Just curious, why the criticism of discord? Maybe I’m out of the loop, but I haven’t heard anything too negative about them - nothing like the controversy surrounding reddit, Twitter, etc.
Not OP, but as someone who uses discord every day, I think I can speak to the general criticism. Discord has way more bloat than what is needed by most out of a communications program. They’ve continued to add “features” that a lot of the user base doesn’t really care about, but take up visual space and operating space. Discord Nitro ads are also on the list of criticisms as it’s nearly constant.
I love having a place to easily interact with communities I care about, but if somehow a less “noisy” alternative came along and everyone I care about moved (lol), I’d change in a heartbeat and uninstall discord.
A combination of personal preference, and just how much I despise what they’ve done in terms of making information hidden away from the internet - anything on Discord cannot be indexed (and there is no way as a server admin to allow indexing as an opt-in capability), they’re just another big platform that is waiting till it hits critical mass to then start turning against its users (in my opinion).
Oh, and the fact that they couldn’t care less about the Linux version of their desktop client (which is riddled with issues due to being on a grossly outdated version of Electron) also doesn’t sit well with me, but god forbid you try to develop or use an alternative client… In a way, just like Reddit now I suppose.
Unfortunately, unless all of your friends are in the FOSS world, it feels useless to even entertain the idea of convincing them to switch to something else. Just another case of the “Network Effect”…
It’s more the core of how Discord works then anything. The fact that it’s hard for knowledge to persist, leading to channels just being people asking the same questions over and over.
And it’s not really indexable or searchable, so even if people are trying to provide good information, people are going to struggle to find it.
All the downsides of a private service in that the information is stashed away and impossible to search for publicly, all the downsides of a public service in that none of your messages are private or encrypted and so can be read by the company or whoever pays them!
Before I (unfortunately) budged, it was due to inferior usability (imo), bloated experience, and most notably, shitty privacy policy compared to the likes of a (self-hosted) TeamSpeak server. Discord is free because you’re the product, as with any other service.
I can’t speak for everyone, but my own biggest concern with Discord is that it seems to me that they’re inching their way towards either an IPO or acquisition. The former would end with Discord exploiting our data as much as possible, and the latter with years of our data being put in the hands of the highest bidder. Microsoft acquiring Skype was rough; something similar occurring with Discord would be downright brutal. The thought of a corporation exploiting conversations with vulnerable friends who were committed to making very final mistakes before being talked down, emerging and/or failed romances, discussions about extremely personal events et al. is frightening.
Just curious, why the criticism of discord? Maybe I’m out of the loop, but I haven’t heard anything too negative about them - nothing like the controversy surrounding reddit, Twitter, etc.
Just a personal preference?
Not OP, but as someone who uses discord every day, I think I can speak to the general criticism. Discord has way more bloat than what is needed by most out of a communications program. They’ve continued to add “features” that a lot of the user base doesn’t really care about, but take up visual space and operating space. Discord Nitro ads are also on the list of criticisms as it’s nearly constant. I love having a place to easily interact with communities I care about, but if somehow a less “noisy” alternative came along and everyone I care about moved (lol), I’d change in a heartbeat and uninstall discord.
I cancelled my sub because as a paying customer I still get spammed with those ads popped up on top of your user panel.
I didn’t know they stuck around if you upgraded. That’s awful lol
A combination of personal preference, and just how much I despise what they’ve done in terms of making information hidden away from the internet - anything on Discord cannot be indexed (and there is no way as a server admin to allow indexing as an opt-in capability), they’re just another big platform that is waiting till it hits critical mass to then start turning against its users (in my opinion).
Oh, and the fact that they couldn’t care less about the Linux version of their desktop client (which is riddled with issues due to being on a grossly outdated version of Electron) also doesn’t sit well with me, but god forbid you try to develop or use an alternative client… In a way, just like Reddit now I suppose.
Unfortunately, unless all of your friends are in the FOSS world, it feels useless to even entertain the idea of convincing them to switch to something else. Just another case of the “Network Effect”…
It’s more the core of how Discord works then anything. The fact that it’s hard for knowledge to persist, leading to channels just being people asking the same questions over and over.
And it’s not really indexable or searchable, so even if people are trying to provide good information, people are going to struggle to find it.
All the downsides of a private service in that the information is stashed away and impossible to search for publicly, all the downsides of a public service in that none of your messages are private or encrypted and so can be read by the company or whoever pays them!
Before I (unfortunately) budged, it was due to inferior usability (imo), bloated experience, and most notably, shitty privacy policy compared to the likes of a (self-hosted) TeamSpeak server. Discord is free because you’re the product, as with any other service.
I can’t speak for everyone, but my own biggest concern with Discord is that it seems to me that they’re inching their way towards either an IPO or acquisition. The former would end with Discord exploiting our data as much as possible, and the latter with years of our data being put in the hands of the highest bidder. Microsoft acquiring Skype was rough; something similar occurring with Discord would be downright brutal. The thought of a corporation exploiting conversations with vulnerable friends who were committed to making very final mistakes before being talked down, emerging and/or failed romances, discussions about extremely personal events et al. is frightening.