Discord

[neoratz]

i like discord, besides the paid feature funny business. i'm only really active in a few servers but i'm in a TON that i like to read through like da newspaper and talk in whenever i feel like i can contribute somethin to the conversation. there is a folder i have that i almost never speak in which i just stay in for help/announcements/other specific purposes (r/neopets, itemlabel trading, mabinogi, etc...) i would like to be active in more but i just don't mesh as well as i'd like in most servers, and i think i run out of energy to talk to people fast. i even had those issues when i made my own servers!

i have tried the alternatives but none are as robust or easy to use IMO. matrix felt clunky and i can't really get into revolt cuz it's just so similar to discord that i can't help but think i would rather be on discord. i do like that i can use server emotes everywhere though, and animated avatars/image headers being a free feature :-)

Also, you've heard of, "I don't want to download your fucking app"... Now get ready for, "I don't want to join your fucking Discord server!" So much information that SHOULD be on forums is instead locked in a Discord server, which is absolutely HORRID for archival purposes.

that being said, definitely hate how other people use discord, like i can't stand information being locked behind discord servers that should be on wikis or public webpages??

hahaha like others have said this bugs me too. i'm still sad about the cookie run forums being shut down for a cookie run discord server! XP sometimes it makes me want to create my own, but forums seem really challenging to create and cultivate. discord is actually much more convenient in that regard, so i wonder if that is part of why we are seeing this?

[alexela64]

My discord use is mainly for official servers of games that I play - mainly honkai 3rd and animal crossing pocket camp. I also am in a few gamedevs' discords to keep track of updates, and one streamer (astralspiff). I prune my servers pretty frequently, and don't do much other than use them as a reference.
Historically, the small servers I've made with friends have been nice though. I already forget which reply it was but someone said that once a server hits a threshold, it becomes less user-friendly, and I agree with that. I think small servers are best for community stuff, and big official servers for games can be useful to crowdsource opinions/figure out issues quickly.

[grubbyfox]

What I love about discord:

* it's not a website or a "social media", only a chatting app.
* you can use it on pc and phone
* my friends are on it and it's fun to have an actual software to chat on, not a website
* you can join channels and groups
* you can fileshare stuff and all that

what I hate about discord:

* can't customize font, color etc (and cant customize between DMs or channel either obviously.)
* your avatar is so tiny and lame
* finicky to have different nicknames between channels, etc. can't have different nicks between DMs either.)
* sometimes takes forever to load up
* mobile app ui is now ugly
* settings for notifications are stupid, not intuitive enough and annoying to set up.

Me and my close irl friends have our own "channel" on discord, to have a big group chat, where  we hang out, chat, show pics, talk/stream together etc and for that, Discord is amazing. But I reckon in a few years, Discord will paywall most its features, and a whole bunch of other nonsense will be forced on us. It's the way of the world with these bigger programs.

[xero333]

for a while I was going through a cycle of feeling lonely -> join a discord server -> post an introduction -> never post anything else -> leave. to me it feels too much like going to a party where I don't know anyone so it's really hard for me to join in any conversations. it doesn't help that I'm super shy and find instant messaging with strangers overwhelming.

I've pretty much given up on joining new discord servers unless someone I actually know invites me to join one (which hasn't happened yet haha).

I much prefer posting in forums where I can take my time with what I want to say~

I agree. I find Discord far too chaotic, especially in large servers. It's impossible to follow the conversation. I have tried joining servers and putting the effort in several times, but I much prefer the slower pace of a forum. I don't care if people thing forums are "dead". I like a smaller, tight-knit online community where you can get to know all the users.

[MHKN]

i stopped giving a rat's ass about joining new discords. currently i maintain a friends-only guild and it's been cozy.
i guess, you can find me on a few servers, but i don't talk there much.  had too many bad experiences (harassment, abuse, oversensitivity, probably plethora of other issues you can name. so there's that.

