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I'm, well not impressed. I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. The web client is Electron(basically chromium) for crying o

by S-E-P 8y ago

I'm, well not impressed. I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. The web client is Electron(basically chromium) for crying out loud, it's full of bugs and many times I've lost entire conversations due to irregularities with how it handles with a slow and inconsistent connection (I live in the middle of the woods basically, but the internet is still good enough to handle the most basic of tasks, and voice most days). I like it, but it's not reliable, the interface kind of sucks balls, search function could be a little bit better and why does markdown not work on the mobile application? Why don't we have threads like in Slack for more business oriented stuffs? Just know I'm saying all this as someone who uses Discord every day. I do like it, but I'm not going to sit here singing it's praises when in reality, it would be so much better if someone really took time to polish the damn thing. Also, more to the point, the store sucks. It's annoying, it adds to the clutter, go buy games off of GOG or Steam if you have to, I don't get why we need to have another middleman, one that already harvests our data. Side Note: I will say, Discord's keybindings are absolutely amazing, 10/10. Could not be happier, now if the rest of the app was like that, I wouldn't care about the store.

3PS 8y ago
It's not just markdown that doesn't work on the mobile client, I don't think syntax highlighting is supported at all yet. I agree that the keybindings are nice - personally I'm also fond of the robust bot APIs and the encouragement of a relatively asynchronous voice channel system over a call-based system. I don't see Discord threatening Steam anytime soon, but it's nice to have some competition.
flashman 8y ago
"Why don't we have threads like in Slack for more business oriented stuffs?" Because Discord's not for business oriented stuff? It's IRC. Two paths diverged in a yellow wood; Slack went corporate and Discord went for entertainment. Agree on the Electron front, though: I don't need a chat client hogging my resources when I'm trying to run games at maximum fidelity.
- beerlord 8y ago
  I use Discord for business - I work with a lot of IT freelancers. Its great for voice conversation and chat. Much better than Skype. The store is overkill. It will further bloat the client, and had none of the features that customers want (which is basically all the features of Steam) or devs want (which is basically DRM, global reach and localisation, patch management, and a lower cut than 30%). The way the store is setup now is basically only suitable for games at the end of their lifecycle. There is no way to patch the games, as far as I can see. The -one- good thing I will acknowledge is its curation. It was remarkable logging into the store and seeing a good-looking list of great games. Its become a bit of a tire logging into Steam and seeing loads of Hentai, porn, and Chinese games (Steam doesn't support title localisation) not to mention all the junk uploaded as part of Steam Direct $100 fee.
markatkinson 8y ago
I would rather there was more competition for Steam to be honest. Discord may hit a spot where the functionality required of the app pushes it into a territory where it becomes a resource hog and justifies a rewrite in C++ or C#, but we don't really have insight into why they ran with Electron to begin with. We should be considerate of that fact that not everyone can drum up a team of C++ engineers to create a suave product in a hurry and at the right price. Basically my point is let's wait and see and give them the benefit of the doubt. From my perspective its an incredible piece of software, front end and back. It's stunning. We get 100% of the product for free, and those that pay get 105%. Also it is still quite young. With time some of your issues will likely be ironed out, or it may turn into a mess. I do agree with it feeling a bit cluttered now.
- eksemplar 8y ago
  I don’t get the Electron hate, Visual Studio Code is probably the best IDE I’ve ever used, and it runs much better than eclipse or even Visual Studio ever did. Saying this is a little unfair to Visual Studio, but it’s just so bad when you’re in an enterprise setup where you don’t really have a local drive. Visual Studio code on the other hand doesn’t care if your windows profile is on one network drive and your code is on another. Which is a little ironic because I think you’ll see code more in small setups and regular studio more in enterprise. Anyway, I think electron apps work fairly well. I don’t like discord, the company, but discord itself works and feels a lot better than Skype, teams peak or ventrilo.
  - markatkinson 8y ago
    Why not the company? I am not really familiar with any controversy around Discord, I just use the software for chatting to my mates.
  - pknopf 8y ago
    Visual Studio Code is a unicorn, an exception to rule. We at least know that decent apps can be built with it, but for some reason, they aren't. There is a pit of failure somewhere. Maybe the JavaScript eco-system? Sludge hammers for thumbtacks?
krackers 8y ago
>I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. It's definitely not perfect, but it's essentially the modern IRC - fast and easy to spin up a server for any community, decent moderation tools, scripting via bots, rich media support, and continuity across different platforms. I definitely wish they exposed client apis and sanctioned 3rd party clients, but this is likely at odds with their ultimate business model.
- Jedd 8y ago
  > but it's essentially the modern IRC... > I definitely wish they exposed client apis and sanctioned 3rd party clients, but this is likely at odds with their ultimate business model. So, kind of the antithesis of IRC then.
Reedx 8y ago
> I'm, well not impressed. I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. Because you use it everyday. Probably for free and without ads. Every day. It works really well and provides value to a lot of people. It's rightfully praised I'd say.
- GiuseppaAcciaio 8y ago
  Because I can have decently reliable voice calls with people around the world from my mobile app on a UK 4G connection, when bloody Skype for Business, GoToMeeting and the like shit the bed on a daily basis when trying to have a call from a business line?
Fnoord 8y ago
> I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. Because it is free as in beer. History teaches us free as in beer whilst paying with privacy/ads wins from paid. Example: Android. All the alternatives (Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Skype, Mumble) are much worse than Discord. They're either not gratis or they are not portable or they're more difficult to set up, or their interface or features sucks, or they're centralised (while Discord uses anycast and multiple servers behind the scenes). Discord is also a voice chat and chat server in one with the latter having resume support when you're AFK. This lead to entire (gaming) communities residing on Discord. I dislike Electron as much as anyone else but it isn't a dealbreaker for most people; just a memory hog and a minus. If the plus outweigh it, it gets chosen. Even though Ventrilo/TeamSpeak/Skype/Mumble use much less resources. As for Discord the company, they're a startup still, who are trying out business models. Who knows what their next one is going to be.
- TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
  Completely forgot about Ventrilo. I remember it being a bit of a pain to get up and running. I think between Nitro & the Store they're going to do well with generating income. Tieing free games to Nitro was a smart idea IMO, but they still have an option to use them seperate.

