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this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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Until a viable alternative is presented, I doubt Discord will die anytime soon. Part of the problem is people have a hard time accepting that even if you make the best meal in town, you've gotta get people to step inside before they'll try it. To an extent, this does involve winning a popularity contest of sorts if you want Discord to die.
I think often times folks are torn between enjoying a space/app as is, and making compromises to attract a larger group. IMO Linux has the same issue and that's part of why die hard fanboys get so aggressively defensive when this is brought up.
It's the software equivalent of being the bitter "nice guy" that simultaneously wants to attract a girlfriend (users) but is kind of an asshole to women. You might think you don't stink but please wear deodorant.
Yeah i also don't think it's dying hence the plea. But thing is, i don't want alternative. I want this shit to die so i never want to see "join our discord" spammed absolutely everywhere when i want to get some info on anything.
Signal isn't an alternative to Discord. I use both and they're used very differently. Group movie watching for example is pretty easy on Discord.
Digg had users and people jumped ship to Reddit because it was better.
People jumped ship because Digg turned into complete and utter garbage, and Reddit wasn't completely awful. It was a weird site though, 100%.
Digg would've been fine had they not forced Digg v4 on users.
That's a feature that was implemented what, 1 or 2 years ago when Signal's been around for a decade?
You can't possibly expect people to just jump from one social app to another that has such a relatively small user base and little familiarity. Entire Discord servers would have to jump ship and it would just be a nightmare for most people.
What Discord prioritizes, Signal treats as an afterthought. Things like group chat, video chat, GIF usage, etc, Signal has never really prioritized.
Discord's mobile and PC apps both allow users to select GIFs within the application, whereas only Signal's mobile app allows users to select GIFs within the application and Signal's desktop app doesn't allow for in-app GIF selection. If you're reading this thinking "who tf cares about stupid stuff like that?", you're completely missing the point because regular ass users care about stuff like that and they totally will say "fuck that" to an alternative if it doesn't have features like this. Why doesn't Signal incorporate in-app GIF selection for its desktop app? I'm sure it will be eventually implemented but dragging their heels like this for popular features and then having the nerve to ask "why aren't people flocking to us instead of Discord/WhatsApp" is such an out of touch question to ask.
When open source developers ask for feedback from regular users and their response to said feedback is"ACKSHUALLY it's your fault, not the application's fault", as it often is, it's no surprise that their software never gains traction. It's like a guy who wears cargo pants to a formal affair and then gets into an argument over attire because in his mind, cargo pants = more pockets = superior, completely oblivious to every other factor.
Another thing-- Signal requires your phone number, Discord doesn't. I know right away folks are going to rage about how Discord is the real privacy nightmare, not Signal. I don't disagree, but the average user is just going to be more wary about being forced to give up their phone number in order to use Signal, even if the software now allows them to hide it.
Discord doesn't require a phone number to use it and there's tons of servers that don't require phone number verification. The vast majority of servers I'm in have no phone number requirement. Signal straight will not work without your phone number, in any capacity. I'm sure you'd trust Signal over Discord with your phone number any day of the week but as I said, that's an irrelevant point because we're talking about why people are more attracted to Discord over Signal. Slacks vs ugly cargo pants.
Have you ever seen an ad for Discord? I haven't see one before and I only know about it through word of mouth. There's nothing stopping people from creating Signal groups for various hobbies and including a Signal link in their social media page.
Refusing to use Discord might be noble from a privacy/security point of view but from a broader perspective, you're significantly limiting your social interactions and not because of the people but the app the people are using to communicate with. It's like not using a phone at all because pretty much any phone is a privacy/security issue.