Jeff MossOk what are possible Discord alternatives?
Adam Shostack 
@thedarktangent ICR. (I Can’t Recall)
No wait. Almost? 😇
@thedarktangent Seriously. IRC.
NosirrahSec 🏴☠️ guillotine enthusiast@adamshostack @thedarktangent hnngghhh right in the childhood
@adamshostack @thedarktangent We're such a unique group of people that if we went to IRC we'd have thousands upon thousands of experts on IRC administration lol (or at least the technical acumen to learn it)
Marsh Ray@adamshostack @thedarktangent We need voice chat channels and preferably screen sharing
Suzanne Aldrich (she/her)
@marshray @thedarktangent "Need" is a strong word here — I need tools that don't leak their stash of cached government IDs, then 6 month later triple down on demanding those IDs, as Discord has done. I need that privacy more than I need voice chat.
@adamshostack @thedarktangent My particular community will dissolve without voice chat.
But the properties you mentioned are non-negotiable for me as well.
@marshray @thedarktangent ok! I'm not in any such communities, thank you for sharing
SWAT@thedarktangent
Matrix or the aforementioned revolt, come to mind
Matrix or the aforementioned revolt, come to mind
TomSeppertHasn't any good old forumsoftware always been a better alternative to Discord?
I have never understood why one, especially opensource projects, would put all their valuable data in a closed system like Discord, hidden from public search.
Look at Proxmox for example. Lots of searches for Debian/sysadmin related stuf land on their forum and that's part of why they are so popular imo.
Graham PerrinRE: https://infosec.exchange/@mttaggart/116041595378233675
@TomSeppert forum software is typically not realtime chat.
– reply to Michael Taggart's post, if you're interested. Thanks.
Taggart 
@grahamperrin @TomSeppert @thedarktangent I will note that Discourse has real-time chat, but it's not the primary mode. It's meant for backchannel/off-topic.
O'Schell@thedarktangent Last time, using a video game was working (Baldure Gates, Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 4 are possible options I belive)
Tero Hänninen@thedarktangent IRC is pretty easy, well tested alternative if it's just for text. Becomes complicated if you need voice chat out of it as well. Matrix sort of does it and I guess it's the current "leading alternative". It can have IRC bridges as well but the whole experience is not entirely smooth and self-hosting is a bit painful
Em 
Em :official_verified: (@[email protected])
There's never been a better time to abandon Discord and start using Matrix with [Element](https://www.privacyguides.org/en/social-networks/#element) for your communities 💚 #Discord #AgeVerification #Censorship #MassSurveillance #Privacy #E2EE #Matrix
@Em0nM4stodon What worries me a bit about Matrix is how lax they seem to be about security for years:
From late 2022:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/matrix-patches-vulnerabilities-that-completely-subvert-e2ee-guarantees/
From middle of 2024:
https://soatok.blog/2024/08/14/security-issues-in-matrixs-olm-library/
I haven’t found anything more recent after a quick search.
I hear exploits are available on various markets. Hopefully they continue to improve because they seem the most mentioned and have many passionate supporters.
@thedarktangent Indeed. Matrix does have some flaws and problems. But, in the current context, it has fewer flaws and problems than Discord in my opinion.
With open-source technologies, there's always the downside that teams have much smaller budgets to improve features and look for vulnerabilities.
At the same time, for the budget they do have, it's incredible what that there aren't that much more incidents than there are with large corporations' commercial software.
Matrix with Element is definitely not a perfect option, but it's a much better option than Discord for data privacy, especially with age verification and AI scanning now.
PositivDenken 🤯@thedarktangent @Em0nM4stodon depending on your needs Movim (https://movim.eu) might or might not be a good fit.
Sophia J. TurnerMarc (@[email protected])
Time for a #discord alternatives thread, for no particular reason. I've actually been looking into all available options for the past few weeks for other reasons, so here's a thread to share what I've found. In particular I'm looking for stuff with: * Data sovereignty * Strong moderation tools * Wide platform support Hopefully this gives everyone else some ideas too, and feel free to chime in with corrections, suggestions or anything else!
llstrHacker News (@[email protected])
Discord Alternatives, Ranked L: https://taggart-tech.com/discord-alternatives/ C: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46949564 posted on 2026.02.09 at 14:15:14 (c=0, p=7)
Csepp 🌢@thedarktangent Depends on what purpose you have in mind.
I've used Matrix the most so I'll try to comment on what it's fit/unfit for.
E2EE: sometimes it breaks, hence the infamous "unable to decrypt message" meme
system load: Synapse is known to use lots of resources, you definitely can't just leave it unattended for months, it will fill up disk space. Other implementations are lighter but support fewer features. Less of a problem if you disable federation.
clients: Element is pretty heavy, the others lag behind in featured / bug fixes. Even Nheko isn't exactly lightweight.
voice/video chat: Native calls actually work pretty smoothly now, but I haven't tried screen sharing or group calls.
moderation: Moderation tools are lacking. Permission system is also not very fine grained and AFAIK uses "power levels" instead of ACLs.
notifications: Still doesn't have a "mentions" list, or maybe it does but it's in beta. If you have a busy "inbox", you will get lost.
I see others recommending it as the default Discord alternative and I think that should be taken with a heap of salt. It's certainly viable for some niches, but expect some flaws.
@thedarktangent re: E2EE, I will say that I've had unrecoverable OMEMO issues on XMPP where we had to disable encryption completely, so if you need encryption, XMPP is not great either.
Sylvie 
VBF@thedarktangent IRC, oldschool forums?