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Comment by dimino | Hacker News Reader

What is up with Discord? I feel like it's quietly (maybe not so quietly) one of the bigger startups to come out in the last two years.

It seems to have totally taken over a space that wasn't even clearly defined before they got there.

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It does, doesn't it? I used to use Ventrillo, but then they screwed our small group out of our server connection. And we happily used Dolby Axon for a while. We tried Google Hangouts... for a while; until it just really didn't work well (it just disconnected and crapped out a lot). We tried using the Steam client's chat, but while ok for screensharing, it wasn't so great for chat.

But at some point we heard of Discord, which posed itself as a chat/vent replacement, started using it, and it just works. Which is huge, since the other stuff generally didn't (Axon was actually good).

Ventrilo is laggy compared to TS and Mumble. It won't show the lag as ms, but it is there, and it is real. Its due to the way the protocol works, or it is the server. It is no longer in development, and you can't even run your own server on your own hardware. The interface is from the 90s. You don't want to use Ventrilo for gaming in 2016.

TS supports plugins. No lag issues, can run on your own server. Closed source.

Mumble is open source, no lag issues. Interface is slightly less good than TS. Supports SSL.

Discord, like you say, Just Works (tm). It is very easy to use, the interface is amazing, its in active development, and setting up a server is free. It also works in the web browser.

If you're into Blizzard games, Battle.net recently added native VoIP in their client. The advantage that has as Blizzard gamer is you don't have to install any 3rd party software.

> it just works.

This is what makes Discord so good. Before Discord, when I wanted to play online with a friend for the time, I'd have to convince them to download Mumble or Ventrilo, teach them how to connect to a server, and help them set up their mic. With Discord I just send them a link and we're talking. They can get the client later, and having a persistent chat area is a fun way to build up a sense of community.

And the voice chat web interface just works!

They had a really well defined user-space, marketed at it well, and really nailed the user experience, while still being free for the typical user. There is a lot to love about Discord.

I use Discord everyday BUT I seriously prefer IRC with weechat and glowing-bear.org.

I feel like everything down with Discord could be done with IRC in a open source way. IRC for the 21st Century?

Matrix is taking care of this problem in a big way. Check out https://riot.im/app

I don't have anything particularly negative to say about the competition, but if you're looking for a completely free and open infrastructure to build on, I don't think anything (besides IRC, but IRC has it's own problems) comes close to Matrix at the moment. I'm very impressed with the project so far. That said, with a reference server implementation in Python, and few native desktop applications available, there is plenty of work to do.

Edit: Matrix already works great as an IRC bouncer for networks which have been bridged.

IRC is a pretty not-extensible platform. It's just not in the spec to have larger messages, metadata. Then you get into things like push notifications, image hosting, video hosting, file hosting...

IRC for the 21st century IS these apps like slack, discord, etc.

IRC is for people who participate in the internet. For them it isn't hard to host their own website or just use any of the innumberable image/video/whatever hosts and paste a link. Discord is for tech ignorant people who consume things pushed to them by companies over the internet.

Bundling up everything into a centralized, proprietary package will go bad for the consumers eventually. But for now they'll trade away their freedom for convenience and enjoy it.

I don't see the justification for speaking poorly of their users. Is convenience a bad thing now? Why do I want other image hosts hosting my images instead? What's the difference between putting them there and a chat platform from a privacy or centralization standpoint? I know for a fact many people use slack to trade images they don't want on the public net. So then I need to host a private image host too? That's a bit silly.

IRC is a fine platform. That doesn't mean it's what everybody needs/wants.

"DAE think normies are dipshits and sub-human animals - but internet turbonerds are the best??????"

"wait, why are you walking away from me, i'm talki-"

Everything Discord does (and more) used to be doable in pIRCh way back in the later 90s, including video chat over IRC.

Discord's design feels a lot like Slack. I wonder where the overlap is between the two products.

Discord is great at being both a Slack clone AND a Teamspeak clone at the same time.

The real question is which one does IRC better.

Neither. Both have too much white (or black) space, creating horrible information density.

Discord has a compact layout option. It's good enough for me--the pixels wasted here and there improve readability while not losing too much text IMHO.

Then again, using a monospace font like I did for years (ssh+screen+irssi) wastes a lot of screen area just because every character is so wide.

I ended up there for the first time last night and must say that there is a lot to like about it. I found some good communities and integrating media and so on all felt quite streamlined, and the system was snappy.

It's just too bad there are a dozen IMs/voice/video and a dozen slacky/feed companies.

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