this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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Just curious. I have Signal, Element (FOSS version of Discord), GroupMe, Slack, Snapchat, Messenger, I have tried WhatsApp, Guilded, Telegram. I have tried a sleuth of messaging apps over the years from Web based, to niche apps that don't exist anymore, things that would let you message users around the world. I have even tried things like taste buds and app for users with specific tastes in music.
No matter what the case I find I prefer Discord. All of my groups and communities are there. I am 28 and my friends and being weird kids at heart use things like Discords soundboard for stupid annoying sounds, to stream our gameplay, and to even venture out to our own communities for things we love. Point being Discord has had all of what I personally want and enjoy for years and more. I mean I loved Google Plus when it was around because of the communities. I use Reddit because of the communities for things I enjoy and I wish Lemmy had more of them for that matter.
My only question being, what do you think they need more off to already be better than the platform most people consider the best? Encryption? Not to charge money for subs? It's not that Discord can't get better. It's that I end up on Lemmy looking for alternatives and see comments like this and people will talk about FOSS, cool I found things like amephyst and Element for my fill of FOSS apps. Even down to niche FOSS apps that I love for other things Lemmy has provided but there are apps like Discord that FOSS apps still don't fill every need for me no matter how hard I try to pull myself away from these massive companies.
I will make comments on Lemmy, knowing where I am at. Saying things like this and saying I am okay with spending money on things I enjoy and don't mind continuing to do so but it is usually met with comments like, "what is wrong with you." To the point my comments and posts have either tried to bring up valid call outs that some Lemmy users don't disagree with or me just stating we are all different and don't have to like what others like.
I am not in disagreement with our data being hogged, our private lives being at risk and not am I opposed to try different methods and even still use methods like Mullvad, Proton products, Tor, etc.
Yet no matter how much I try these products the separate Duck address accounts I have, Firefox, etc. I still primarily use Chrome, Google, Discord. Because despite the hate and reasonable hate mind you. Those products provide what I want and work better for me for regular use and certain FOSS or even competing apps just don't do that for me. Yet there are always comments like yours, "they need to try harder." Just vague statements made to justify some personal belief that these companies will rupture and fall apart but they are still successful and they doing exactly what you are saying they should do, trying harder.
I don't mean to poke or prod, start and argument because it will end in one with someone on here which just pushes users like me looking for answers farther away because I want to have discussion but turn to just that more than likely on Lemmy. I just don't know what Lemmy users want or think they are getting at by making statements like this?
honestly, i don't even want to use discord. i'd like to use mumble, irc, xmpp, email, jami, and jitsi. if discord were just a client that wrapped all of these into one user interface, i'd use it.
Discord is quickly becoming a dying service the way skype did. How did skype become a dying service?
Google ad services integration (Discord already has this): when you chat on discord about anything, your text and recent text from your friends are used to supply GAS keywords. Talk about the voice actor for the blue beetle on discord then type blue beetle in the search bar and check your suggestions.
Inserting ads INTO the chat client (Discord is beginning to do this): through activities first, then total corporation capitulation, Skype delivered ads to users. Discord has ads in activities already, and won't allow youtube premium users to skip ads on the watch together activity because they cannot log in. It's an ad delivery pipeline they nuked user created bots for.
If you are worried about privacy, discord is literally destroying yours as you use it. Sure, it isn't bought out entirely by google or microsoft yet, but it might as well be with how much of your data is used to deliver ads rather than enhance your experience. Game a lot? Discord will NEVER suggest new communities on discord to you based on your chat, just advertise to you based on it. Aside from that, discord has obfuscated information that was readily being added to wikis, so wikis that are straight up shit and wrong like fextralife are THRIVING. Seriously, their Nioh wikis are misinformation, their BG3 wiki was wrong on release for a lot of things like shopkeeper inventories and hasn't been updated whatsoever. DaS3 and elden ring info? Mostly straight up plagiarized info from other sites and a lot of it incorrect.
Interested in learning specific info for a game? Discord forums on invite only servers have destroyed this. Specific class information for your favorite MMO? Join that class discord from the game's community discord, wait for someone to give you the role (or if you are extremely lucky, react role in), and PRAY the pinned info is in date. Specific character in a fighting game? Better hope it's in anime airdasher, because outside of dustloop (which also has a discord you must weather for up to date info) all that shit is in discord forums you have to daisy-chain to get info.
TL;DR discord has pushed a bunch of features exclusively to destroy privacy and obtain google money, and a bunch of others are clearly "well the developers need to be working on SOMETHING" changes, like username ID reassignments. The numbered usernames are still visible. They weren't removed. Why did they change? Not for security or ease of use, that's for sure
"Discord is quickly becoming a dying service the way Skype did." I love an opinion and skimmed through what you said but I basically quit taking this comment seriously from the first sentence on. That is because that is the Lemmy mentality. I don't know what you are smoking, reading, seeing. But the, "it's a dying service absolutely so far off the truth. I mean have you been keeping up with Discord. Yeah, it's not fucking dying. It is quite literally growing and keeps continuing to do so. It is easily one of the most successfully growing platforms. When Facebook tries to copy your work, Treehouse, etc and none can quite get you then yeah, you are doing just fine. Ads haven't killed Facebook.
Also, ads aren't what killed Skype. What killed Skype is that it was an actually shit product/platform. I can't remember a single damn ad using Skype because it was shit for video chatting.
"You can't watch YouTube videos together because you can't sign in and there are ads." Yeah that is not why we don't watch videos on discord. I don't watch videos on Discord because my friends just don't want to and ads aren't the reason why. I would say people probably use the feature even with ads.
Also, I think you really missed the privacy part entirely and should read again. There is concern with privacy and there is acknowledgement with the privacy front hence the attempt to use more private products like Element. I appreciate the lesson though.
I am all for discussing but your comments are entirely the comments I am referring to on Lemmy. It's not informative it's a bubble that Lemmy users live in no differently than Reddit users. The forefront thought that because their are ads and people pay for things that their opinion on what makes something bad is clearly why something is suddenly dying. There is far more evidence to suggest, hell even support, that Discord is not dying. However, because there are ads, it's a dying platform and that is the Lemmy mentality. Product bad because ads. Ads have been around for years and have progressively gotten worse and Chrome is quite literally still the most used and successful browser. I like to call it the deniability factor on Lemmy. The in denial that products that we don't want users to continue using are still winning people's usage and that Google is going to topple over any day because we are right and ads bad and privacy. The average consumer doesn't care if they did Firefox would be doing better than Chrome.
It's not that your points are invalid, irrelevant, or not true or don't hold some some honesty that I wish people took more interest in. It's that Discord is a working product and somehow users on Lemmy just can't wrap their brains around the fact people keep using products that they think are bad or that people like me even attempt the other side and have both privacy centric apps and the opposite and still prefer the opposite.
This one should be short enough for you to understand completely: dumbass lmao
Glad you could provide relative insight and valuable information you counter all the statements made before.
So I have one for you a tad longer,: have a nice night.