In an apparent effort to boost revenues, gaming social media startup Discord plans to implement ads into its free service. The step is expected in the coming days after 9 years of ad-free experience.

I don’t think people on this sub use it, but it’s great news for us. The worse it gets the likelier people move on.

  • Ilandar@aussie.zone
    2·
    7 months ago

    People aren’t going to move on. Some of you really live in a bubble when it comes to this stuff. Users complained about ads on Facebook, reddit, Twitter, YouTube and everything else and no matter how many times you guys declare those services dead the reality is that they are still the default for most. Even in the unlikely scenario that a large amount of users do permanently leave, they won’t migrate to the privacy respecting service you want them to.

      • Ilandar@aussie.zone
        0·
        7 months ago

        A minority are, yes. reddit is still massive and continuing to grow while Lemmy participation has fallen off noticeably and continues to decline.

  • guts@lemmy.ml
    1·
    7 months ago

    Discord can do shit like this because they know many won’t ever try to use an alternative. You need more than just “open source” “privacy” or “FOSS” to convince people.

    • hswolf@lemmy.world
      1·
      7 months ago

      the problem isn’t switching, the problem is making all the other people using It to switch too, not everyone cares about security or ads

      • LWD@lemm.ee
        0·
        7 months ago

        There’s also privacy issues with Matrix:

        • Account deletion on Discord: username becomes [deleted]
        • Account deletion on Matrix: will not delete username
        • GDPR-compliant account deletion on Matrix: will not delete username

        Discord is also one (admittedly very lousy) company, while Matrix starts with the privacy issues and just gets worse

        Edit x2: I can’t place a parenthesis to save my life

    • LordKitsuna@lemmy.world
      0·
      7 months ago

      I hate this recommendation because Matrix is just a terrible user experience. It has basically nothing of value over Discord other than being open source. Which is important but it’s not enough to counteract the amount of basic quality of life stuff that is just absolutely trash garbage on Matrix. Stuff that no normal user is going to put up with.

      If Discord does end up completely eviscerating itself the replacement will just be some new upstart closed Source program that is shiny just like how Discord took over from Slack it will not be the rise of Open Source because open source developers have no concept of user experience.

      I mean we don’t even need to start talking about how bad all the client options are and how half the features don’t work and all that. You can look no further than the login system. Average users do not like want or accept having multiple options for logging in. There’s a reason that irc, teamspeak, mumble despite in many ways being objectively Superior especially in the case of the voice chats ended up relegated to only nerds like us. Because no one else is willing to deal with keeping track of servers to connect with or how to cross join or add users.

      Same reason that Lemmy is like 90% technical users that are already invested in something like Linux. The average user got frustrated by how fragmented everything is how many duplicate channels and content you would find between instances and how difficult it was to search instances in the first place. I am here because I can ultimately work around those emoians, but the average person? Is not willing to and they shouldn’t have to

      • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
        0·
        7 months ago

        I am a big fan of Matrix and glad to see it getting some attention in this post. But it is definitely a bit rougher around the edges and esoteric compared to Discord. For more technically-inclined people, it’s fine. But it’s a bit much for some people.

        I’m no fan of Apple (and don’t want to divert discussion here), but part of their winning formula is ease of use.

      • index@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        7 months ago

        Which is important but it’s not enough to counteract the amount of basic quality of life stuff that is just absolutely trash garbage on Matrix

        The thread is about discord adding ads in their platform, so much of user experience… there’s no such trash on matrix

        You don’t need to be a technical user to use matrix you simply don’t have to be closed minded

  • asudox@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    revolt.chat is pretty good. It’s open source as well. The interface is exactly the same as Discord. And best of all, you don’t need nitro to have a gif background or profile picture. Markdown is also supported in the profile description so you can have very fancy descs.

      • Simon Müller@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        6 months ago

        the Voice Server Backend is basically done, currently there’s ongoing re-works of the desktop client (limited demo at https://revolt.chat/app IIRC), as well as closed betas for iOS and Android native apps.

        There’s also a slew of Third-Party Clients and an open Client-Server API.

        Just remember that this project is built by people in their free time, not a VC-Backed company.