I don’t think people on this sub use it, but it’s great news for us. The worse it gets the likelier people move on.
(Last I checked) From this spreadsheet, Discord is the fourth worst messaging platform in terms of privacy. Now a new row for “Has ads” will have to be added…
According to my iPhones privacy viewer it’s almost worse than Facebook.
I think the only way to get an open-source Discord is to recreate discord (their backend).
granted it’s a slow process but it can pay off if done right. I contribute what little I can to the project, as my Typescript is not the best and Discord knowledge even less.
There are many, even revolt.chat is similar.
But easiest to transition for me has been matrix
Time to move to Matrix then, and I’m not even joking. Ads are Aids.
Why not Mumble and IRC or XMPP?
Which of them support e2e in group chats by default?
XMPP with OMEMO.
Yeah god forbid anyone pay for the shit they use, just keep hopping around to suck the life out of every ‘free’ service there is. Nitro is right there.
If it wasn’t a privacy nightmare maybe I will consider paying, but data theft + ads? Naaaah.
Ah right, so it’s fine if it’s a privacy nightmare but combined with ads, woah there. If you’re right, they already have your data. If you don’t use it, why even complain?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen discord get a positive mention on this sub. I’ve never used it so I don’t really have a horse in this race.
I don’t know what people use it for, but I’ve seen all the negative memes about open source software devs using it and that causing people to skip on the software though. Never seen it get any praise around here.
I haven’t scraped the terms of service to see exactly what kind of data they collect but I’m not extremely worried about it. I don’t put sensitive information into it beyond my payment information for Nitro. I’m sure everyone here on Lemmy, a self-host and open source site/software, is against programs like Discord because they’re proprietary but I personally just enjoy it and don’t find it very limiting.
- Your IP address will be logged as soon as you login.
- They store everything you send in plain text on an encrypted storage unit.
- They store if your microphone and/or camera is on or off + more of what settings you have made in your own device.
- They force you to give them your phone number in order to identify you.
Source: https://discord.com/privacy
Discord is a privacy nightmare, but not as much as for an example Spotify. Spotify even logs how you hold your device and how fast you move it! Source: https://www.spotify.com/uk/legal/privacy-policy/
- Everything everywhere I connect to has my IP, oh no.
- It’s not plaintext if it’s encrypted…
- So like cookies but for an application, not that intrusive imo.
- “You may be required to verify your account with a phone number” - I provided a phone number once and they’ve never, at any point, sent me anything or asked me to use it. You could easily use a burner phone.
Even thinking about a company like Google seems like more of a privacy nightmare. This is relatively tame compared to most everything else.
Because I’m free to complain about things I don’t like.
Many of my friends use Discord but I also use Matrix and I prefer that. This is a Signal/WhatsApp like situation.
If Discord starts shoving them ads maybe I can bring some people over to a more secure platform easily.
Yeah, sure, complain about it if you want to, it just doesn’t make sense if you’ve already given them the data. I like Signal for privacy but it doesn’t have any customization, no personalization, no personality, it’s nearly sterile. It does it’s job and that’s it. Great for people who want privacy for like… work but for just talking to friends Discord seems more enjoyable.
Nitro is right there… and yet… these changes happened.
Because of people… like you… who provide nothing to a free service besides costing bandwidth… leeches to a free internet… vampires to charity…
revolt.chat is pretty good. It’s open source as well. The interface is exactly the same as Discord. And best of all, you don’t need nitro to have a gif background or profile picture. Markdown is also supported in the profile description so you can have very fancy descs.
I’ll keep an eye on this. I use discord exclusively for gaming purposes, and voice chat is pretty important for that bc I’m still on console mostly for the next year or so (building a pc finally, thanks to a new job). So if they can get that going, I could convince several people to switch once I’m also on PC. Till then discord for my PS5 is about the best I can hope for.
I didn’t get past the sign in page because I was having too much fun looking at all of the localization options for their website.
The default is “🇺🇸 English (Simplified)”, but they have “☠️Pirate”, “Toki Pona”, “🥹Bottom”, “😸OwO”, “🪄 Enchantment Table”, and many other funny options.
revolt
Are there public servers / communities?
Yes. As I said, it’s basically Discord.
Last I checked it didn’t have voice chat and just ran in a imbedded webpage
This is just Netflix all over again. If you don’t want to pay for Nitro, watch ads. If you don’t like ads, find the door. I don’t get why people normalize freeloading online services and get pissy when they have to pay for what they use. Servers cost money. Pitch in with ads, data, or a subscription.
Otherwise go do your open-source self hosted and P2P programs, they all have the same problem. Reliability.
I’ve already paid with my data.
Want me to pay for a service (something I’m happy to do)? No ads and no selling of my data.
What data? Who bought it? Do you have a single fact to back that up?
Is there any alternative with screen share feature and music bots?
If you don’t use Discord for voice much, Matrix has a pretty solid bridges you can use.
