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As an occasional user of discord I cannot understand that at all. It is one of the most confusing UIs I have ever used, everything from finding the settings to

As an occasional user of discord I cannot understand that at all. It is one of the most confusing UIs I have ever used, everything from finding the settings to joining or telling what channel you are connected to is done in a "unique UI paradigm". Quality of calls is good but the app is mental

trampypizza 5y ago
In my experience, discord was better than the previous options for a few reasons. A) it's free, as opposed to a vent or TS server, which while they are not expensive, it's still a barrier to setting one up. B) the free tier has quite a lot of functionality without paying for servers, even for a lot of players (like a World of Warcraft guild). C) it merged voice Comms with a community hub where people could communicate and share things relevant to their game (to use the WoW scenario again, raid organising, upcoming patch discussion, guides and other helpful information) in an organised and central location. I recognise there is a bunch of issues with discord, I've had it have complete melt downs when the voice systems have broken, it can be a real resource hog, and don't get me started on the security and privacy (it's not great), however because of the additional functionality I still think it's a great bit of software. I'm so glad I don't have to be in Warcraft guild Facebook groups anymore!
- calpaterson 5y ago
  These three points are all well and good but they don't contradict my original points: Discord's UI is exceptionally confusing and requires specific knowledge to operate it. This isn't a field with brilliant UI either: eg it's often confusing whether you're muted or unmuted on most videoconferencing programs. Even so, Discord is definitely the most confusing videoconferencing UI I can remember using. I'm sure that harms adoption greatly, even if it is still very popular.
  - trampypizza 5y ago
    Oh I don't disagree with you! My purpose was not to suggest you were wrong, just present my experience and thoughts about why it's become so widely used _despite_ the issues you've raised. I think people overcome the awkward UI because of the perceived benefits of the platform verses alternatives. That has certainly been my experience, which I appreciate is a single data point.
    - calpaterson 5y ago
      > I think people overcome the awkward UI because of the perceived benefits of the platform verses alternatives. I'm sure you're right! The robustness of Discord's call quality definitely seems to be much better than average (though a lot of this comes down to people's local networking hardware).
fishmaster 5y ago
Discord is quite easy to use for dozens of people I know, most of whom aren't programmers or heavy PC users. It just works and it's great, especially the noise cancelling.
deleted 5y ago
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foxpurple 5y ago
Discord is in between casual and power user. Once you are on 5 groups and using many of the features you wouldn’t want it any other way.
apetrovic 5y ago
And yet my 12 years old daughter use Discord with her friends without asking me a thing.
knownjorbist 5y ago
You are probably in a very, very small minority there. The only confusion I've had with the interface is in the minutiae of some niche settings.
xibo9 5y ago
You are quite literally the first person I've seen say the UI in Discord is confusing. For everything Discord gets wrong, I would never put the UI on that list.

trampypizza 5y ago

In my experience, discord was better than the previous options for a few reasons. A) it's free, as opposed to a vent or TS server, which while they are not expensive, it's still a barrier to setting one up. B) the free tier has quite a lot of functionality without paying for servers, even for a lot of players (like a World of Warcraft guild). C) it merged voice Comms with a community hub where people could communicate and share things relevant to their game (to use the WoW scenario again, raid organising, upcoming patch discussion, guides and other helpful information) in an organised and central location. I recognise there is a bunch of issues with discord, I've had it have complete melt downs when the voice systems have broken, it can be a real resource hog, and don't get me started on the security and privacy (it's not great), however because of the additional functionality I still think it's a great bit of software. I'm so glad I don't have to be in Warcraft guild Facebook groups anymore!

calpaterson 5y ago
These three points are all well and good but they don't contradict my original points: Discord's UI is exceptionally confusing and requires specific knowledge to operate it. This isn't a field with brilliant UI either: eg it's often confusing whether you're muted or unmuted on most videoconferencing programs. Even so, Discord is definitely the most confusing videoconferencing UI I can remember using. I'm sure that harms adoption greatly, even if it is still very popular.
- trampypizza 5y ago
  Oh I don't disagree with you! My purpose was not to suggest you were wrong, just present my experience and thoughts about why it's become so widely used _despite_ the issues you've raised. I think people overcome the awkward UI because of the perceived benefits of the platform verses alternatives. That has certainly been my experience, which I appreciate is a single data point.
  - calpaterson 5y ago
    > I think people overcome the awkward UI because of the perceived benefits of the platform verses alternatives. I'm sure you're right! The robustness of Discord's call quality definitely seems to be much better than average (though a lot of this comes down to people's local networking hardware).

fishmaster 5y ago

Discord is quite easy to use for dozens of people I know, most of whom aren't programmers or heavy PC users. It just works and it's great, especially the noise cancelling.

deleted 5y ago

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foxpurple 5y ago

Discord is in between casual and power user. Once you are on 5 groups and using many of the features you wouldn’t want it any other way.

apetrovic 5y ago

And yet my 12 years old daughter use Discord with her friends without asking me a thing.

knownjorbist 5y ago

You are probably in a very, very small minority there. The only confusion I've had with the interface is in the minutiae of some niche settings.

xibo9 5y ago

You are quite literally the first person I've seen say the UI in Discord is confusing. For everything Discord gets wrong, I would never put the UI on that list.