what practical alternatives are out there? every gaming and streaming community seems to use discord, but i hate it on the basis of it being an enshittified, proprietary walled garden.
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
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None. Closest is Matrix, and it sucks for that purpose because it's more like Slack.
This news comes immediately after they floated the idea of embedding AI, you say?
Pretty much immediately after yeah
Well this gives me time to start my own Mumble server now
How that MIGHT change things?
Just look at every other tech company in the space that’s gone public to see how it WILL change things. It’s not a mystery at this point.
The real question is how do you enshittify a product that is already shit?
Since when is Discord shit? Oh no, an easy to use application with incredible sound quality! Ahhhh
Anything annoying I can think of is stuff that makes a lot of sense considering said application is, for most people, 100% free.
discord is one of those things i struggle to find an alternative to. not because i lack the skill to do it myself or to make something else do the same tasks, but because all my friends who aren't as techy as me or big servers i like talking to wouldnt migrate.
having seen its decline since 2016, sooner or later ill have to make the jump but its gonna be harder than ditching google or microsoft because of the community aspect of it.
A great problem of our society is there being too many problems to have any group of people focus on enough to get any of them solved.
If every issue has just 2% of people caring about it, companies can easily just write those 2% off and do business as usual.
This is why to not have an enshitifed world it has to be top down, and people have to participate in politics logically as opposed to based on which groups of people they hate.
The basic maths of it just doesn't work for any sort of bottom up action.
It would have to be a relative time of quiet and one company sticking out like a sore thumb for long enough for them to be damaged.
You have seen how rapidly things are getting worse.
There is not going to be that happening, and even if there were, it wouldn't be enough as there are thousands more issues.
And so many things using it instead of a forum for information or questions
It’s especially bizzare when git repos for “open source corporate alternative” type software uses it over their own repo’s issue trackers and forums.
WTF
They want the social media engagement, I guess. But still. It’s ridiculous how much of a blind spot folks have for it.
It also makes giving or getting any kind of support a hellish time sink, but that’s almost besides the point…
It is an insane choice for a support tool.
It also makes giving or getting any kind of support a hellish time sink, but that’s almost besides the point…
You know, this comment just made me realize this might actually be the point for some companies.
Its a cheap way to pretend that you care about customer service, while actually dissuading customers strongly from actually trying. Its also completely easy to bot vs having a human on a phone line.
Let the final enshitification commence
╰( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )つ──☆*:・ﾟ
Is discord not enshitty?
I open it and it updates 6 times, then I get a full page ad for nitro. Then all the settings push nitro. And all the “servers” push nitro.
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It will inevitably focus more on pleasing its public investors than anything else, therefore enshittification.
Maybe Steam/Valve is a unicorn, but it's not publicly traded and it's doing just fine.
It is a unicorn. I dread the day Gaben dies and Valve ends up going public. It feels like the last bastion of decent online services.
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I'm guessing this will lead to more things being locked behind their subscription model. Ransoming core features for cash is the standard template of this process.
Don't use Discord!
IRC and Matrix are better, free alternatives.
can't embed content on irc. that alone makes it not viable as alternative, because communities rely on this feature to share content and memes.
Matrix sadly doesn't have the bots, apj, or infrastructure that Discord has. Not to mention its a horrible alternative to Discord, not having permissionable channels is a deal breaker..
Trust me, I want to abandon this ship more than anything but my games/orgs/clans rely heavily on a lot of discord automation that just isn't even possible in Matrix.
Discord got popular because it did Skype and Mumble better than both, but it has suffered a lot from Enshitification
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I genuinely do not know how that would change anything. It‘s already monetized thoroughly. They will just add even more ad campaign quests and stuff which you can ignore.
Have you not seen the world? Everything, no matter how horrific, can always get infinitely worse.
The PIF could buy it and ban gay people. Israel could buy it and persecute people against genocide. A rich right wing billionaire could buy it and force even more nazi memes upon the youth. They could make a monetized limit to how many servers one can join that is purposefully below any sane reasonable or normal level. They could make PMs pay per message.
There are infinite ways it can get worse. Infinite.
Until they lock it up where you can't. Or they'll decide on selling data and injecting ads into your convos or streams.
In other words this hasn't been enshittified to the max yet at all. There are new and horrible depths to explore.
Oh, sweet summer child.
You just wait.
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