maybe im just getting old but i cant really understand the runaway success of discord, it seems awfully similar to IRC to me
1. You can start a new server right in the client by clicking a button.
2. Logs are saved server-side and synced across all your clients (phone, PC, etc).
3. You can upload images and videos to be hosted by Discord's servers. Media and links appear inline in the chat log.
4. No strange rituals involving NickServ or ChanServ.
5. Mobile notifications.
True but God help you if you ever lose your discord 2fa seed; you'll have to throw away that identity and start over. [1]
From their FAQ:
Note: If you do not have access to your backup codes, we are unable to remove 2FA and you will have to create a new account. Discord cannot remove 2FA or issue you new backup codes.
*1 https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/11500122107...
The way I got into Discord was some open source project had a link on their GitHub page for collaboration, I clicked that, entered a name and within minutes I was helping out with some code. A cookie kept my temporary account alive.
I don’t remember any trolls or spammers or anything. I noticed there’s a setting to control the amount of filtering for your server. And I think there’s also a captcha the first time a temporary user joins.
But this comment is very similar to the infamous rsync comment on the Dropbox original Show HN post. Most people don't know IRC, are put off by it's raw (or lack of) design, etc. It's much easier to sell something like slack/discord than IRC.
I remember having so many engineers fighting against HipChat being too slow, and saying we should just use IRC. Yes, in a way it's true, it does everything we'd need, it's fast, can be self hosted etc... but Nancy from HR or Paul from finance would NOT want to figure out how it works.
> For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software ... is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?
compare discord to say teamspeak or ventrilo before it, where you had to both set up the software and configure it, as well as rent or own a server for people to connect to, discord was a godsend
and miles better than skype
I really hope they don't end up selling out to Microsoft/Google/Facebook or use their platform to do some form of political activism.
On the other hand, Discord seems like a good match for small businesses. Would be interested in seeing something offered on that end.
The nice UX makes it easy for everyone to use, and the community aspect is appealing.
IRC isn't very easy to use for the common person.
Maybe I'm just old and grumpy, but am I the only one who finds the UX to be atrocious? Everything seems to a nondescript icon that rarely represents what it's supposed to do, nearly everything is flat so it's hard to tell what you can actually click on and whats decoration. Everytime I use it feels like an exercise in mental gymnastics just to navigate it.
I'm 40 and grew up on mIRC, Discord feels a natural evolution with all the new features.
I also feel like they capitalised on something specific that gamers wanted (chat and voice calls with low latency). Skype call quality is very much hit or miss, and while Mumble is great not everyone has the expertise in setting up a server.
A common person can learn. Also the audience (mostly gamers) know how to do stuff with their computers.
It also doesn't require a bouncer just so you can go from mobile to PC to tablet without issue.
This is just my personal opinion, but I (and my circle) have found Discord to have the worst UI of any mainstream application.
First, there's only a dark theme, which I find much more difficult to read than Slack's default light theme.
Every window (native client) is crammed full of widgets, making it very difficult for fresh users to figure out which button to click to invite people.
It's also constantly firing off unread notifications, adding more and more density to the UI. It makes it very difficult to instantly know where to look.
As another example, I just fired up the desktop client and created a random server - and now I literally have no idea how to delete or disconnect from it.
I'm not a fan of Slack for other reasons, but its UI is far, far superior to Discord.
Had TeamSpeak or Mumble been able to offer hosted services for free, maybe Discord wouldn't have existed.
Most of those are not for me, but Indie rubbish seems a bit off.