• 50gp@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      companies running unprofitable social media (read: not worth the 100s of millions of investor money for some fuckin basic chat or forums) figured out they cant ever become super profitable like theyd hoped and try to monetize to the max while they can

    • detwaft@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I don’t mind it. It’s outing all the companies who are run by people who lack critical thinking skills. Thanks for letting me know which corners of the internet to avoid

    • MerylasFalguard@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Kinda like how Apple often makes terrible decisions that everyone hates, and then every other company follows suit because it actually worked and it’s been normalized now. Musk made all sorts of garbage decisions and didn’t lose critical mass of users, so now every other social media company is gonna follow suit now that the terrible ideas have been “normalized” by one of them.

      • kingthrillgore@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Terrible decisions? I would say they’re really conservative about it and it shows. It took them probably a decade to make an AR headset and it looks like it may succeed. They said nothing about AI lately, presumably because they’re waiting to see how it matures.

        • beefcat@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I think they’re complaining about the headphone jack. But the reality is most people didn’t even care, it’s a problem solved with a $5 dongle that just lives on your earbuds.

  • Kyo_Jazz@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    “microtransactions” “exclusivities”. Average silicon valley update gruel. The best that comes out of this is probably competition, while i like discord basic featureset is solid, the UI is genuinly one of the worst things i have experienced.

  • ninetynine@lemmy.film
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    1 year ago

    I won’t pay for anything that discord offers. I understand that companies are there to make money but they do not have anything of actual value to sell me. I don’t care about emojis or Nitro or whatever. I just want a chat client that allows me to communicate with people I play certain games with. In-game chat can do this as well and I will simply go back to that if the monetization of discord gets to be too big of a problem. It’s less convenient and sometimes sucks when folks are on different platforms but it’s free.

  • kuchai@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I actually discovered Matrix through the comments on here and am now using Element. I’m really glad about it. I knew there was something fishy with discord suddenly being so intrusive about their super long “birthday celebration” (with annoying unread notification needing me to click on their gift reveals ugh) and making activities free or whatever lol.

  • Louise@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I honestly don’t mind this. This is really useful for small creators in not needing to do workarounds for Patreon or Patreon roles and this makes it easier by being baked into Discord itself. I get the worry of stuff being paywalled but since it is entirely set by the server owner/creator, it would be something to take up with them instead. The 10% cut is a bit rough but I know other platforms also take a cut, but I’m not too sure if 10% is high or low. That would be my own biggest concern since it only makes sense if it is comparable or lower than other platforms like Patreon.

    • Dee@beehaw.org
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      The 10% cut is a bit rough but I know other platforms also take a cut, but I’m not too sure if 10% is high or low.

      I have a Patreon and their cut is about 3% there (at least for me, it varies depending on what services you use through Patreon). This is a very easy pass and the only people I see utilizing it are creators like Twitch streamers who already have a large Discord server/presence to build off of. It’s a bad deal though 10% is real rough imo.

      • Kaldo@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I imagine 7% isn’t that much of a “loss” when compared to how much larger the market on discord is and how convenient it’s going to be for these users to start spending on MTX.

        • Dee@beehaw.org
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          Agree to disagree then, every percentage counts and the effects of each of those percentages is exaggerated with each additional patron. 7% of one patron is negligible, 7% of three hundred patrons is huge.

          Edit: oh and the discord market is a niche market, the average person does not have a Discord and many aren’t even familiar when it’s brought up. I had a much easier time getting people to sign up for a paid Patreon than I had getting them to sign up for a free Discord account back when I was putting in the effort to grow a following on these platforms. I think it’ll be good for people who are already building on that market but for every other creator it’s an easy pass.

    • Stewie@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      This is essentially where I am with it. I get the outrage but for now I don’t have an issue. But likely as with many things lately, we should maybe pursue the federated option.

      • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I created a Matrix account as Plan B now that the link is back in the sidebar. I was very active on Discord a few years back, but a week before joining Beehaw, I was ready to ditch it, since I can chat with my college roommate on Steam and I no longer DM with anyone else (also, all my servers from then are now dead).

        I don’t think I’m the target audience for Discord, so other than a few longstanding UI gripes, I’m kinda content to let them do whatever. Monetization won’t hit me until you have to pay to be able to send text messages.

        • Stewie@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          I use discord for 2 things, my personal group chat with friends that I manage, and keeping up with Mechanical Keyboard artisan shops and manufacturers. So I mean it wont be a huge leap for me to migrate to something better.

