Co-founder Jason Citron is stepping down, but will remain with the company as a member of the board of directors.

  • Lime Buzz (fae/she)@beehaw.org
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    [sarcasm] Who could have ever seen it coming? [/sarcasm]

    Honestly, the writing was on the wall for a long time, it had no clear business model and was a mess. It was always going to go this way and I tried pointing out that it was a bad platform but nobody either cared or believed me. Whelp, looks like I was a Cassandra yet again.

    Hope Open Source people can make something to fill the gap, there really is nothing else (yet). Matrix really doesn’t have the features and that which it does have is often bad UX and doesn’t work everywhere. Not seen anything else which will fill the gap and I’ve been looking but I guess nobody thought discord would go down, go this way, or just don’t really know how to make something that would fill the gap, or didn’t want to.

  • 🦊 OneRedFox 🦊@beehaw.org
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    And so the hell-loop continues. Matrix seems like the closest successor, but having used it for awhile I would describe the experience as janky-but-workable. Signal’s good, but requires a phone number. I hear that Mumble’s good, but it’s overly focused on VoIP. Hopefully the alternatives polish themselves up before the enshittification gets too bad.

    • biteychan@beehaw.org
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      1 month ago

      I use Matrix, but like a lot of the Fediverse (I know it’s technically a different protocol, but still), it’s not normie friendly. If it were more plug n play it might take off. I just don’t look forward to when they’ll have ads or start making us pay. It’s so tiring shuffling from platform to platform because of some greedy CEO.

        • nixnoodle@beehaw.org
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          I also thought you could create an account without your phone number nowadays, but since I already have a phone-connected account, I haven’t tested. Only thing I found in their blog was this: https://signal.org/blog/phone-number-privacy-usernames/

          Until now, someone needed to know your phone number to reach you on Signal. Now, you can connect on Signal without needing to hand out your phone number. (You will still need a phone number to register for Signal.) This is where usernames come in.

          There are some newer post about other changes, but I haven’t checked them in detail.

    • Kichae@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      There’s a huge opportunity not just for Matrix, but also for other open source or distributed players here, if they can move quickly enough.

      They won’t, though.

  • sculd@beehaw.org
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    1 month ago

    So glad I never got into that thing.

    Just doesn’t understand why so many people prefer Discord over forums. In terms of information preservation Discord sucks!

    • Oniononon@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month ago

      Hey, listen I know it’s bad and all but discord makes it really easy to create your own channel, customize it however you want and organize study/gaming with friends.

      Since it’s convenient and easy to setup and use, people use it for things they really shouldn’t.

      To bring back forums we need another equally easy to setup and host forums system that modernizes the bbs.

      • Kichae@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Modern BBSes aren’t an issue – they’re out there, and they’re pretty good these days – but the lack of VC funding that lets them fund massive user growth isn’t there, so the level of friction re: setting up your own remains high.

        Discord’s advantage is that it’s not just easy to set up, but also free. You’re not going to get that in the forum space anymore. ProBoards isn’t going to invest the money into making them sexy anytime soon.

    • Emmaaa (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      I hate how discord has replaced this forum culture in many places for this reason, but overall it’s incredibly good for participating in communities in real-time, especially smaller ones. I agree with the forum part, but aside from that it has also replaced IRC, Skype/MSN/ICQ, TeamSpeak, etc. all in one place, while even expanding on their features. It’s unbeaten for friend groups or smaller communities to create a space just for themselves that features text chat, voice chat, screen/video sharing etc.

      Unfortunately though the open source alternatives, even the ones trying to be fully compatible with discord, have not yet reached this featureset and usability level. Also one big issue with communications tools like this is they rely heavily on adoption. Doesn’t help me when I can convince my closest friends to switch to Matrix for example, when there’s so many more people that I interact with on a daily basis through discord who I have no control over. Especially when the alternative just doesn’t cut it for all these normies who don’t understand the implications of big companies controlling such exclusive spaces.

    • Ronno@feddit.nl
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      1 month ago

      It’s even become mandatory by communities in some games, which is something I hate with passion. For instance, many MMORPG communities are on Discord these days (e.g. Guild Wars 2, more specifically the raiding scene).

      So I subscribed to these communities and started using Discord. I still don’t get the appeal, it’s a cluttered mess all over the place and it doesn’t feel intuitive to use. Maybe I’m getting old…

    • Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com
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      I think the main thing is that it’s the lowest friction for just sending a message, making a “post” gives people pause, but sending a message people will do no problem, so small communities get more activity in Discord than anywhere else

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      1 month ago

      “Get off vent, or I’ll have you bent.”

      I wish those stupid videos weren’t the first thing my brain goes for when I see the word “Ventrilo.”

      • Otter@lemmy.ca
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        I assume that one was a joke, Ventrilo looks very out of date

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventrilo

        Revolt is nice though. Once they finish upgrading the app, it would be an easy switch

        I didn’t know about Fosscord (now called Spacebar it seems), it looks cool https://github.com/spacebarchat

        Spacebar is a free, opensource selfhostable discord-compatible chat, voice and video platform.