[virtue]

What I love about discord:

* it's not a website or a "social media", only a chatting app.

I've heard this sentiment a lot, but I think discord is pretty blatantly trying to be one. A lot of artists primarily release art via discord, a lot of people use discord announcement channels in place of microblogs, and even on the structural end of things, discord has that "active now" functionality and is clearly actively trying to replace forums now (where it was trying to mimick irc before) with the "threads" feature. And its fucking working! Discord has become more mandatory than reddit when troubleshooting software, especially for smaller communities. I dare you to try to find a fix on something like flashpoint without having to enter their discord server and look at the support threads.

Point is, discord is clearly actively trying to be a social media. It has taken the place of services like Amino, forums, reddit, skype, and even steam for that matter. I don't think its fair to say its only a chatting app at this point

[starbreaker]

Discord is basically Slack for gamers: the worst aspects of IRC and forums combined, and probably spyware to boot. Use it if you want, but don't put anything important there.

[m1k3]

Having grown up with the Internet of the 90's and early 00's I can tell you Discord is horrible for communication and sanity alike. In my opinion, conversations on the web are best asynchronous, meaning having time to form thoughts and step away from the computer/device as needed. This is why forums were a beautiful thing. You could log in anytime you want and follow discussions and respond when you had time. I used to be a part of the 32bit.cafe community but soon became disenchanted due to their focus on Discord as the community hub.

As others mentioned, Discord on the other hand is pure chaos. Not only is the software a device resource hog, but the essence of community and interesting topics are lost in between constant notifications, memes/shitposting, and FOMO as you try to keep up with hundred of channels. I just looked and I only participate in 5 "servers" and with just 5 servers there are over 50 channels. This is more than I've ever had to follow with any other chat protocol such as IRC, XMPP, etc.

I also think it says a lot about how Discord created forum channels. We've come full circle.

[xero333]

Having grown up with the Internet of the 90's and early 00's I can tell you Discord is horrible for communication and sanity alike. In my opinion, conversations on the web are best asynchronous, meaning having time to form thoughts and step away from the computer/device as needed. This is why forums were a beautiful thing. You could log in anytime you want and follow discussions and respond when you had time. I used to be a part of the 32bit.cafe community but soon became disenchanted due to their focus on Discord as the community hub.

As others mentioned, Discord on the other hand is pure chaos. Not only is the software a device resource hog, but the essence of community and interesting topics are lost in between constant notifications, memes/shitposting, and FOMO as you try to keep up with hundred of channels. I just looked and I only participate in 5 "servers" and with just 5 servers there are over 50 channels. This is more than I've ever had to follow with any other chat protocol such as IRC, XMPP, etc.

I also think it says a lot about how Discord created forum channels. We've come full circle.

You've hit the nail on the head. Every server I used to join on Discord had like 20 channels. Ones for gaming, tv, music, etc. I was a mod on a discord server for a while specifically aimed at a band. The users wanted channels set up for gaming/TV etc, and I refused. I basically told them, you can go to literally any other server and discuss that, I want this to be about the band. What's the point in every server having the same channels? None of them liked that though. They wanted it to be "Just like the other servers."

Infuriating.

[starbreaker]

The users wanted channels set up for gaming/TV etc, and I refused. I basically told them, you can go to literally any other server and discuss that, I want this to be about the band. What's the point in every server having the same channels? None of them liked that though. They wanted it to be "Just like the other servers."

Infuriating.

Did they think they were at Burger King and could "have it their way" just by asking? If they want to have a Discord chatroom* run a certain way they should run it themselves. But that would be too much work for them; they probably don't even have their own websites.

* I refuse to call Discord chatrooms "servers". They're nothing of the kind.

[Melooon]

⚑ Moderators Note ⚑

they probably don't even have their own websites.

A point that was brought up by the mods and we all felt it was important to add a disclaimer here, not just for your post but for everyone.

