Discord Alternatives, Ranked

I would love an updated KDX/Hotline server running an a RasPi or similar at home. This was a solved problem 20 years ago. The migration to online based platforms will always lead to network effects and enshittification, for very little gain.

There is zero chance that the target users for Discord is going to try anything more complicated than Discord, so basically all the entries in this list. I recoil in horror thinking about me explaining Matrix even to the most tech savvy friends I use Discord with and I really really hope people would stop recommending it.

Any other Zed users annoyed that they've removed the Help section from GitHub discussions to a sodding discord, please do chime in here: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/48737

I don't understand the appeal of any of those, least of all Discord itself. It's unsearcheable, focused on immediacy, confusing and full of blinking things. The old Reddit interface (or current HN one!) are unsurpassed IMHO.

Thanks for this

Me and my buddies still use team speak. Anyone else?

Don't forget Flotilla Social!

TeamSpeak also has a newer client, but its design decisions are a little odd. Still worth checking out though.

I like this page about how a paid forum is the best alternative to a free chat app. Trying to imagine saying “if you don’t like the whole ICQ numbers thing just buy a vBulletin license” in 2002

No score for usability?

I really do not like discourse. Mail lists are better because you stay in the loop, plus Gmail is better for searching emails than discourse searches itself.

When you rank something with numbers, I’d love it to be more like 1 of 5 (1/5) even when you said it before. When you are reading at that line, I had to recalibrate, if that is 4 (out of 10), which is what most people try to rank against.

why not just IRC?

> signal for secrecy

What kind of secret system uses a phone number tied to your ID as a user name?

I think this might be putting the cart before the horse. It doesn't really hit the multiple ways Discord is used. From friend groups, to organized gaming, to software support services. Moving you and a couple friends is easy. However as the group grows larger it becomes harder to move.

I think a better question right now is "what does Discord consider adult content?" Is it just NSFW stuff or does it include other topics as well? If everyone's account becomes a flagged as a teen account and the content isn't NSFW then what is the reason to leave at that point? You aren't forced to show an ID and face scan to keep using the platform. So most servers may be able to just keep business as usual.

It's FAR more burdensome to assemble some amalgamation of features and content to be a replacement and move the community over. At least at the moment. Seems very reminiscent of the first exodus to Mastodon. Where there was excitement in the beginning but ultimately people went back to Twitter and stopped using Mastodon because only the most hardcore privacy nerds moved.

What about good old IRC?

This does miss a major feature of Discord and why, imo, it got such an huge following among gamers at first: voice and video chat.

I've really had a hard time finding a Discord alternative that has the same kind of first-class voice and video chat support that Discord does. Back to Ventrilo and Mumble I guess /s

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