3 ms·

Discord "servers" aren't independent communities. Discord will be the next platform to get MBA'd, and then it'll be off to somewhere else. I'm not sure how they

Discord "servers" aren't independent communities. Discord will be the next platform to get MBA'd, and then it'll be off to somewhere else. I'm not sure how they've survived this long, frankly. They have no visible source of income except Nitro, and I can't imagine that comes close to covering expenses.

sircastor 3y ago
Wasn’t there some talk a few months ago about Microsoft putting in an offer to buy Discord and the creator of Discord not being interested in selling? I recall it being a big deal and then it wasn’t. - penalty because MS never actually, publicly extended the offer.
JohnBooty 3y ago
No arguments from me on any of those. No hard feelings, but I feel your reply was a bit unnecessary? Did you read my comment and think I felt that a Discord server was actually... separate from Discord, the company? I wrote my post on HN, for an audience of people who understand that stuff already. What I meant is, for most purposes, a Discord server "feels independent enough" for most people. Yes, your data lives on Discord's servers and they could yank the plug at any moment. You don't actually own anything. Again, I wrote my post with the assumption that HN readers are knowledgeable about such things.
- Miraste 3y ago
  No offense was meant. It seemed like your post drew a distinction where there isn't one. Even from a non-technical perspective, the Discord server system is roughly the same as the Reddit subreddit one. My point was it doesn't represent a shift to smaller communities or parallel old-school forums at all.
rkuykendall-com 3y ago
Lots of servers I'm on are boosted. That's not something I can say about Subreddits.
jjav 3y ago
> I can't imagine that comes close to covering expenses That's the fundamental problem with corporate-owned mediums. It is impossible for them to exist long term without being ruined by commercialization because that corporate owner must make a juicy profit sooner or later or else shut it down. The only viable long term model is decentralization where nobody owns it, so nobody needs to profit from it and the operating costs are shared. Email (1970s) and Usenet (early 80s) survive in perpetuity because of this (I know most people have forgotten about Usenet but it's still around). It's important to take these lessons to heart. Reinventing yet another proprietary platform with a single corporate owner just to see it inevitably die off when profits must be squeezed is exhausting and a treadmill we should get off of.

sircastor 3y ago

Wasn’t there some talk a few months ago about Microsoft putting in an offer to buy Discord and the creator of Discord not being interested in selling? I recall it being a big deal and then it wasn’t. - penalty because MS never actually, publicly extended the offer.

JohnBooty 3y ago

No arguments from me on any of those. No hard feelings, but I feel your reply was a bit unnecessary? Did you read my comment and think I felt that a Discord server was actually... separate from Discord, the company? I wrote my post on HN, for an audience of people who understand that stuff already. What I meant is, for most purposes, a Discord server "feels independent enough" for most people. Yes, your data lives on Discord's servers and they could yank the plug at any moment. You don't actually own anything. Again, I wrote my post with the assumption that HN readers are knowledgeable about such things.

Miraste 3y ago
No offense was meant. It seemed like your post drew a distinction where there isn't one. Even from a non-technical perspective, the Discord server system is roughly the same as the Reddit subreddit one. My point was it doesn't represent a shift to smaller communities or parallel old-school forums at all.

rkuykendall-com 3y ago

Lots of servers I'm on are boosted. That's not something I can say about Subreddits.

jjav 3y ago

> I can't imagine that comes close to covering expenses That's the fundamental problem with corporate-owned mediums. It is impossible for them to exist long term without being ruined by commercialization because that corporate owner must make a juicy profit sooner or later or else shut it down. The only viable long term model is decentralization where nobody owns it, so nobody needs to profit from it and the operating costs are shared. Email (1970s) and Usenet (early 80s) survive in perpetuity because of this (I know most people have forgotten about Usenet but it's still around). It's important to take these lessons to heart. Reinventing yet another proprietary platform with a single corporate owner just to see it inevitably die off when profits must be squeezed is exhausting and a treadmill we should get off of.