Hosting your own Matrix server is suprisingly way easier than I though - got a VM on hertzner for like 5$ a month, and there is an Ansible script that takes care of the setup for you. It’s also one of those rare cases where someone made an Ansible script that actually works, instead of you getting stuck in dependency-hell (seriously, fuck npm. Not a single docker or ansible tool that has used it ever worked for me out of the box. Python can get simillarly annoying).
They have a pretty easy to follow guide, and the whole setup took me like 20 minutes. I only edited a few options in config.yml (mostly to add Messenger and Discord bridge), and ran the ansible, and it worked at first try.
So I could at least ditch both messenger and discord apps from my PC and phone, without having to convince anyone to quit their poison - with only issue being that you can’t use Discord voice. And that the messenger bridge is still unreliable sometimes, but those are still minor inconviniences in comparison to my deep-seated hate for Meta.
Of course - Meta still gets my chat data and content, same as Discord. But at least they don’t get anything else from my phone or PC.
Matrix bridges are nice until you realize that you have to be a mod in the server to add the bridge, you need to do it not only for every Discord server you want to use on matrix, but every channel as well. It’s a huge chore. And ofc it doesn’t work with Discord DMs.
Not blaming Matrix or the matrix bridge developers here because it’s not their fault. But let’s be honest: matrix bridges are a pain to set up for Discord and for a majority of people aren’t worth the hassle. Moving to Matrix would be the better choice if at all possible
you need to do it not only for every Discord server you want to use on matrix, but every channel as well. It’s a huge chore. And ofc it doesn’t work with Discord DMs.
This wasn’t my experience at all - all I had to do was message the Matrix bot with servers I want to join (I’m not a mod on any of them), and it bridged all channels in that server. Also, Discord DMs are working fine.
I’m using the mautrix bridge, which doesn’t use a bot or anything like that, but uses your Discord session instead.
Goddamn I wish it wasn’t so hard to convince friends that discord sucks. I’d rather just send SMS than use discord to communicate with my social circle.
SMS? You mean the paid, vendor lock-in, MITMable traffic? Possibly one of the only options that is actually worse than Discord
I don’t always force my friends to use Discord alternatives, but when I do I force them to use Signal.
Took fucking years but i dragged them to signal kicking and screaming, people are such little bitches
Discord has a monopoly on the organized group chat platform, there isn’t a competent competitor, or at least none I’m aware of
Matrix.org (Try Element)
Revolt.chat
I must say that Matrix is so competent that it can compete against whatsapp and Discord at the same time
I don’t know why so many people in the fediverse consider Element a competitor to Discord. I regularly use Element, but the non-text functionality just isn’t ready to point people at as an alternative. They will have a bad time and write off Element potentially forever if they are shown that app as an alternative right now.
Some examples of functionality that is important to discord but is not a good experience or is not ready in element yet: voice/video channels, screen sharing, custom emotes and reactions, channel organization and browsing (their latest attempt just doesn’t do it for me).
Additionally, there are times when encryption just has a hiccup still or someone sets it up wrong and things can be messy because of it.
I really like element and they’ve done a good job so far, but It’s just not ready for people to be pushed there from discord.
I wouldn’t say it’s great for me, because I have to use it for some people who just refuse to use an open source alternative.
The people who refuse to use an open source alternative, I no longer speak with. I have made plenty of new friends on the open source alternatives that use the open source alternatives.
this is wild. people who use open source software are a small small minority, and its good to have a diverse group of friends, not a tiny insulated group of the internet. dropping a friend over their choice of messaging app is pathetic
the desktop versions of AdGuard can filter requests from the desktop version of discord
There’s also services like adguard DNS and nextDNS that can help cut down on any bullshit like that.
Adblocking needs to be multi-layered just like antivirus protection
Good. Maybe people will finally move on to something else.
…Maybe I should try to make an account on one of those competitors… what’s it called? Revolt or something?
revolt is great, but development is quite slow and its just copy of discord
A copy of discord without the fuckshit is all I want really.
Yup, its not widely used mainly because of the chaotic development, lack of a devcent mobile client and an actual selling point since it is basically a 1:1 recreation of discord
I feel like I have like three decent mobile clients, including the default?
https://matrix.org/try-matrix/ With the Element client, it’s a pretty close experience to Slack/Discord.
cinny.in is much closer to discord then element
Not at all unless they have introduced voice channels instead of the antique group calls
Revolt is also a great open source alternative that I tried and would recommend
I just installed it after I ran into it on some other Lemmy comment. I was hoping to replace discord with it.
- clicking on a voice room doesn’t actual join it. You still need to dial in
- I can’t see who is currently in/using the voice room.
- doesnt seem to remember me granting mic access
- doesn’t seem to support screen sharing
It just feels like it isn’t “there” just yet? Unless I’m missing something?
If I showed it to friends of mine today and they had my experience I’m sure they’d go back to discord.
Not hating on the devs though. The product itself seems to be coming along nicely.
Yes, it definitely has missing features in comparison to Discord but I think it has potential. It may be useful to submit requests on Github.
