Some friends are concerned about Discord apparently being taken over by Activision hiring a former Activision exec and worry that the platform could end up becoming pretty much unusable without payment. They're currently trying to think of potential alternatives if things end up getting too bad, but so far pretty much everything mentioned has issues for at least some of us. (And a few of us are also here on RPR, so there's that, at least.)
From what I can tell, the goal is something that still functions very similarly to discord, allowing a fairly private group that's rapid-chat focused, can still have something like "channels" for sorting different sorts of conversation, allows voice chat, video, and screenshare, is cross-platform (at least Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS), and doesn't require phone numbers or real names to set up (or at least does not display them or use them to connect to each other).
Among things mentioned in the group so far have been Google Hangouts, Facebook/Messenger (which prompted general discomfort), Skype (which was mentioned to be shutting down), Slack (which is more of a business thing), Signal (which apparently uses phone numbers to connect), Guilded (which was mentioned to require a Roblox account?), Revolt (which has iOS compatibility issues), Teamspeak (which would require payment), and possibly others I've missed.
Of course, I'm sure options will shift with time, too; they just want to do what they can to plan ahead just in case.
Quick edit: I originally misunderstood what happened with Discord & Activision and have corrected that line.
From what I can tell, the goal is something that still functions very similarly to discord, allowing a fairly private group that's rapid-chat focused, can still have something like "channels" for sorting different sorts of conversation, allows voice chat, video, and screenshare, is cross-platform (at least Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS), and doesn't require phone numbers or real names to set up (or at least does not display them or use them to connect to each other).
Among things mentioned in the group so far have been Google Hangouts, Facebook/Messenger (which prompted general discomfort), Skype (which was mentioned to be shutting down), Slack (which is more of a business thing), Signal (which apparently uses phone numbers to connect), Guilded (which was mentioned to require a Roblox account?), Revolt (which has iOS compatibility issues), Teamspeak (which would require payment), and possibly others I've missed.
Of course, I'm sure options will shift with time, too; they just want to do what they can to plan ahead just in case.
Quick edit: I originally misunderstood what happened with Discord & Activision and have corrected that line.
Just slipping in to get nofits from here. Appreciated Zel. 🧡
Teamspeak looks pretty similar
Some things that Sahara has since gathered.
Additional options or further info about any of these is appreciated.
Quote:
- Fluxer - open source, devs are very community focused. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an app yet but the web version works well on mobile. Very similar setup to discord. Sadly images only last 1 month before deletion rn
- Teamspeak - Surprisingly, despite being self-hosted, teamspeak 6 has a hard cap on the number of users. They don't allow more than 32 users to be registered.
- Root - root looks amazing, no doubt, but they actively disallow any form of adult content at all on community servers. Given how too much of the world treats queer culture as nsfw, we shouldn’t need to have to censor that
- Stoat - We briefly considered stoat as a strong option, but it has had a lack of development for a while now, and the devs have been resistant to fixing issues.
- Signal - We do actually recommend people connect on signal, as it has some very nice security, but the group management features are lacking, and it's a lot easier for one to lose access to their account permanently.
- Teamspeak - Surprisingly, despite being self-hosted, teamspeak 6 has a hard cap on the number of users. They don't allow more than 32 users to be registered.
- Root - root looks amazing, no doubt, but they actively disallow any form of adult content at all on community servers. Given how too much of the world treats queer culture as nsfw, we shouldn’t need to have to censor that
- Stoat - We briefly considered stoat as a strong option, but it has had a lack of development for a while now, and the devs have been resistant to fixing issues.
- Signal - We do actually recommend people connect on signal, as it has some very nice security, but the group management features are lacking, and it's a lot easier for one to lose access to their account permanently.
Additional options or further info about any of these is appreciated.
Zelphyr wrote:
Some things that Sahara has since gathered.
Additional options or further info about any of these is appreciated.
Quote:
- Fluxer - open source, devs are very community focused. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an app yet but the web version works well on mobile. Very similar setup to discord. Sadly images only last 1 month before deletion rn
- Teamspeak - Surprisingly, despite being self-hosted, teamspeak 6 has a hard cap on the number of users. They don't allow more than 32 users to be registered.
- Root - root looks amazing, no doubt, but they actively disallow any form of adult content at all on community servers. Given how too much of the world treats queer culture as nsfw, we shouldn’t need to have to censor that
- Stoat - We briefly considered stoat as a strong option, but it has had a lack of development for a while now, and the devs have been resistant to fixing issues.
- Signal - We do actually recommend people connect on signal, as it has some very nice security, but the group management features are lacking, and it's a lot easier for one to lose access to their account permanently.
- Teamspeak - Surprisingly, despite being self-hosted, teamspeak 6 has a hard cap on the number of users. They don't allow more than 32 users to be registered.
- Root - root looks amazing, no doubt, but they actively disallow any form of adult content at all on community servers. Given how too much of the world treats queer culture as nsfw, we shouldn’t need to have to censor that
- Stoat - We briefly considered stoat as a strong option, but it has had a lack of development for a while now, and the devs have been resistant to fixing issues.
- Signal - We do actually recommend people connect on signal, as it has some very nice security, but the group management features are lacking, and it's a lot easier for one to lose access to their account permanently.
Additional options or further info about any of these is appreciated.
