• tissek@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      Convenient, easy to use, large user base, one point registration for multiple communities, tends to simply just work.

      But is it the best? Nah. And their increased monetisation drives are annoying.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        8 months ago

        one point registration for multiple communities,

        Federation, or at least some form of single sign-on with arbitrary providers (like we used to do with OpenID), is a better way of solving this.

          • dan@upvote.au
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            8 months ago

            I’ve never tried Matrix but I’ve heard good things about it.

            • Zworf@beehaw.org
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              8 months ago

              It’s not as snazzy as Discord but it’s fully open-source and federated. So everyone can run their own server (I do, too). If you don’t care about running your own you can just sign up at https://app.element.io/ . It’s free of course. It basically is for chat what lemmy and mastodon are to social media.

              It also offers many “bridges” to other protocols, like WhatsApp, Telegram, even Discord. Those are not quite as mature and mostly third-party provided but they generally work well.

              There’s a really great ansible playbook for installing your own. If you would like to have the full bridged experience, beeper is probably best.

              • dan@upvote.au
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                8 months ago

                Thanks! I’ll have to see if there’s Docker containers available. Ansible is definitely doable too, but I prefer Docker. I’ll stick it on the same server I’m running Lemmy and Mastodon on :)

                • Zworf@beehaw.org
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                  8 months ago

                  Actually the ansible playbook creates a bundle of docker containers so you get the best of both :)

        • Sonori@beehaw.org
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          8 months ago

          Everything here is basically text and maybe images if your lucky. In order to make it into a Discord or Zoom competitor you would need to solve far higher bandwidth things like HD video and low latency audio, and both of thouse are fundamentally very different things for a server to handle as compared to high latency short text messages.

          You could probably link account sign in, but any real-time stuff would likely be limited to within that single instance unless you create a whole alternative method of federation that would still only be available between thouse certain supported instances.

          It’s also a whole lot more expensive to host, unless you go peer to peer in which case good luck, and vulnerable to bad actors massively running up hosting bills even if you can protect against denial of service attacks.

          It would be nice to see, but there is a reason why Matrix is the closest anyone’s come and it’s still more a proof of concept then an actual platform you could direct family or random strangers to.

          • dan@upvote.au
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            8 months ago

            In order to make it into a Discord or Zoom competitor you would need to solve far higher bandwidth things like HD video and low latency audio, and both of thouse are fundamentally very different things for a server to handle as compared to high latency short text messages.

            A large number of Discord servers just use text.

            For video, maybe integrate into something that already exists, like Jitsi? Instead of trying to build one single app that handles everything, maybe it would be nice to have a suite of apps that all work together and can all use the same login.

            A lot of video conferencing systems are already mostly peer-to-peer, at least for enterprise apps. Skype was originally peer-to-peer too. NAT traversal is usually provided by STUN servers. There’s some issues like that (for example it reveals the user’s IP addresses) but you could proxy everything through a TURN server to solve that.

            Peer to peer is the best way to implement end-to-end encrypted communication.

            Having said that, very large groups can benefit from a client-server model, like what Zoom does.

            • dormedas@lemmy.dormedas.com
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              8 months ago

              One of the main reasons why I use Discord nowadays aside from the fact that my gaming community is there is for its extremely low latency video streaming.

              I tried to use other meet softwares but the latency was 10+ seconds. Not useful when I need immediate feedback. Discord offers the quickest and most reliable way for me to get someone else looking at my stream in real-time.

              I’ll be looking for alternatives because they’re, of course, not doing anything impossible for others to replicate, they just made it the default.

    • Rinox@feddit.it
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      8 months ago

      I mean, it’s great for audio and video chats. What I never understood is why people started using discord as a forum, as documentation or as some kind of program (like, why is Midjourney on a public discord chat? It’s probably the worst possible interface).