If it helps, I’m pretty sure the devs are in the process of rewriting the UI on a private repo. Idk if there’s any eta or progress chart
It’s way better than Matrix
I don’t think it’s good as Matrix in terms of privacy and security but I think it’s better as an alternative to Discord
No E2EE for DMs, groups, or notes.
That’s going to be the deal breaker for most.
Matrix is far too slow for what it’s intended to be. I’d certainly like to see E2EE come to Revolt.
It is just as centralized and has a tendency to ban people for poor reasons
People aren’t going to move on. Some of you really live in a bubble when it comes to this stuff. Users complained about ads on Facebook, reddit, Twitter, YouTube and everything else and no matter how many times you guys declare those services dead the reality is that they are still the default for most. Even in the unlikely scenario that a large amount of users do permanently leave, they won’t migrate to the privacy respecting service you want them to.
Some are and some aren’t. Like a lot of folks on here are here because reddit went to shit.
A minority are, yes. reddit is still massive and continuing to grow while Lemmy participation has fallen off noticeably and continues to decline.
while Lemmy participation has fallen off noticeably and continues to decline.
Fediverse Observer says otherwise: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/stats
Active users have been steady since the Reddit migration, posts and comments per day each dipped but bounced back and currently growing.
I don’t think you’re reading those stats correctly. MAUs clearly peaked months agp and have begun to trend down as people, move back to reddit. Why? Because, just like will be the case for Discord, communities haven’t moved.
Stats aside, I can’t help but laugh anytime people suggest Lemmy is dying off or failing. Aussie.zone didn’t used to exist, and Lemmy.ml used to have like… one post a day? And it would be some tankie nonsense like “I’m a Russian living in Ukraine - Russia isn’t going to invade Ukraine, it’s all Western propaganda”
I’m quite obviously comparing it to the height of the reddit migration, since that is the topic of the thread. MAUs peaked months ago and are trending down now.
MAUs peaked months ago and are trending down now.
Completely false claim if you look at the source in my previous comment. And no, I’m not looking at it wrong. MAU have been going up every month this year.
If you disagree with my assessment, then actually explain how it’s wrong. Don’t just claim I’m wrong without elaborating.
Completely false claim if you look at the source in my previous comment.
No…?
Are you only looking at the last 6 months or something? Zoom out to take into account the entire migration from reddit (since that is the topic of this thread). The MAUs peaked last year and the overall trend since has been downward since. Whether they are slightly up over a few recent months is not actually relevant to anything I said, nor does it disprove the claiim that Lemmy is dying.
You ate trying to cherypick statistics here to push a narrative that anyone can clearly see is false if they just compare the height of Lemmy during the migration when it was the supposed “reddit killer” vs what it is today. It is objective fact that it has declined and your own data proves it. The overall trend is downward. You are essentially the equivalent of a climate change denier, pretending there is no temperature increase by zooming right in on the most recent data instead of looking at the bigger and more relevant picture.
Are you only looking at the last 6 months or something? Zoom out to take into account the entire migration from reddit (since that is the topic of this thread). The MAUs peaked last year and the overall trend since has been downward since.
Yes, I’m only looking at the last 6 months, because everyone already knew that the Reddit migration was a freak event. There was going to be a big influx of users followed by many of the new users leaving as things stabilize. Because of that, you have to filter out the Reddit migration and following 2-3 months to get a proper view on the trend of Lemmy’s userbase numbers. And from that data it’s slowly trending upwards, which is a good position to be in.
Whether they are slightly up over a few recent months is not actually relevant to anything I said, nor does it disprove the claiim that Lemmy is dying.
It is objective fact that it has declined and your own data proves it. The overall trend is downward.
By the logic you’re running off of, I can look at Lemmy’s entire history and conclude that it’s trending upwards because the MAU started out at 0 and it’s currently around 113k. You have to put an appropriate range on data or you end up with nonsense conclusions.
You ate trying to cherypick statistics here to push a narrative that anyone can clearly see is false if they just compare the height of Lemmy during the migration when it was the supposed “reddit killer” vs what it is today. It is objective fact that it has declined and your own data proves it. The overall trend is downward.
If you actually look at the numbers in my source, the peak MAU after the Reddit migration was 115k, while it’s grown back to 113k as of last month. That’s less than a 2% difference, with consistent growth over the past 6 months. Not only that, comments have gone up a lot in comparison to MAU, meaning that those users are also growing more active. These are the objectively factual statistics that you’re harping on about, and they point to Lemmy being a in good spot growth-wise.
You are essentially the equivalent of a climate change denier, pretending there is no temperature increase by zooming right in on the most recent data instead of looking at the bigger and more relevant picture.
And here is the unprovoked ad-hominem attack. Dude, you’re the one who tossed out a false claim with no data to back it up, and took it personally when someone asked you to back up your claims with a source and a decent argument.
But since you’ve already brought out the mud-slinging, I’ll bring my own: you’re behaving like the gamers that claim a single-player game is dead and therefore bad simply because the active playerbase has dropped after two months. Grow up.
Welcome to lemmy
Joined 2 months ago
Nothing ever changes and it is pointless to try- got it