I don't know if it helps or not, but Root just updated their TOS to be much more relaxed. Unless you just read through the terms and saw otherwise, I believe they've fixed their NSFW standards to only affect public servers. Whether or not that'll last or if they'll fall by the wayside like Discord is another thing.
I'm mostly waiting to see their Apps roll out. I think the app features could be huge for them and really set them apart from discord, and I can already see PBP uses for what they've been showcasing on their main server. Depending on how quickly those roll out, and how fine-tuned they are, that would probably be my top contender.
Steam chat functions similarly to Discord I believe
Strange_and_Eternal wrote:
Steam chat functions similarly to Discord I believe
I was unaware that had anything beyond just basic direct/instant message capabilities. (And actually have pretty much never even used that, so would have to look up how to even access that much of it.
)
I've set myself up on Stoat as a just-in-case. You can find my username there on my profile here.
Meanwhile folks I know are leaning toward Root while watching Fluxer, the latter of which is a more direct clone of discord with how it looks and features it has. Folks I know really like custom emojis, and Root doesn't have that.
Fluxxer admits to using a lot of vibe coding. So based on that you can decide how much you trust their infrastructure.
The advice I've seen for this is to sit back and wait, regarding switching programs. See which one sticks around, improves actively, and gains a significant population. Let's all keep in mind that jumping programs like this, especially early on in any exodus, results in ripped apart, smaller and smaller communities. There's five+ programs going on here, you're not gonna convince most of the people around you to pick one, let alone more than one, if they can't see that it's gonna work out.
But also maybe get on them and grab your name. >>
Let me be serious here: A lot of these programs in any program / site exodus just pop up out of nowhere and never get anywhere. I was personally incredibly surprised that Bluesky held on when none of the other alternatives ever did. You'll also notice, however, that a lot of people never made a Bluesky, even if they disagreed with Twitter's policies - people will simply stick with what they are used to (tearing apart / reduced community), especially if they've been exposed to these alternatives never lifting off, or even shutting down.
This isn't to say don't move, and I'm not gonna tell you that you absolutely shouldn't leap overboard and never look back (or put Discord on the back burner and let your community ties slip away), but I wanted to point out what's going to happen here, and set expectations about the frankly high chance of these programs not working out long term. I hope they do, but I'm also not looking forward to shredding my community apart yet again.
But also maybe get on them and grab your name. >>
Let me be serious here: A lot of these programs in any program / site exodus just pop up out of nowhere and never get anywhere. I was personally incredibly surprised that Bluesky held on when none of the other alternatives ever did. You'll also notice, however, that a lot of people never made a Bluesky, even if they disagreed with Twitter's policies - people will simply stick with what they are used to (tearing apart / reduced community), especially if they've been exposed to these alternatives never lifting off, or even shutting down.
This isn't to say don't move, and I'm not gonna tell you that you absolutely shouldn't leap overboard and never look back (or put Discord on the back burner and let your community ties slip away), but I wanted to point out what's going to happen here, and set expectations about the frankly high chance of these programs not working out long term. I hope they do, but I'm also not looking forward to shredding my community apart yet again.
This is the info gathering.
None of those programs are actually new, they're just getting a new surge of attention and join-ups (which is, indeed, proving difficult for some of them to keep up with). Teamspeak in particular is actually a corporate thing that was developed for businesses years ago, for their teams of employees to coordinate through.
And we're already at the point where some folks are having their discord accounts restricted if they don't show ID. This was initially asked awhile before that to try to have plans in place for where to go if some of us suddenly couldn't access where we talk anymore, to reduce the risk of any of us being totally lost in the shuffle. (This last part, admittedly, may not be relevant to most folks on this site.)
None of those programs are actually new, they're just getting a new surge of attention and join-ups (which is, indeed, proving difficult for some of them to keep up with). Teamspeak in particular is actually a corporate thing that was developed for businesses years ago, for their teams of employees to coordinate through.
And we're already at the point where some folks are having their discord accounts restricted if they don't show ID. This was initially asked awhile before that to try to have plans in place for where to go if some of us suddenly couldn't access where we talk anymore, to reduce the risk of any of us being totally lost in the shuffle. (This last part, admittedly, may not be relevant to most folks on this site.)
FWIW I set up a Guilded account a couple of years ago when Discord was teasing crypto integration. I don't love how all of your servers that you own are clustered together with sections separated by roles, but I certainly didn't need a Roblox account at the time. That may have changed since then, but it seemed pretty targeted to twitch streamers and MMO guilds as the primary demographic rather than one specific game.
Overall it seemed... okay? Probably the Discord replacement I'm most likely to explore depending on how things pan out.
Overall it seemed... okay? Probably the Discord replacement I'm most likely to explore depending on how things pan out.
It was looking like people were leaning towards Stoat, but just in doing a search to look up their site to actually look things over, I ended up with tons of negative reviews about various ways it's broken, severely overwhelmed by the mass migration it's getting, has confusing settings (including for how to enable various privacy features they boast having), and unconfirmed rumors that at least some of its code was AI-generated.
Claine wrote:
Fluxxer admits to using a lot of vibe coding. So based on that you can decide how much you trust their infrastructure.
Fluxxer or Fluxer? They appear to be two different apps, with Fluxxer being a Brazilian thing that looks like it might be some sort of data analytics thing?
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