by S-E-P 8y ago

3PS 8y ago

It's not just markdown that doesn't work on the mobile client, I don't think syntax highlighting is supported at all yet. I agree that the keybindings are nice - personally I'm also fond of the robust bot APIs and the encouragement of a relatively asynchronous voice channel system over a call-based system. I don't see Discord threatening Steam anytime soon, but it's nice to have some competition.

flashman 8y ago

"Why don't we have threads like in Slack for more business oriented stuffs?" Because Discord's not for business oriented stuff? It's IRC. Two paths diverged in a yellow wood; Slack went corporate and Discord went for entertainment. Agree on the Electron front, though: I don't need a chat client hogging my resources when I'm trying to run games at maximum fidelity.

beerlord 8y ago
I use Discord for business - I work with a lot of IT freelancers. Its great for voice conversation and chat. Much better than Skype. The store is overkill. It will further bloat the client, and had none of the features that customers want (which is basically all the features of Steam) or devs want (which is basically DRM, global reach and localisation, patch management, and a lower cut than 30%). The way the store is setup now is basically only suitable for games at the end of their lifecycle. There is no way to patch the games, as far as I can see. The -one- good thing I will acknowledge is its curation. It was remarkable logging into the store and seeing a good-looking list of great games. Its become a bit of a tire logging into Steam and seeing loads of Hentai, porn, and Chinese games (Steam doesn't support title localisation) not to mention all the junk uploaded as part of Steam Direct $100 fee.

markatkinson 8y ago

I would rather there was more competition for Steam to be honest. Discord may hit a spot where the functionality required of the app pushes it into a territory where it becomes a resource hog and justifies a rewrite in C++ or C#, but we don't really have insight into why they ran with Electron to begin with. We should be considerate of that fact that not everyone can drum up a team of C++ engineers to create a suave product in a hurry and at the right price. Basically my point is let's wait and see and give them the benefit of the doubt. From my perspective its an incredible piece of software, front end and back. It's stunning. We get 100% of the product for free, and those that pay get 105%. Also it is still quite young. With time some of your issues will likely be ironed out, or it may turn into a mess. I do agree with it feeling a bit cluttered now.

eksemplar 8y ago
I don’t get the Electron hate, Visual Studio Code is probably the best IDE I’ve ever used, and it runs much better than eclipse or even Visual Studio ever did. Saying this is a little unfair to Visual Studio, but it’s just so bad when you’re in an enterprise setup where you don’t really have a local drive. Visual Studio code on the other hand doesn’t care if your windows profile is on one network drive and your code is on another. Which is a little ironic because I think you’ll see code more in small setups and regular studio more in enterprise. Anyway, I think electron apps work fairly well. I don’t like discord, the company, but discord itself works and feels a lot better than Skype, teams peak or ventrilo.
- markatkinson 8y ago
  Why not the company? I am not really familiar with any controversy around Discord, I just use the software for chatting to my mates.
- pknopf 8y ago
  Visual Studio Code is a unicorn, an exception to rule. We at least know that decent apps can be built with it, but for some reason, they aren't. There is a pit of failure somewhere. Maybe the JavaScript eco-system? Sludge hammers for thumbtacks?

krackers 8y ago

>I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. It's definitely not perfect, but it's essentially the modern IRC - fast and easy to spin up a server for any community, decent moderation tools, scripting via bots, rich media support, and continuity across different platforms. I definitely wish they exposed client apis and sanctioned 3rd party clients, but this is likely at odds with their ultimate business model.

Jedd 8y ago
> but it's essentially the modern IRC... > I definitely wish they exposed client apis and sanctioned 3rd party clients, but this is likely at odds with their ultimate business model. So, kind of the antithesis of IRC then.

Reedx 8y ago

> I'm, well not impressed. I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. Because you use it everyday. Probably for free and without ads. Every day. It works really well and provides value to a lot of people. It's rightfully praised I'd say.

GiuseppaAcciaio 8y ago
Because I can have decently reliable voice calls with people around the world from my mobile app on a UK 4G connection, when bloody Skype for Business, GoToMeeting and the like shit the bed on a daily basis when trying to have a call from a business line?

Fnoord 8y ago

> I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service. Because it is free as in beer. History teaches us free as in beer whilst paying with privacy/ads wins from paid. Example: Android. All the alternatives (Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Skype, Mumble) are much worse than Discord. They're either not gratis or they are not portable or they're more difficult to set up, or their interface or features sucks, or they're centralised (while Discord uses anycast and multiple servers behind the scenes). Discord is also a voice chat and chat server in one with the latter having resume support when you're AFK. This lead to entire (gaming) communities residing on Discord. I dislike Electron as much as anyone else but it isn't a dealbreaker for most people; just a memory hog and a minus. If the plus outweigh it, it gets chosen. Even though Ventrilo/TeamSpeak/Skype/Mumble use much less resources. As for Discord the company, they're a startup still, who are trying out business models. Who knows what their next one is going to be.

TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
Completely forgot about Ventrilo. I remember it being a bit of a pain to get up and running. I think between Nitro & the Store they're going to do well with generating income. Tieing free games to Nitro was a smart idea IMO, but they still have an option to use them seperate.