3 ms·

Something that could be missing from this story is that they may have been in the official web client, but they may have executed custom code (for example, cons

by ve55 6y ago

Something that could be missing from this story is that they may have been in the official web client, but they may have executed custom code (for example, console JavaScript, an add-on, user-extension, etc), that resulted in this, since obviously the web browser will make whichever API requests it is instructed to make. So i could imagine a user wants to do something that Discord makes it difficult to do (perhaps they want to search channel logs locally, or delete all of their messages in a channel, or amny other things), and if I wanted to do that myself I might just throw some JavaScript into the console in a for-loop, which would obviously result in irregular API requests.

jhgg 6y ago
No, this was not the case. A 3rd party client was very much involved here. > So i could imagine a user wants to do something that Discord makes it difficult to do (perhaps they want to search channel logs locally, or delete all of their messages in a channel, or amny other things), and if I wanted to do that myself I might just throw some JavaScript into the console in a for-loop, which would obviously result in irregular API requests. We don't really weigh sus requests too highly (to the point of acct termination) unless they are likely to impact other users, or be used to move laterally on the platform (join servers, send friend requests, open new DMs... etc.)
- ve55 6y ago
  Thanks for the quick update, that's reassuring. I would still be a bit worried myself of a potential ban if I did try to perform such examples (in my parent comment), as the proprietary nature of the platform can make such actions necessary in order to have sufficient control of one's data and environment. I do acknowledge how difficult dealing with abuse at-scale can be too, so sometimes unfortunate situations are partially-necessary as compromises here. I do appreciate reassurances that things aren't as bad as some may claim though, since Discord is particularly worrying for me wrt the centralization and level of control they will have over the next years/decades of the entire online social space.

by ve55 6y ago

jhgg 6y ago

No, this was not the case. A 3rd party client was very much involved here. > So i could imagine a user wants to do something that Discord makes it difficult to do (perhaps they want to search channel logs locally, or delete all of their messages in a channel, or amny other things), and if I wanted to do that myself I might just throw some JavaScript into the console in a for-loop, which would obviously result in irregular API requests. We don't really weigh sus requests too highly (to the point of acct termination) unless they are likely to impact other users, or be used to move laterally on the platform (join servers, send friend requests, open new DMs... etc.)

ve55 6y ago
Thanks for the quick update, that's reassuring. I would still be a bit worried myself of a potential ban if I did try to perform such examples (in my parent comment), as the proprietary nature of the platform can make such actions necessary in order to have sufficient control of one's data and environment. I do acknowledge how difficult dealing with abuse at-scale can be too, so sometimes unfortunate situations are partially-necessary as compromises here. I do appreciate reassurances that things aren't as bad as some may claim though, since Discord is particularly worrying for me wrt the centralization and level of control they will have over the next years/decades of the entire online social space.