this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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Technology

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102
Why projects start with a Discord and not an alternative - Comment found on Mastodon (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago by jherazob@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Original comment, copy-pasted for convenience:

why do so many projects start with a discord and not with a wiki, or github, or web presence?

simply, discord is the fastest, most frictionless way to do the following:

  • garner a community of support ensuring that there is an audience for the project
  • provide access to idea validation for the creators of that project. rapid feedback for their project = rapid progress
  • provide the easy creation of (not necessarily accessible nor good, but) quick resources for the project

forums, websites, hell even github can only hope to match the value proposition of discord, and it's something people fail to take into account when they criticise the move to discord as a file host/forum/wiki/project website

if you want people to make a file host/forum/wiki/project website, they're directly competing with the frictionless, fast, yet unsustainable and frankly web-shit discord. the fast, frictionless nature is enough for people to use and accept, hell, even to make infrastructural to their project

a platform that could create a non-webshit, easy way to provide the value that discord provides, all while being just as fast and frictionless if not faster/more lubricated, would absolutely blow discord out the water

I am a sysadmin and my level of tech friction tolerance is different from the people referenced here leading projects, but I'd like to gather opinions on this, the fact that this regularly happens as described suggests there's a whole lot of truth to it, but i feel like it's overstating the friction, am i wrong here?

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[–] Lunatech@infosec.exchange 4 points 1 year ago

@jherazob I don't get the comment about Discord being frictionless, at least for anyone who values their privacy and/or doesn't want to be tracked. I have tried several times to sign up for Discord using a desktop computer (I am old; I don't use a mobile phone for interacting with social media because it is too difficult to type a message on those things) and every single time it has demanded a phone number, which is a big NO for me. I've never had a working Discord account because of that damn phone number thing; perhaps it does not require that from everyone but it always has for me even when I've had an invite code for some community.

But also, I just have to say that I am really turned off by the weird cartoony artwork on that site. I think whoever did that art must have either been higher than a kite, or trying to appeal to 3-year-olds. It's like something Dr. Seuss might have drawn if he'd been taking psychedelic drugs. So, to me Discord never really came off as a site for serious discussion.