🌸 lumi-nhac    ðŸŒ±Sep 28, 2024
like, yes, many people are used to it and like the feature set, but it's deeply messed up how discord is a huge corporation that owns so many private chats and social spaces

i don't think any amount of features or any liking of an interface can ever justify this

it's just not an argument, in my views

corporations should not own our social spaces or social lives, period
Show threadAndySep 28, 2024

@lumi the thing is, alternatives cost money (if not the user, the owner) and people will opt to use the free one.

convenience wins.

you could make countless articles on the artrocities that happen on Discord and people would not care.

Show threadAndySep 28, 2024

@lumi by the way, I'm not saying this in defense of Discord and the likes

it's just that it's not a fight we can win unless a good enough alternative comes up.

and even that at some point will need to get money somehow.

and money is where the bad stuff tends to happen.

Show thread🌸 lumi-nhac    ðŸŒ±Sep 28, 2024
@pixel while i get your argumentation, i think the only actual sustainable way to go against it is education. building alternatives is a great idea and there are already a few very good ones, but the most important thing is to make people aware of the power dynamics and reject proprietary platforms

i don't know if focusing on the atrocities happening inside of discord itself is the best way to tackle it, but it can of course be talked about. it's more important to talk about the fundamental issues, like those of power dynamics (proprietary software, ad-hoc standards, centralization, ...)

(tho i also feel like, with enough atrocities, people will go somewhere else, but that somewhere else might then be some other corporate platform, getting us into the exact same situation, just replace discord with something else)
Show threadAndySep 29, 2024

@lumi the convenience argument still stands however

you can educate people that never used Discord quite well

People that used it however, you might be able to get some, but only a tiny fraction. They will stay because of the convenience.

Aside that, I don't think most people would really care about these arguments. They are problems, but nothing the common user concerns themselves about.

GDPR (and local alternatives) made more people aware of privacy nightmares...most don't care.

Show threadAndySep 29, 2024
@lumi (also, not to be insulting, but I fear a solid chunk of people would not be smart enough to know why the fundamental issues you mentioned exactly are issues)
Show thread🌸 lumi-nhac    ðŸŒ±Sep 29, 2024
@pixel i guess i see things in a more positive way than you do. i've actually seen change in multiple people and communities

yes, a lot of them do keep using it, for a long time even, but they then tend to use it less or not use it for more important comms

people almost never change their mind overnight, it usually takes years for people to really come around. and those who do it quickly generally already have had mostly the right state of mind before
Show threadAndy

@lumi I don't see them that positively because I precisely didn't see the change with a lot of people.

I'm still somewhat bound to Twitter because of this, because convenience/addiction keeps people tied, even though better alternatives exist.

And that goes for pretty much any kind of service.

People know the reason that their current thing is bad, but they also have no compelling reasons to switch most of the times.

Mostly, people stay where their friends are, and for chat that's Discord

Sep 29, 2024 at 12:11amWeb
Show thread🌸 lumi-nhac    ðŸŒ±Sep 29, 2024
@pixel it's a slow process, and network effects make it even slower. a lot of people who use twitter these days seem to want to leave it (especially after the elon musk takeover) and eventually they'll diversify and it'll happen. but it's sloooow

almost none of my friends have left discord immediately, they kept using it for a long time in addition to matrix, xmpp, or whatever else