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Moving away from IRC means a lot of more casual open source types will not follow. I not going to install some random chat app I'm never going to use again and

by _jal 5y ago

Moving away from IRC means a lot of more casual open source types will not follow. I not going to install some random chat app I'm never going to use again and go through signup bullshit just to see if there's someone who can give me a hand on something - to big of a barrier.

CydeWeys 5y ago
Discord works perfectly fine as a simple webpage with a basic email/password user account. In that sense it's actually significantly more accessible than IRC, which is not web-native and does require the use of either a client or some web bridge.
- _jal 5y ago
  It is friction. No matter how little you think it matters, adding friction always loses people. In this case, they're the old-hands types; if you think your project would benefit from losing those in favor of newbies, sure, you can make that choice. Like I said, messing around with someone's email verification nonsense probably with a captcha and stupid questions on top is likely more than I want to spend on seeing if someone who might help me with a transient issue is even available, so I am unlikely to do so.
- wearywanderer 5y ago
  > Discord works perfectly fine as a simple webpage It has a webapp, but it does not work "perfectly fine" in my experience. The UX is bewilderingly complex; it took me several minutes to figure out how to make it stop ringing more bells and whistles than a las vegas casino. I had a hard time even figuring out what symbols were meant to be buttons that get clicked; even finding the settings screen was a pain in the ass. It's truly awful.
  - gerikson 5y ago
    Out of curiosity, what IRC client do you use?
    - wearywanderer 5y ago
      Formerly xchat, now hexchat. I also leave weechat idling in a tmux session. My take on discord is that it's been designed for the zoomer/gamer demographic; the sort of people who also get sucked in by gacha games. Lots of sounds and colors that leave the user dazed and intoxicated.

by _jal 5y ago

CydeWeys 5y ago

Discord works perfectly fine as a simple webpage with a basic email/password user account. In that sense it's actually significantly more accessible than IRC, which is not web-native and does require the use of either a client or some web bridge.

_jal 5y ago
It is friction. No matter how little you think it matters, adding friction always loses people. In this case, they're the old-hands types; if you think your project would benefit from losing those in favor of newbies, sure, you can make that choice. Like I said, messing around with someone's email verification nonsense probably with a captcha and stupid questions on top is likely more than I want to spend on seeing if someone who might help me with a transient issue is even available, so I am unlikely to do so.
wearywanderer 5y ago
> Discord works perfectly fine as a simple webpage It has a webapp, but it does not work "perfectly fine" in my experience. The UX is bewilderingly complex; it took me several minutes to figure out how to make it stop ringing more bells and whistles than a las vegas casino. I had a hard time even figuring out what symbols were meant to be buttons that get clicked; even finding the settings screen was a pain in the ass. It's truly awful.
- gerikson 5y ago
  Out of curiosity, what IRC client do you use?
  - wearywanderer 5y ago
    Formerly xchat, now hexchat. I also leave weechat idling in a tmux session. My take on discord is that it's been designed for the zoomer/gamer demographic; the sort of people who also get sucked in by gacha games. Lots of sounds and colors that leave the user dazed and intoxicated.