        • Discord-compatible (Use all your custom clients/bots with minimal changes)
        • Selfhostable (Server)
        • Open Source (GitHub Organization)
        • Configurable (Configure every aspect and limits to your needs)
        • Decentralized (no abuse of power and doesn’t have a single point of failure)
        • Extendable (secure and cross-platform plugin system)
        • Themeable (cross-platform theme system with design editor)
        • Secure (publicly audited and hosted FOSS software for transparent foundation in terms of security)
        • mooncake@lemm.ee
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          Ventrilo is what everyone used like 20 years ago it’s the OG of course it’s outdated

        • joelfromaus@aussie.zone
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          Spacebar looks to be exactly what I’ve been looking for! Unfortunately, according to their FAQ the voice and video features aren’t implemented yet but here’s hoping that someone comes on-board to help set it up 🤞definitely an easy decision for a self hosted Discord alternative if that comes to fruition!

      • Ulrich@feddit.org
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        Fosscord changed to “spacebar” a while back. If you want a more Discord-like experience, try the Cinny or Comet Matrix client. And on mobile the SchildiNext Chat client. Although I really can’t recommend Matrix as a replacement at all.

        • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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          I just want an experience my friends aren’t too stumped by. I’ll give them a look! Thank you!

          • Ulrich@feddit.org
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            Matrix authentication process is confusing and annoying. If your friends aren’t technical, they’re going to have a bad time.

            • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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              Ye, it is. I liked it but I don’t think many will. A non-paranoid mode or service for matrix would be nice

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
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    I was recently asked to chat on discord. Add this to a host of other reasons I declined.

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    Great time to plug that https://revolt.chat/ is coming along nicely! The Android app is being reworked and is in rough shape at the moment, but the biggest feature missing from the desktop app (where I figure it matters most) is screen sharing. Otherwise it’s an entirely serviceable Discord clone that is FOSS and would benefit greatly from additional support. I, for one, will be taking the money that was paying for my Nitro and donating it to Revolt instead.

      • Dae@pawb.social
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        The desktop app has a donation button in the settings. There’s also links to their donation pages on their github, but I do think in both instances they should have their donation link more front and center; it’s proven to work out well for multiple other FOSS projects.

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      Did they fix the self-hosted option? If it works well, I would immediately jump to it.

      • Dae@pawb.social
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        I don’t believe so, and honestly I don’t think it needs to be. It’s already FOSS. And honestly self-hosting would just complicate the process more for normies who apparently can’t figure out Mastodon as it is. Maybe if we have at lest one thing that’s dummy simple and familiar that’s FOSS, maybe it’ll be the foot in the door to getting them more comfortable with the FOSS world and out of the corporate sphere.

        And honestly I just really want my friends off of fucking Discord, and the more Revolt continues to literally, in every way be “Discord but open source,” the better the odds of that happening is.

        • Allero@lemmy.today
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          Whenever there is a single party controlling critical infrastructure, there is a potential for enshittification - even if it starts as a FOSS endeavor.

          Ability to self-host a full copy of the service is the best protection we have so far.

          • Dae@pawb.social
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            While that’s true, the nature of it being FOSS also ensures the potential for forking and going our own way. So for right now, maybe it’s better that it’s not self-hosted, long enough to get a large number of Discord users on-board, then fork it if it does enshittify and make the fork self-hosted. At the very least, again, this is an opportunity to get a large number of normies to see the value of FOSS projects and enter the FOSS world. And that has immense value not just for Revolt, but for the FOSS world as a whole.

              • Dae@pawb.social
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                And I do see yours as well! I agree self-hosting gas greater resistance to devs going rogue when all the hosts can just stop participating. But the beauty of Open Source is that if it’s ever truly so bad, the project can always just fork.

        • Lime Buzz (fae/she)@beehaw.org
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          They are working on it: https://github.com/orgs/revoltchat/discussions/597

          Also we disagree as not all groups on even discord are public since many require invites or accepting requests to join.

          Edit: Also, even if they are public I’d rather the server not be able to see my messages even if the users in any given group can. Yes, I know it’s a minor difference but I can probably trust the other users, I cannot necessarily trust the server.

  • Yermaw@lemm.ee
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    Gonna go ahead and show my ignorance here, but why is this such a bad thing?

    • Sina@beehaw.org
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      Shareholders want quick profits & they don’t care if the service shuts down in 10 years, or becomes largely unusable in 3-5.

    • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Public companies have to account for the shareholdres’ expectation of, well, making money (and more money, and more money, and growing the numbers as much as possible). Shareholders have some degree influence on how the company works, depending on how many shares they own, e.g. they can vote for the CEO. This usually leads to the company to introducing more aggressive ways of making money off the users/customers, enshittification, etc., as it has to satisfy the shareholders and not so much the original customers.

    • Oniononon@sopuli.xyz
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      Cause things that make most money for shareholders make the worst experience for the end user.

    • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
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      Probably the point, honestly. If they lose money from it, at least they made it worse for the cattle who stuck with it!

    • dangling_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Because he “has experience managing a public company” and in his portfolio only focuses on cherry-picked KPIs and no mention of any negatives at all.

      I hate that our society encourages failing up and instead of punishment because of poor management skills and decisions, they do mass layoffs and give themselves fat bonuses because of “cost savings”.

      Frankly, if a company fails, they will ruin other companies; it’s never their fault because of “complicated reasons”.