      Discord is excellent for chatting with your friends while playing games, and that’s it.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        8 months ago

        I genuinely don’t understand why some open source communities rely so heavily on Discord.

        • UprisingVoltage@feddit.it
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          8 months ago

          Because you need people to build a community, and like it or not, most people are on discord

          There are other reasons but I think this is the main one

          • dan@upvote.au
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            8 months ago

            most people are on discord

            There’s a lot of people on Discord (around 200 million monthly active users) but it’s still the smallest out of all the major messaging services that support group chats. For example, Telegram has over double the number of users, and WhatsApp has 10x the users.

            For open source projects in particular, something that integrates with Github and Gitlab login (like Gitter which is now powered by Matrix) is a better choice, as developers are practically guaranteed to have one of those accounts.

    • Pietson@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      The article says the code was not hosted on discord. Even if it was, the code does not infringe on any Nintendo copyright. Having a grudge against discord doesn’t make it fair to victim blame

      • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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        8 months ago

        Discord hosted the community, not the code. And that community is now destroyed without even a chance to backup. And Discord can absolutely be blamed because people were warning that this would happen. This is as much a result of Discord’s centralized design as it is of Nintendo’s greed. Now the community has to be reestablished on a new platform from scratch.

  • kbal@fedia.io
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    8 months ago

    Well, that’s one more small group of people learning not to trust Discord. I hope someone is on hand to show them how to set up a matrix server in a jurisdiction not affected by the DMCA.

      • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 months ago

        I’ve been tempted for the last year to begin work on designing an experience like IRC, but which includes voice chat and screen sharing capabilities. That’s my dream is a melding of a nostalgic chat protocol, with modern services.

        • Sonori@beehaw.org
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          8 months ago

          From my understanding IRC’s biggest flaw is that it requires the recipient to be online in order to receive messages, and any software that includes voice, video, screen sharing, and proper servers would by necessity have very little resemblance to it.

          • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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            8 months ago

            I suppose I mean the resemblance to IRC would be mostly in the user experience. However, I personally don’t want to add persisted server-side messaging either. The novelty for me is that it’s a “here, now” social experience.

            • Sonori@beehaw.org
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              8 months ago

              The problem with non-persistent messaging is that for most things people use Discord for it is a non-starter. Most people who are doing more than just socializing really don’t want to spend half their time repeating things to people who were at work, asleep, or in a different time zone when the discussion came it. Any serious Discord competitor would need to focus on practically and low barriers to entery, which tend to be directly opposed to novelty.

              • MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com
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                8 months ago

                Or “How Signal is closer in functionality to WhatsApp by the day, because it turns out people like the functionality of WhatsApp.”

    • XNX@slrpnk.net
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      8 months ago

      The company sucks and it being closed source with shitty security and privacy policy sucks but the software is still the best messaging, gaming, video/streaming experience if we’re being honest. Nothing has all the features and convenience when it comes to watching shows and gaming with friends. Theres also never been such an easy way for anyone to run their own irc/etc server with as many features and convenience/price as discord.

      They are fulfilling a lot of needs and people won’t leave until something 10x better comes out and nothing is even at 1:1 quality in terms of video, voice, streaming, gaming. Some have messaging and history yes but not even bots and different channels/forums setup. Maybe MAYBE telegram if you’re a super user but and thats only for bots and chats no gaming, watching shows, etc

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        What’s wrong with the privacy policy? Can’t they literally not see your messages unless you get reported?

    • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      Mass centralization. Old school forums like phpBB and SMF and vBulletin and new-school forums like self-hosted discourse are also centralized, but by one small user calling the shots, and it’s very clear immediately which forums are well-run. If a forum isn’t well-run with a good community, a ‘competitor’ will quickly pop up that is, and people will go to it. Sure, you have to have some tech skills but there are easy guides for all of it. Discourse is a simple docker image and it’s the best for features and engagement IMO.

