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Why are we now using Discord instead of this? I never had performance issues with text based irc clients.

To be fair you could implement a Discord client that doesn't suck performance wise. A number one feature of modern instant messaging is message history. For productivity and even personal groups usecases people usually don't want ephemeral chats.

Could you actually? Is it an open protocol? Does Discord have an explicit policy of allowing third-party clients to access their serves?

Discord is pretty closed unfortunately. Using a 3rd party or modified client could risk an account ban. Scripting bots to export your own messages and such is also technically not allowed.

I'm sure there's a lot of useful and basically public information siloed inside of Discord.

In practice yes. Lots of people developing and using third party clients. Of course it's not ideal with bans and API updates pulling the rug from under you with no warning, but actually not that many people get banned and ripcord (thirdparty client) was working for a long time even after being abandoned.

ripcord: https://cancel.fm/ripcord/

Because Discord has put a lot of money into planting free grass and then building a fence around the sheep.

See also Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Reddit, etc. It's profitable and it always works.

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