So I've lately been thinking about Discord and the definition of what it means to replace it.
And so I'm reminded of a good few things I've always hated and noticed about the platform anyway, at least across the circles I am and used to be on:
- The vast majority of Discord servers has the same kinds of generic channels for chatting, music, videos, art, etc. that are not tied to the stuff these servers are about. Not even for the sake of looking to impress the streamer in question, if that "stuff" is a streamer.
- The forum channels have probably been poorly marketed, because they're not so much old forums as they are mini-Reddits. And people barely use them anyway. And not even for organizing art! They'd rather have a text channel for art and tell people to just not talk that much so art can simply flow.
- Here's a fun one: People don't even like threads on Discord. Possibly because they look ugly. They just don't click with people, even with the benefit of keeping things tidy!
Simply put, people just want to chat, whether on text or voice, and sometimes with video.
And so I have to wonder if we really need a Discord replacement, more than we simply need a breakdown of everything.
At least in my case, my habits always lied in hiding those generic channels from servers because I'd rather post stuff for them here on Mastodon. On the other hand, I use Matrix through a Beeper account on NeoChat (and only open Beeper when I need to link accounts from other chat platforms that I regularly use, like Signal). Thanks to the power of the fediverse, I don't need to sign up on Lemmy (but I could if I want to!).
I think something akin to this decoupled mix is what people probably would want at the end of the day. That's why I still hold hope on stuff like Stoat!
#Discord #Reddit #Matrix #StoatChat #Revolt #Element #Beeper