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No, it's not. "People" didn't build Discord. A company built it, then sold it to Microsoft for more than $10 billion. There is nothing guaranteeing that it's st
by rglullis 5y ago
No, it's not. "People" didn't build Discord. A company built it, then sold it to Microsoft for more than $10 billion. There is nothing guaranteeing that it's still going to be around in the next 5 years, let alone the next 10 or 50 or 100.
Remember the last "better alternative" that was also very good, worked on all major platforms, also got sold to MS for multiple billions?
To go back to the OP's point and the article. If you are a neophyte who cares about nothing but the immediate convenience, sure, stick with whatever Big Tech is pushing you. But if you want longevity and stability, DO NOT BUILD YOUR HOUSE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S LAND.
- bikingbismuth 5y agoDiscord didn’t end up selling to Microsoft.
- a2128 5y ago> A company built it, then sold it to Microsoft for more than $10 billion. Didn't Discord end up ending talks with Microsoft and staying independent? I don't think this deal ever actually went through.
- SketchySeaBeast 5y agoYes. Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/discord-terminates-buyout-talks-with-microsoft-wsj-2021-04-20/ https://www.reuters.com/business/discord-terminates-buyout-t...
- rglullis 5y agoOk. I stand corrected. Doesn't change much of the picture, does it? Do you think it is wise to concentrate so much power into one single corporation? What is Discord going to do in order to make enough profits to beat the return of a 10bi sale?
- nlowell 5y agoWe're in all-caps italics territory so I'm not sure how helpful I can be, but I just want to stress the fact that as a modern human we all have to rely on organizations and companies outside of our control. Things like IRC, in 2022, are for software developers to talk to each other. Things like Discord, are built for my mid-twenties friends to talk to each other. If I moved to IRC for the control, I would have no one to talk to!
- rglullis 5y agoLast paragraph: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30332146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30332146
- Agamus 5y agoI have been using IRC as a means to stay in touch with the people I actually care about since the 90's, and it hasn't let me down yet. Many of my friends are in their 20s, and only a few are developers.
- oblio 5y ago1. How many of them technical? 2. How many of them are of a libertarian mindset? Or very politically active/vocal, otherwise?
- Agamus 5y ago1. Probably ~30% or so 2. Probably ~10% or so
- Hakashiro 5y agoMaybe you should have asked him how many friends he has. When MSN Messenger existed, I pushed hard to get people on XMPP. "It's no problem, there are multiplatform, multiprotocol clients anyway". I had more than 200 contacts on MSN Messenger. Most or all of them, people I met in real life. On XMPP? Maybe like... 10? Out of which perhaps only 2 I met in real life, and the rest I met on Linux forums. I was really aggressive on getting people to XMPP to the point I eventually closed my account and told people to reach me on XMPP. Nobody gave a fuck, of course they didn't. The world doesn't revolve around me. Look, we get it. It's sad that corporations are realising they can hold users hostage for profit, but unfortunately that's the tradeoff with ease of use. Oh, and Discord does so much more than IRC. It has voice chats "well just use Mumble", yeah but... why? Discord already has it. Or desktop sharing "use Jitsi", again, Discord already does it. Or large file sharing "roll your own FTP server", uhhh... no? Discord does it? And a web UI if you don't want to chat online. And reliable mobile notifications. And two factor authentication. And in-game overlays. FOSS fanatics struggle to admit commercial tools are so frickin' easy to use. I used to be like that, I understand. And then I got a job :P