And while teenagers are on Discord, my impression is that their content there isn't great either. The interesting stuff on Discord is also mostly from 40-somethings.
Thing is, facebook has never been a great place for these things. I still have a FB account, but I haven't checked it in years, and back in the days when I did, there was only one person posting really interesting stuff. Everything else was just lame crap. For a while, I set FB to notify me when that guy posted anything and just ignored everything else, but I really wish he'd just post on a better platform.
There are some quality discord channels, but how do you learn about or get invited to them in the first place?
It's absolutely an echo chamber; it's mostly people who grew up with British roleplaying games in the 1980s and still love them today. But it's a fun group.
I'd argue that the NYT's war on FB and Apple's policies around privacy (e.g. "Tracking your data" when FB and "Enhancing your user experience" when APPL).
I also think it's worth noting these are relatively new phenomenon, we haven't even had social networks for long enough to pin down trends so absolutely.
I think FB can do real psychological harm so you have to be psychologically prepared for it.
I'm also not just consuming content and trying to stay ahead of trends.
Probably by buying the next up and coming networks, just like they did with Instagram and Whatsapp.
Explain like I’m 60? How do you use it?
Just like IRC, but doing everything wrong that made IRC great.
merely noting that the social interaction mode with other users is IRC style.
The spam is kinda neglaceable 8f you just ignore all DMs, the smart scam I've seen is outright dangerous tho.
All the other points stand, and the platform is indeed full of spam and scam - because many "servers" are run and inhabited by kids who don't investigate any of the moderation options and/or actively participate in the spamming themselves - but it certainly doesn't mean it can't be done.
(IRC was full of spam and scam as well as soon as you stepped away from the better kept communities; and also things like DOS wars and hostile channel takeovers during network splits, which Discord seems so far largely free of)
The OP mentioned a bunch of problems spawning from the platform's lack of moderation, among which there's spam and scams.
Certainly, as I mentioned, I do see problems with scams and spamming in some communities due to the admins of those communities choosing not to moderate, or not knowing/caring that it is possible, but those problems do not seem specific to discord - IRC also had them, as do other platforms. Hence my confusion.
It shouldn't be the server owners problem to repeat the same lines warning against the same things again and again because they lack actual control.
This really feels like a social problem, not a technical one; and not one specific to Discord, though it sounds like you have encountered some particularly bad communities there.
Lie down with dogs, and get fleas.
I wouldn't wish having to use EFNet on anyone, either.
Are there discovery features in discord I may not be aware of?
This could have been the case, but Discord blocks me from making new accounts without a separate, expensive mobile phone number.
You can’t even join most servers without having a bot ping your name publicly. This name is then searchable by any user in that server by searching for “mentions:yourcurrentname#tag”. This applies even if you changed your username since then.
You also cannot turn off the ability for someone to see what mutual servers or mutual friends you have.
Any of the above issues would be manageable as a single issue, but when combined, Discord is the worst tool for privacy, bar none.
(I mean of course in a pedantic way a lot of site of the Internet will be considered social media sites but we are talking about Facebook specifically here)
If you can post somewhere as a person, build a reputation or identity there, interact with a community and build relationships: congrats, you have a social network. The mechanics of me replying to you on HN, sending an iMessage to a girl, sending a Slack message to my boss or posting to a group in Discord are nearly identical but the people and the intricacies of the software differ. This is one of the reasons I’ve never been a fan of the “Facebook is a social media monopoly” line of thinking, at least in America. Just doesn’t work if you sit down and think about it, it’s just another website that does a few things better than some others and they are massively successful because of what they’ve chosen to be good at.
HN is a lot like /., Digg or very early Reddit to me, and it makes sense because it was started with a lot of the same ideas towards the end of that era, but with a purpose to serve Y Combinator’s needs.
Discord it depends, but if you join the right communities, it's like joining the perfect Facebook Groups.
Having the boomers is something everyone mocks FB for, and no one realizes it's why they're so successful.
That said, if I'm not mistaken I think Instagram too is deemed to be something for "old" folks by the current set of teens, tweens, and younger twentysomethings.
I had an account years ago but abandoned it as soon as they started to monetise (same for Twitter).
Not among my peers. Facebook is seen as a way to communicate with older and tech-challenged relatives. It's in the same category as LinkedIn -- a social network whose content is mostly cringe and that you're only on as a means to an end, not because it's a good product.
Same here.