this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

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Please don't use Discord for FOSS projects (drewdevault.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why does nobody ever recommend GitLab

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Discord is a disease.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Ahhh, yet another "Discord bad" post. Let's see what alternatives they propose. After all, just telling me I made the wrong choice isn't productive right?

There are great FOSS alternatives to Discord or Slack. SourceHut has been investing in IRC by building more accessible services like chat.sr.ht. Other great options include Matrix and Zulip. Please consider these services before you reach for their proprietary competitors.

Hahaha hahaha. Good fucking joke.

There's a reason Discord is a million times more usable than all of those, and it's not just network effect.

...

I'm well aware discord is going to enshittify itself eventually. It's inevitable. However quite frankly as long as that hasn't happened yet, it will remain by far the best option. I am not going to knee-cap my project by using a Discord "alternative" that barely works.

The day Discord dies will be a massive loss for the internet. That hasn't happened yet. But it will. And it's not going to be a loss just because of all the communities locked in on it. It's going to be a loss because it's the best damn community chat software and there's no replacement.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

as long as that hasn't happened yet

Hasn't happened yet? Have you seen the new mobile app? What usability?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've used Zulip a couple times and thought it had some neat features and worked well enough. What's so bad about it that justifies a reaction like that?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are a lot of people out there who uphold privacy and security as their own personal tenets. Many ToS or privacy policies do not meet their standard and thus, many tech workers or tech savvy hate things like discord. To each their own. Try to understand why and look beyond the "discord bad" to learn more.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm on board with this, but I may be biased because I also don't like using Discord for anything else. Every time someone sends me a Discord invite I feel a little defeated, because it is usually after I have agreed to participate in something.

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[+] [email protected] -19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Leave us alone OMG i understand you are purists but be realistic as well, you need to go where people are to advertise your project and reach. We can use discord for our projects without it meaning we aren’t for your general privacy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

@Haha @starman

> to advertise your project and reach

so does every open-source project have to follow the venture capitalist road? People who are into open-source are pretty comfortable outside of discord, so it only depends who you want to meet. If you aim at the mainstream masses, and you want to grow as much as possible and as fast as possible (why? planning a business exit?) then sure, discord has more of those. But in that case why open-source anyway? It's anti-thetical.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry but you can't be serious. Do you really think that putting documentation, bug reports, FAQ, etc. on a Discord server is not a problem? If you want a place to discuss that is like Discord, use Element or some other FLOSS alternative because it just simply is more sustainable and better as it shows respect towards the user base.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I am talking about reach and promotion, please read what i am writing. If i made an app for 14 year old yes, i would create my platform where they exist (discord and reddit) - if its a fully FOSS project for a mature audience, i’d go there to promote but not for exclusive use in platform. Reach at first is incredibly tough, the time you place doing all that is valuable as well.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

While Discord may be a valid place for your project to gain traction, documentation, etc. shouldn't be there as Discord is unsearchable. That's what I'm saying.