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It always seemed a little weird to me that Discord decided to call them “servers” and let people believe things like this (that it’s yours, that it’s truly priv

It always seemed a little weird to me that Discord decided to call them “servers” and let people believe things like this (that it’s yours, that it’s truly private even from the company’s eyes) when it’s really more akin to an invite-only Facebook group. It’s hosted by them, so they can shut them down if they wanted, and I’d have very little trust that they can’t see the messages inside.

pram 3y ago
They’re (were) called guilds, not servers, in the API fwiw
- Macha 3y ago
  I believe this is an artifact of the discord founders previous project, guildworks, which let ffxiv guilds text chat with players out of game as one feature later on its life
prepend 3y ago
I understand about it’s their resources. What I mean is that it’s a private, closed group that’s invite only. They have no need to moderate content as if someone doesn’t like it, they leave. This is different from public networks where content spreads broadly and is seen broadly. I wouldn’t expect, nor want discord to know if my material is nsfw or not. If they imposed any restriction it would make me less likely to use them. I noticed through using bark, an app used to monitor and protect kids device usage, that discord doesn’t provide any api user access to content and the only way to see material is through their app.
- CapstanRoller 3y ago
  The implication is that Discord can surveil you (or help a government surveil you), not that your chats will be leaked to the world directly. Discord "servers" are just instances of Discord on Discord Inc's cloud. Discord never claims that they are private in the sense of 'sovereign', only that you can moderate them yourself. Discord openly states in the TOS that their "Trust and Safety" team can see literally everything you do (channel messages, DMs, attachments, etc) at any time.
  - anticensor 3y ago
    There is no Discord Inc. cloud. Discord is hosted on the Google cloud.
    - CapstanRoller 3y ago
      No need to be pedantic. Discord Inc has their own cloud ecosystem built on top of Google. Discord "servers" aren't unique instances deployed on bare metal. It's multi-tenant SaaS just like Slack.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  The thing that always gets in the way of that idea is when they get big and the (often technologically illiterate or agenda driven) media puts out hit pieces about them encouraging hate/csem to spread by not actively moderating private conversations. That's why the only solution is fully E2EE platforms for anything you have an expectation of privacy towards.
CapstanRoller 3y ago
You have no privacy from Discord Inc. They can read everything if they want to: >investigation is centered around the reported messages, but can expand if the evidence shows that there’s a bigger violation. >we may investigate whether the entire server is dedicated to bad behavior, or if the behavior appears to be part of a wider pattern. >we know there is also violating content on Discord that might go unreported. This is where we get proactive. >When we have data suggesting that a user is engaging in illegal activity or violating our policies, we investigate their networks, activity on Discord, and their messages to proactively detect accomplices and determine whether violations have occurred. https://discord.com/safety/360043712132-how-we-investigate https://discord.com/safety/360043712132-how-we-investigate
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
It's because the whole Discord experience is modeled after IRC, which has (literal) servers. In order to get gamers to switch from IRC to Discord, they wanted to change as little as possible, including the verbiage.
- Arch-TK 3y ago
  What? Outside of like minecraft on espernet and a few obscure old games which have communities on quakenet nobody was really using IRC for gaming communities. Those existed largely on various forums, Skype, reddit, teamspeak and steam.
  - prepend 3y ago
    IRC was used by many gamers and devs, including the discord founders.
    - Arch-TK 3y ago
      In the past, not really at the time when discord first became popular. This makes it questionable why they named their user silos "servers".
  - livueta 3y ago
    SwiftIRC (as it existed a decade ago) would like to have a word.
    - NikkiA 3y ago
      QuakeNet would like a bigger, boomier, word.
    - Arch-TK 3y ago
      A word about what? When discord became popular, IRC as a gaming community platform was all but dead.
      - 3y ago
jrockway 3y ago
It's like a server in that the members have to pay $1000 a month in order to upload a file that's more than 3 millibytes in size. But all that money goes to pay off their VC debt, not to the person that created the community. So that's fun.

pram 3y ago

They’re (were) called guilds, not servers, in the API fwiw

Macha 3y ago
I believe this is an artifact of the discord founders previous project, guildworks, which let ffxiv guilds text chat with players out of game as one feature later on its life

prepend 3y ago

I understand about it’s their resources. What I mean is that it’s a private, closed group that’s invite only. They have no need to moderate content as if someone doesn’t like it, they leave. This is different from public networks where content spreads broadly and is seen broadly. I wouldn’t expect, nor want discord to know if my material is nsfw or not. If they imposed any restriction it would make me less likely to use them. I noticed through using bark, an app used to monitor and protect kids device usage, that discord doesn’t provide any api user access to content and the only way to see material is through their app.

CapstanRoller 3y ago
The implication is that Discord can surveil you (or help a government surveil you), not that your chats will be leaked to the world directly. Discord "servers" are just instances of Discord on Discord Inc's cloud. Discord never claims that they are private in the sense of 'sovereign', only that you can moderate them yourself. Discord openly states in the TOS that their "Trust and Safety" team can see literally everything you do (channel messages, DMs, attachments, etc) at any time.
- anticensor 3y ago
  There is no Discord Inc. cloud. Discord is hosted on the Google cloud.
  - CapstanRoller 3y ago
    No need to be pedantic. Discord Inc has their own cloud ecosystem built on top of Google. Discord "servers" aren't unique instances deployed on bare metal. It's multi-tenant SaaS just like Slack.
dotnet00 3y ago
The thing that always gets in the way of that idea is when they get big and the (often technologically illiterate or agenda driven) media puts out hit pieces about them encouraging hate/csem to spread by not actively moderating private conversations. That's why the only solution is fully E2EE platforms for anything you have an expectation of privacy towards.

CapstanRoller 3y ago

You have no privacy from Discord Inc. They can read everything if they want to: >investigation is centered around the reported messages, but can expand if the evidence shows that there’s a bigger violation. >we may investigate whether the entire server is dedicated to bad behavior, or if the behavior appears to be part of a wider pattern. >we know there is also violating content on Discord that might go unreported. This is where we get proactive. >When we have data suggesting that a user is engaging in illegal activity or violating our policies, we investigate their networks, activity on Discord, and their messages to proactively detect accomplices and determine whether violations have occurred. https://discord.com/safety/360043712132-how-we-investigate https://discord.com/safety/360043712132-how-we-investigate

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago

It's because the whole Discord experience is modeled after IRC, which has (literal) servers. In order to get gamers to switch from IRC to Discord, they wanted to change as little as possible, including the verbiage.

Arch-TK 3y ago
What? Outside of like minecraft on espernet and a few obscure old games which have communities on quakenet nobody was really using IRC for gaming communities. Those existed largely on various forums, Skype, reddit, teamspeak and steam.
- prepend 3y ago
  IRC was used by many gamers and devs, including the discord founders.
  - Arch-TK 3y ago
    In the past, not really at the time when discord first became popular. This makes it questionable why they named their user silos "servers".
- livueta 3y ago
  SwiftIRC (as it existed a decade ago) would like to have a word.
  - NikkiA 3y ago
    QuakeNet would like a bigger, boomier, word.
  - Arch-TK 3y ago
    A word about what? When discord became popular, IRC as a gaming community platform was all but dead.
    - 3y ago

jrockway 3y ago

It's like a server in that the members have to pay $1000 a month in order to upload a file that's more than 3 millibytes in size. But all that money goes to pay off their VC debt, not to the person that created the community. So that's fun.