Personally, Discord has facilitated a long distance relationship with my now wife, and nearly ten years of weekly TTRPG games. I don’t mind the cost because they cannot provide that service for free forever, and I think it’s worth it for what I get out of it. The other benefits they add for paying are almost just bonuses to me after that.
It cannot be overstated how much of a boon Discord’s lack of friction is for connecting with people and forming communities. It is mind-flatteningly easy to get onto Discord and into a community, and while the content of those communities is woefully unindexed deep web, forever sequestered, the external discoverability of the communities themselves is exceptional.
You will not ever reach the same people with the same ease of use as Discord if you use a hosted alternative.
There is friction in form of having to create an account and avoiding getting suspended or asked for a phone number, which t
today seems about as easy as carding.
the only “feature” that discord has is that other people use it.
If you’re communicating with your wife over it, i can assure you the barrier to entry is the amount of time it takes to set up a mumble server, and the money that hosting it will cost. Configuring a mumble client takes like 12 seconds.
Personally, Discord has facilitated a long distance relationship with my now wife, and nearly ten years of weekly TTRPG games. I don’t mind the cost because they cannot provide that service for free forever, and I think it’s worth it for what I get out of it. The other benefits they add for paying are almost just bonuses to me after that.
you could also pay to host some shit like mumble.
It cannot be overstated how much of a boon Discord’s lack of friction is for connecting with people and forming communities. It is mind-flatteningly easy to get onto Discord and into a community, and while the content of those communities is woefully unindexed deep web, forever sequestered, the external discoverability of the communities themselves is exceptional.
You will not ever reach the same people with the same ease of use as Discord if you use a hosted alternative.
There is friction in form of having to create an account and avoiding getting suspended or asked for a phone number, which t today seems about as easy as carding.
the only “feature” that discord has is that other people use it.
If you’re communicating with your wife over it, i can assure you the barrier to entry is the amount of time it takes to set up a mumble server, and the money that hosting it will cost. Configuring a mumble client takes like 12 seconds.
Mumble does not look like a replacement for all the things I use Discord for.
certainly not, but it’s a solid VOIP replacement. The best one on the market.