    • 50gp@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      bad idea when revolt exists and is basically exactly the same software but open source and self hosted

    • ptsdstillinmymind @lemmy.studio
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      1 year ago

      Matrix has always been a great alternative. Any service that is owned by a corporation will eventually be monetized. I never liked discord in the first place.

        • RosalynKirk@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          What’s to stop Revolt from becoming the next Discord?

          Edit: I just logged into my account to see that Revolt had removed a “server” for breaking foreign (unjust) laws. That seems to go against everything the fediverse stands for.

          • Kaldo@beehaw.org
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            How can revolt “remove” a server since you can connect to any custom hosted server? It’s like saying lemmy removed an instance.

            And besides, I’m pretty sure that is something that federated instances will have to worry about too, you might not care about your local laws but the ISP or hosting provider of your server where possibly illegal data is, will care.

          • ragemidi@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            @RosalynKirk

            1.) because Revolt isn’t trying to do federation. It’s community driven open-source project not backed by a company.

            2.) you can easily self-host a Revolt server. Then you can make your own rules.

            Not everything has to be federated

            • RosalynKirk@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              …is Discord trying to do federation? I’m confused.

              Someone is in charge of Revolt, doesn’t matter if it’s a company or someone else. Someone is in charge of the servers. What’s stopping them from ultimately selling the company? Reddit didn’t start out as a corporation. Nor did WhatsApp, but after creating a trusted userbase they were sold off to Facebook to be exploited for data.

              IT people love to talk about how “easy” it is to create and run your own server, but this is simply not true and they just lack awareness.

      • lilweeb@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Matrix rules, but I can’t get my friends to leave Discord because that’s where all their friends are, they run servers, etc. it sucks.

        • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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          Getting friends to leave facebook messenger for discord 8 years ago already, never underestimate how much the average person can ignore. For the time being I’m on discord, but if they start cracking down on small servers I’ll be spinning up alternatives overnight

        • Maxe@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          this feels like back in 2015 when I was trying to get all my friends to go from TeamSpeak to Discord because it had Text & Media Channels and you didn’t have to pay for the server

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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          My instance is discord bridged. When discord user wants to voice chat, I fire up discord just for that.

          But my discord text chats and servers? All in matrix baby.

          Makes it a lot easier to convice friends to swap, too. Especially when I show them that telegram and whatsapp can be bridged, too.

          Everything in one app.

          • Jeena@jemmy.jeena.net
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            1 year ago

            I have that too, but you have to be admin to be able to do that, and I didn’t figure out how to connect the 1-1 chats in Matrix yet.

            • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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              Once you have the bridge plugin set up, you need to talk to it in matrix to set up your stuff. Just open a chat with whatever your config says its username is. I set mine to be @discordbot

              • Jeena@jemmy.jeena.net
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                1 year ago

                I have it set up with rooms where several people are in but have no idea how to set it up in 1-1 rooms.

                • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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                  1 year ago

                  Oh, you’re using it for just bridging group chats.

                  For one to one you need to link your matrix account to your discord account using the !login command. After this you can access everything that your discord account can access. Manually managing anything except for which servers you want bridged is completely unnecessary.

        • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Matrix won’t seem to let me on via my vpn so I can’t even download the client on my computer. Makes it hard to see what the fuss is about.

          • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            You’re comment makes no sense. Matrix is a federated chat protocol, and works kind of like lemmy. Matrix itself has more in common with ActivityPub, the protocol that the fediverse uses. What’s more comparable are the matrix clients.

            There are many, many matrix clients to choose from, and even more instances, including the option to set up your own.

            • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              Idk what I did wrong both times I tried before, but sites would not load. Today, I got to the search for homeservers and was able to sign up.

            • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              I think it was element, but some more searching got me on a server. Now to find rooms I guess.

  • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    So it’s just an expansion of what can be monetized within a server. I see nothing wrong with this. It even gives small indie devs like me a chance at a small revenue stream.

    If you don’t like the things a specific server is doing, leave. It’s pretty simple.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.today
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      It’s the beginning of the entire platform turning to shit. Because it’s never enough money. More ads, more tracking, more locked in features.

      This is the cycle of monetization. It gives you a small revenue stream, but only until users get fed up and leave. Because it’s never enough money coming in. More more more.

    • Sp00ky94@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I have no problem paying for a service or an app if it is good and fits my needs. It’s the microtrans and battle passes that people generally have issues with. Paying for every little thing like a meme.

      • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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        You seem to be forgetting that it is the server owner who decides these things. If you’re on a server that is monetizing memes and you don’t like it, leave.

        Monetizing memes was given as an example. A stupid example Yes but only an example.

        • Sp00ky94@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          I found the PC Gamer article a bit confusing so I read other articles and understood it better. I get it now. It’s not Discord setting these sub tiers etc. They are allowing more servers. Doesn’t sound so bad. I guess depending how much a person uses a server they are a member of, they can help support the server and receive premium benefits and Discord who gets a cut of the purchases. All optional. Not too bad as it is up to the individual servers.

          Edit: this can be a good thing and help support discord financially. So far we are lucky discord has not sold to a tech corp or gone public.

          • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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            The thing is, between stuff like this and nitro, discord can fund itself without ads. Something like this literally helps everyone involved. If you don’t want to donate to a server, then don’t. It’s literally that simple.

            I get tired of people jumping on this bandwagon because it’s popular to hate on discord. The people that are hating on it generally are the ones who fundamentally do not understand what is going on. They read some ragebait article and instead of digging a little bit deeper in trying to understand they just take it at face value. It’s very irritating. The latest buzzword is “enshitification”, which, by itself is a good descriptor for some things but these people throw it around so liberally that it loses all significance. “Oh an app did something I don’t like and I’m not going to take the time to learn more about it <insert meme of hand smacking button labeled enshitification>”.

            Think of it this way… Discord is doing a Patreon but for discord servers. This is cool. This is neat. It hurts exactly no one and helps potentially everyone. At the most it’s a net zero effect for most users.

  • Nero@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Oh yeah sure, this would be cool and all if they didn’t screw 99% of their users out of their usernames first.

    • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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      The usernames stuff was stupid, but pray tell. How did users get “screwed out of their usernames”.

      Did you know that when choosing a username you could just do your name and the number sans the hashtag and it’s functionality exactly the same as before.

      It was a stupid change and unnecessary, but nobody got screwed out of anything.

      • NicoCharrua@lemmy.ca
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        I’m sure most people got the username they wanted, definitely more than 1% anyways. But if more than one person had the same username, people would be “screwed out of their username”

        Now if someone wants the same name they’d have to add numbers at the end, or something stupid like xX_

        • chipt4@beehaw.org
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          But they went in order of sign up, so if they had used this model from the beginning those users still wouldn’t have been able to get that username.

          • HER0@beehaw.org
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            Not necessarily true. Celebrities and Nitro subscribers also got early picks, and it isn’t like they wait for each person one-by-one: you are in a bucket with others who might get to your preferred username before you.

    • nahida@kbin.social
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      I don’t even get how this would make them more money. Maybe they could sell the “OG” names they reserved, but that’s likely very little compared to all the people cancelling Nitro.

      Many people, including myself, had Nitro just for the ability to choose a custom discriminator. Regardless of whether we liked the update, that reason is no longer valid.

  • heady@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Now that I’ve started playing around with my own lemmy instance I guess it’s fitting for possibly my last beehaw post to reflect my first.

    I see discord’s business model is still burning cash trying to be the next slack steam zoom reddit patreon

  • hiyaaaaa23@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to take a rather controversial stance on this. I don’t see this as such a bad Thing

    First of all, running a discord server, especially a large one is not easy and discord mods deserve to be paid for their time just as much as anyone else.

    While I will say that I’m not a huge fan of discord’s new focus on massive servers, it’s clear that that’s what brings in the big dough for them.

    If this helps discord keep the lights on, and keep small servers running that’s good for me as much as it is good for them.

    Also, I’d much rather this than ads ngl

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    1 year ago

    Those flashy animated reactions are just incredibly annoying. Wish I could disable them, but of course Discord would never allow you to turn off the monetization.

  • godless@latte.isnot.coffee
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    1 year ago

    Meh, I couldn’t care less. Never used anything but the basic features, and if anyone wants to throw money at them, that’s their choice.

    As long as I’m not rate limited when using the regular chat in the free tier, I’m good.

    • GhostMagician@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I only use it because my friends like to for when we game or watch stuff together. But, never bothered to actually install the app or software.

      Unless it gets in the way of that don’t see people moving.

    • delnac@lemmy.one
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      The issue is that once they start heading down that path, they will probably start enshittifying the experience for non-paying users.

    • Chariotwheel@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, if it keeps the basic functions free and without restriction I am good with adding some extra glitter like that.