As a community we promote homepage creation and website building - we want those websites to be fun and positive additions to the web; but it's very important to be clear that having a website is not and never should be a means of calculating the value or quality of other netizens. Everyone on the web, from the most loyal Facebook user to the most indie open source webcrafter is a citizen of the same web, deserving respect and with a great deal of good to offer.

I don't think any harm was meant by this post; but we needed to clarify this because it could be misunderstood and lead people in a sad direction (I think I needed reminding too). Nothing in the web revival is superior to the wider web. It's one messy, chaotic corner of a tapestry that is beautiful exactly how it is; with its Googles and its MelonLands and its Discords and its Neocities - Everything is cool, and everyone is cool; and if we forget that, we lose ourselves

[grubbyfox]

I've heard this sentiment a lot, but I think discord is pretty blatantly trying to be one. A lot of artists primarily release art via discord, a lot of people use discord announcement channels in place of microblogs, and even on the structural end of things, discord has that "active now" functionality and is clearly actively trying to replace forums now (where it was trying to mimick irc before) with the "threads" feature. And its fucking working! Discord has become more mandatory than reddit when troubleshooting software, especially for smaller communities. I dare you to try to find a fix on something like flashpoint without having to enter their discord server and look at the support threads.

Point is, discord is clearly actively trying to be a social media. It has taken the place of services like Amino, forums, reddit, skype, and even steam for that matter. I don't think its fair to say its only a chatting app at this point

That's true, I meant in the more practical aspect, that I dont need to access a website through a browser to chat, Messenger. And that there's not "outer" front on Discord. Like how Twitter has a profile with tweets but also DMs... Discord is "just" a chatting app, if that is what you use it for. There's no feed/for you/this and that like Insta, TikTok, Twitter, etc.

I agree with how it seems to wall it's information though. I hate that. I hate that you need to join a discord for every single thing ever just to get some "hidden" info, etc. It's so stupid. And the way things are set up, you end up scrolling and what not if you want information. Instead of like a forum with pinned posts, search functions, posts are archived more sensible etc.

I do think Discord will just get worse. Eventually it will prob have a feed, a "for you" page, short form videos like reels, toks, prob and god know what else... but we'll always have escargot msn, hahaha

[starbreaker]

⚑ Moderators Note ⚑

I don't think any harm was meant by this post; but we needed to clarify this because it could be misunderstood and lead people in a sad direction (I think I needed reminding too). Nothing in the web revival is superior to the wider web. It's one messy, chaotic corner of a tapestry that is beautiful exactly how it is; with its Googles and its MelonLands and its Discords and its Neocities - Everything is cool, and everyone is cool; and if we forget that, we lose ourselves

I had wanted to express a certain disdain for people who use a service for which they do not pay and then make demands on unpaid volunteers, but this isn't the way.

[xandra]

In my opinion, conversations on the web are best asynchronous, meaning having time to form thoughts and step away from the computer/device as needed. This is why forums were a beautiful thing. You could log in anytime you want and follow discussions and respond when you had time. I used to be a part of the 32bit.cafe community but soon became disenchanted due to their focus on Discord as the community hub.

you are not the only one! we are actually in the process of moving away from discord being our hub and setting up a self-hosted communication platform on our website that's approachable and accessible to folks that consider themselves to be less technically inclined—because of a lot of what you've stated. we want to keep discord as an entry point for folks who might be very new to web revival/creating their own website, but the idea is to reduce the reliance on discord in general. we're collectively tired of having all our community surrounded on one service that is essentially adding features that are just promoting being constantly online and without true focus.

the discord culture in general isn't conducive to mission-led, topical communities that aren't trying to be Everything™.

[m1k3]

@xandra, that's great to hear! I had been super happy to find 32-bit.cafe but I didn't have enough time to keep up with the flood of messages on the various channels and eventually gave up. A forum would be nice as that doesn't require a constant connection to keep up with what's going on.

Do you know how the pubnix is coming along? Seems like that's been in development for some time.