Asking because I value opinions here.
Personally I don’t think anyone can influence what the general audience of chat users ultimately coalesces around. That’s going to happen, and it’s going to be out of anyone’s control as people discuss and compare and decide which they prefer of the dozens of alternatives appearing.
This however looks interesting to me. I know it’s not Matrix and thus not secure like everyone here wants. But it is fully open source and it is AGPLv3.
It feels like it’s getting some traction and interest. If it has problems that anyone here can spot (besides the full encryption which isn’t something the rest of the discord users looking to leave are going to demand), I am interested in hearing them.
Good license choice (AGPLv3, the best there is for online services), good code of conduct (for example explicitly protecting things like gender identity and expression of contributors), but effectively headquarterted in Sweden (new NATO member state, member of the Fourteen Eyes, and a government pushing backdoored-encryption laws).
I think the lead dev’s heart is in the right place, but by an unfortunate accident of geography it can’t be immune to NATO shenanigans. Whether or not that’s a dealbreaker is up to the individual.