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> So Discord can just take servers from people and give them away to corporations without asking? He never had a "server". Just like no one has a Facebook "ser

> So Discord can just take servers from people and give them away to corporations without asking? He never had a "server". Just like no one has a Facebook "server". Discord is a corporation not a person. Communities run by corporate services are different than servers run by human persons. You give up everything when you don't actually host your own server(s) for communicating with your community.

danaris 4y ago
Individual Discord communities are, and always have been, called "servers", despite the fact that they are entirely logical/digital entities and have no particular correspondence with actual physical servers (the way IRC servers do).
- refulgentis 4y ago
  Is this a distinction without a difference? Meaning, it seems eminently reasonable if I was 16, started a Disney Discord, got a verified badge for it, then Disney pointed out the delicacies of Discord handing the Official Disney Discord to a minor, it seems to be a reasonable compromise to make the official Disney Discord officially Disney's, and allow the 16 year old to still have the secret chats, etc.
  - tryauuum 4y ago
    There's difference, physical ownership of the server would mean no company would be able to transfer ownership with a click of a mouse. Even if transfer of rights looks reasonable, it's better to live in a world where such transfer is made through law and not through company managers will.
  - scraptor 4y ago
    A more reasonable compromise might be to give disney contol over the discord.gg/disney namespace but leave the existing server and it's community unmodified under the control of the people who actually built it.
- codeflo 4y ago
  In my opinion that was a very clever naming scheme to target the TeamSpeak crowd. In gaming communities, having “your own server” has always come with a sense of pride.
- superkuh 4y ago
  Exactly. This intentional lie by Discord is to abuse the connotations associated with the idea of having a "server" that existed with teamspeak/mumble/etc. But since it's not actually a server in any way, just a service, users act shocked when Discord takes away their community on a whim.
- kuschku 4y ago
  > and always have been, called "servers", That's not correct, originally they were called "Guilds", which is also what the API and code still use today.
  - danaris 4y ago
    Interesting. I joined Discord fairly early, and they were already called "servers" then—but I have, indeed, seen the "guild" terminology in the API.
    - ziml77 4y ago
      I was also in pretty early (account says August 28, 2015) and I have only seen "guild" used in the API. I'm really curious what the timeline is on them being officially and publicly known as guilds and then changing to being officially called servers.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
LordDragonfang 4y ago
That may be true in the technical sense, but discord uses the term "server" to refer to the collection of channels (text and voice) that it allows you to create. i.e. individual discord communities are called "servers". It might not square with the traditional hardware definition of the the word, but it's being used correctly here.
- Atheros 4y ago
  And that technical distinction doesn't matter right up until the moment it does, which is why we're here today. While the distinction is obvious to most HN users, I would bet that it isn't to many Discord users. When Discord users create a 'server', I would bet that many of them do not understand how few rights they have, specifically because they are being purposely mislead by Discord.
nemothekid 4y ago
A Discord "server" is a colloquial term for the community space. The nitpick is meaningless, I could have an AWS "server", but at the end of the day we both know it's a virtual instance that sits on an actual server.
- cowtools 4y ago
  It's deceitful for discord to use that language because it implies some level of independence. A VPS service like AWS goes out of their way to specify that it is a "virtual server". the product they provide is analagous to real server hardware and largely interchangable with other server hosts.
- freeplay 4y ago
  Unless your AWS server is a dedicated host...
Handytinge 4y ago
It shocks and concerns me that someone needs to ask that. Of course they can. It was never "yours" any more than "your" Facebook or Tiktok account.

danaris 4y ago

Individual Discord communities are, and always have been, called "servers", despite the fact that they are entirely logical/digital entities and have no particular correspondence with actual physical servers (the way IRC servers do).

refulgentis 4y ago
Is this a distinction without a difference? Meaning, it seems eminently reasonable if I was 16, started a Disney Discord, got a verified badge for it, then Disney pointed out the delicacies of Discord handing the Official Disney Discord to a minor, it seems to be a reasonable compromise to make the official Disney Discord officially Disney's, and allow the 16 year old to still have the secret chats, etc.
- tryauuum 4y ago
  There's difference, physical ownership of the server would mean no company would be able to transfer ownership with a click of a mouse. Even if transfer of rights looks reasonable, it's better to live in a world where such transfer is made through law and not through company managers will.
- scraptor 4y ago
  A more reasonable compromise might be to give disney contol over the discord.gg/disney namespace but leave the existing server and it's community unmodified under the control of the people who actually built it.
codeflo 4y ago
In my opinion that was a very clever naming scheme to target the TeamSpeak crowd. In gaming communities, having “your own server” has always come with a sense of pride.
superkuh 4y ago
Exactly. This intentional lie by Discord is to abuse the connotations associated with the idea of having a "server" that existed with teamspeak/mumble/etc. But since it's not actually a server in any way, just a service, users act shocked when Discord takes away their community on a whim.
kuschku 4y ago
> and always have been, called "servers", That's not correct, originally they were called "Guilds", which is also what the API and code still use today.
- danaris 4y ago
  Interesting. I joined Discord fairly early, and they were already called "servers" then—but I have, indeed, seen the "guild" terminology in the API.
  - ziml77 4y ago
    I was also in pretty early (account says August 28, 2015) and I have only seen "guild" used in the API. I'm really curious what the timeline is on them being officially and publicly known as guilds and then changing to being officially called servers.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

LordDragonfang 4y ago

That may be true in the technical sense, but discord uses the term "server" to refer to the collection of channels (text and voice) that it allows you to create. i.e. individual discord communities are called "servers". It might not square with the traditional hardware definition of the the word, but it's being used correctly here.

Atheros 4y ago
And that technical distinction doesn't matter right up until the moment it does, which is why we're here today. While the distinction is obvious to most HN users, I would bet that it isn't to many Discord users. When Discord users create a 'server', I would bet that many of them do not understand how few rights they have, specifically because they are being purposely mislead by Discord.

nemothekid 4y ago

A Discord "server" is a colloquial term for the community space. The nitpick is meaningless, I could have an AWS "server", but at the end of the day we both know it's a virtual instance that sits on an actual server.

cowtools 4y ago
It's deceitful for discord to use that language because it implies some level of independence. A VPS service like AWS goes out of their way to specify that it is a "virtual server". the product they provide is analagous to real server hardware and largely interchangable with other server hosts.
freeplay 4y ago
Unless your AWS server is a dedicated host...

Handytinge 4y ago

It shocks and concerns me that someone needs to ask that. Of course they can. It was never "yours" any more than "your" Facebook or Tiktok account.