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#132

Post by reactordev »

neobrain wrote: post #116
pyb wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could Signal be considered privacy-conscious ? The first thing they do is ask for your phone number.

Signal has profiles nowadays that can be used to connect with people without sharing phone numbers. The latter are only used for signup and discarded immediately after.

I doubt they are discarded when push notifications exist

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#133

Post by direwolf20 »

pyb wrote: post #109
aaravchen wrote: post #16

Ironically, Signal actually ranks a -1 for privacy in this use. Presumably you're already using Signal and getting mainstream contacts to start using it too. You probably have a basic profile that at least includes your real name, and might also have your picture. Maybe you're even one of the 7 people in the world that use the Stories feature in it. Well good news, now all of that is also unconditionally available to…

How could Signal be considered privacy-conscious ? The first thing they do is ask for your phone number.

WhatsApp sends a copy of all your messages to ICE. Signal doesn't.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#134

Post by KronisLV »

bambax wrote: post #126

I don't understand the appeal of any of those, least of all Discord itself. It's unsearcheable, focused on immediacy, confusing and full of blinking things. The old Reddit interface (or current HN one!) are unsurpassed IMHO.

Most people are on Discord, joining servers has very little friction (no separate accounts), there's decent bots and mod tools and such, ability to create as many channels per server as you want (e.g. for discussions, media, music, whatever) and participate in text based conversations more or less live. It's also easy to jump into a VC and chat while you play games with friends, share screen, stuff like that.

Most alternatives suck for that purpose. There is search for server members and the "blinking things" keep you up to date with where the new stuff is and I presume give you dopamine hits. It's simply not old school forum software and considerations that'd make sites like that good don't enter the equation at all - which also makes attempts at turning Discord into a support forum for any "organized" group or project misguided at best, but also great for the more casual gaming/interest oriented communities.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#135

Post by outime »

pmdr wrote: post #96

Email + IRC (there are daemons that support chat history). Bouncers exist. Logging. This should be standard for OSS projects, not some private, unsearchable, data-mining platform. This is what happens when we reach for convenience over openness.

As someone who spent countless hours on IRC when I was younger and enjoyed 99% of it to the fullest... I'd kindly suggest refraining from pushing IRC any further. It has had its run, and while I know it still exists, it's nowhere near what it once was and it's not coming back.

Times have changed and people have different expectations. Nobody (except very few) is going to use multiple services and set up a bouncer just to get the basics working. It's better to spend time building a good replacement that keeps up with current needs than trying to push these old systems onto people, especially younger ones.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#136

Post by literalAardvark »

bambax wrote: post #126

I don't understand the appeal of any of those, least of all Discord itself. It's unsearcheable, focused on immediacy, confusing and full of blinking things. The old Reddit interface (or current HN one!) are unsurpassed IMHO.

That's because you're not in the target market. And I guess not interested in the space.

Discord's key value proposition is that it's a trusted zero friction voice chat with a lot of features.

The workflow that made it huge: organizer creates a server for a game, creates a short link for a voice channel. The organizer then goes to play their game, shares the short link with their group.

The members click the link, write whatever they want as the name, click join and are in the voice chat. Say hi and go into the dungeon to have fun.

Need more? Just share your screen with one click. Streamer mode kicks in and hides all pii in the discord interface. Easy global bindings for push to talk.

If the outing is fun some of them will create profiles and stay in the server and play together again.

It's all very organic and easy, while being trusted as a brand so people don't have to hesitate to click your jitsi.weirdgamer.tk link.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#137

Post by direwolf20 »

shreyaspapi wrote: post #21

Most Discord alternatives fail not on tech, but on polish. Signal → private but bad for communities Matrix → flexible but rough UX XMPP → powerful but fragmented Discord → centralized but frictionless Users pick frictionless every time. We probably don’t need new apps or protocols we need a client that works well.

You should be able to create an account once and then join several servers (real servers) with the same account.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#138

Post by direwolf20 »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #76
shreyaspapi wrote: post #21

Most Discord alternatives fail not on tech, but on polish. Signal → private but bad for communities Matrix → flexible but rough UX XMPP → powerful but fragmented Discord → centralized but frictionless Users pick frictionless every time. We probably don’t need new apps or protocols we need a client that works well.

> Matrix → flexible but rough UX Matrix's UI/UX is actually really flexible with multiple clients. You aren't struck with Element, you can even use TUI clients or any clients. For the web, the one which I really love is cinny. Cinny is really awesome, its UI/UX is better than discord imo. I recommend people to check out the matrix ecosystem of clients to see what they like, because I also liked the fractal gnu app &…

More friction!

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#140

Post by simianparrot »

Mashimo wrote: post #63
simianparrot wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a feature

I would love to know why it's considered a feature for you. I remember messing with bouncers and reading the backlog from a 3rd party page. Bots that would ping other members when they come online. It was cumbersome.

Because I prefer online conversations to work like IRL ones: Ephemeral. Sure each individual might keep their own log if they want but the server itself doesn’t and setting aside all the issues with modern datasets being used for training all sorts of algorithms, just the concept of stepping into a digital room without all the baggage of the last twenty hours of conversation is _mentally refreshing_. It also changes people’s behaviour for the better IME.
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