      Sure you have to sorry about DDoS attacks and staying patched, but you can use OVH or another host with a large infrastructure that had DDoS resistant servers. Or, god forbid, cloudflare.

  • Neato@ttrpg.network
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    8 months ago

    Discord should be used as an easy way to keep people up to date and host links, like a replacement for Twitter. Not too be the sole source of hosting info. They should still have websites the discord points to.

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    8 months ago

    That happens if a single company controls the community (Reddit, Discord) and its closed source on top of it…

  • Kedly@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    I understand that Lemmy hates Discord, but this is FAR more of Nintendo being an asshat than it is Discord. I’m so far done giving Nintendo my money at this point

      • Kedly@lemm.ee
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        Not sure if your sarcasm is towards me or towards someone who’d defend Nintendo, but tbh I’m getting tired of Mega Corps in general (not that I ever really liked them in the first place), so asshats like Nintendo who go above and beyond being a dick because they have the legal team to do so I’m just done giving money to. Indie workers/companies of all fields I’ll try and get money to, but I kind of just want to see the current crop of mega corps sink and not come back

    • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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      8 months ago

      Yes it’s Nintendo. But it wouldn’t be this bad without Discord’s design that emphasizes centralization and corporate ownership of user data. Forums can at least be backed up and migrated elsewhere.

  • imnapr@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 months ago

    We need to go back to pre-discord and bring back forums man. Don’t get me wrong, discord has its uses, all my friends use it, but discord killing forums and websites was really bad for the internet as a whole. Like look at dolphin, made before discord, it has its own website, its own forums. Hopefully if Nintendo does ever come after dolphin they’ll at least be able to keep the website and forums up.

    • ben_dover@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      or, you know, lemmy? it’s not that much different from forum software, is browsable and federated

    • huginn@feddit.it
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      8 months ago

      I mean Nintendo would nuke the forums too.

      Their lawyers don’t fuck around. They’re as bad as Disney.

      Unless you’re a forum hosted in someplace like the Netherlands or Russia you’re in range for Nintendo’s nukes.

      • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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        You’d at least get a chance to migrate if you do daily backups. Not so with Discord.

        • huginn@feddit.it
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          8 months ago

          Thats not what happens with a nuke - they threaten the owner and take everything: backups included.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    8 months ago

    I see discord is entrenched enough where they dont need to care about their users.

    • Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com
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      8 months ago

      It was nice while it lasted I guess, now to begin the slow search for another private community for the friend group to very slowly migrate to.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        8 months ago

        now to begin the slow search for another private community for the friend group to very slowly migrate to.

        Just don’t pick another proprietary platform again.

    • Corgana@startrek.website
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      8 months ago

      Step 2 of enshittification:

      First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.

    • conorab@lemmy.conorab.com
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      8 months ago

      That’s not really fair on Discord. The article mentions they received an injunction to remove the content so they were forced to do this. Anybody in the same jurisdiction would have to do the same:

      “Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. In this instance, there was also a court ordered injunction for the takedown of these materials, and we took action in a manner consistent with the court order,” reads part of a statement from Discord director of product communications Kellyn Slone to The Verge.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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    8 months ago

    Stop basing your organization on Discord and hosting all your development work there. Don’t subject yourself to the whims of venture capital and enshittification.

    Diversify your online presence, and find a local company that will host a matrix server for you.

    • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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      8 months ago

      A forum is perhaps the best support format for a project. Something like discourse. It can be easily migrated in an emergency and it can be searched from a search engine. You also don’t need an account to browse it.

  • penquin@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    I don’t get why we are always running after our abusers, we have so many FOSS alternatives to this shit. And please don’t hit me with that “discord has more users” bullshit. I’m so sick of these fuckers abusing their powers.

    • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Anyone arguing “Discord has more users” on here can just be reminded that Reddit / Twitter has more users than their fediverse alternatives, and yet here they are on Lemmy, and probably Mastodon too.

      A better world is possible.