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Channels and servers are different things, and both terms are used for discord. A channel is just a single text or voice space where discussions can happen. Man

Channels and servers are different things, and both terms are used for discord. A channel is just a single text or voice space where discussions can happen. Many projects will have multiple channels each specialized to a single topic. The whole collection of these is called a "server". The docs also use the term "guild" for the same concept, as the API docs explain [0]. [0] https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/guild https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/guild

xigoi 3y ago
Doesn't change the point that a Discord “server” is not a server.
- trolan 3y ago
  > a computer or computer program which manages access to a centralized resource or service in a network. I think by definition you're wrong. By layman's terms you're wrong too. A server serves things, either content, chat text or your meal. Discord servers serve a collection of text channels located on a centralized resource. Now, for the real lesson: take yourself and everyone else less seriously.
  - xigoi 3y ago
    A Discord “server” is neither a computer nor a computer program. All “servers” are serviced by a single program distributed across many actual servers, presumably without any direct mapping.
    - AlotOfReading 3y ago
      From what Discord employees have previously said, a guild server is a single Erlang process that's usually fixed to a single host. Voice is handled separately, but again by a single process assigned to that guild server.
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw here. Calling the process that handles communication between users a "server" was already common practice back when IRC was standardized in 1993 (where discord gets the term from). It even appears in the original jargon file, so that definition was common long before even that.
  - xigoi 3y ago
    Yes, I don't disagree with this definition. But a Discord “server” is not analogous to an IRC server.
    - charcircuit 3y ago
      An IRC server has a collection of channels. A discord server has a collection of channels. It is simple as that. IRC servers don't refer to a single physical server either since IRC servers supported federation allowing multiple servers to act as a single server. There is no need to be so strict on the definition of server considering how loose its usage was already with IRC.
      - saurik 3y ago
        No: an IRC network is a collection of channels. A network is then made up of numerous servers. In IRC parlance a server always in fact did explicitly mean a specific individual server and I would be shocked if you found anyone who hadn't used IRC for more than even a day or so that tried to call, say, EfNet a "server".
        akkartik 3y ago
        <moleman>I call EfNet a server.</moleman>
        akkartik 3y ago
        In fact I see this block in my .irssi/config: servers = ( ... { address = "irc.efnet.net"; chatnet = "EFNet"; port = "6667"; }, ... );
- jhgg 3y ago
  They're called servers because we wanted to pick words that were familiar to what we were originally competing against, which was team-speak/ventrilo/mumble servers. Picking words people are familiar with in order to convey a concept is a generally smart thing to do. A discord server was meant to be analogous to a ventrilo server. Calling them servers made that idea clear to our users, which helped users understand our product and what purpose a server served. I would say that the term has served its purpose well. Internally we call them guilds, because having a "server server" is a bit ridiculous.

xigoi 3y ago

Doesn't change the point that a Discord “server” is not a server.

trolan 3y ago
> a computer or computer program which manages access to a centralized resource or service in a network. I think by definition you're wrong. By layman's terms you're wrong too. A server serves things, either content, chat text or your meal. Discord servers serve a collection of text channels located on a centralized resource. Now, for the real lesson: take yourself and everyone else less seriously.
- xigoi 3y ago
  A Discord “server” is neither a computer nor a computer program. All “servers” are serviced by a single program distributed across many actual servers, presumably without any direct mapping.
  - AlotOfReading 3y ago
    From what Discord employees have previously said, a guild server is a single Erlang process that's usually fixed to a single host. Voice is handled separately, but again by a single process assigned to that guild server.
AlotOfReading 3y ago
I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw here. Calling the process that handles communication between users a "server" was already common practice back when IRC was standardized in 1993 (where discord gets the term from). It even appears in the original jargon file, so that definition was common long before even that.
- xigoi 3y ago
  Yes, I don't disagree with this definition. But a Discord “server” is not analogous to an IRC server.
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    An IRC server has a collection of channels. A discord server has a collection of channels. It is simple as that. IRC servers don't refer to a single physical server either since IRC servers supported federation allowing multiple servers to act as a single server. There is no need to be so strict on the definition of server considering how loose its usage was already with IRC.
    - saurik 3y ago
      No: an IRC network is a collection of channels. A network is then made up of numerous servers. In IRC parlance a server always in fact did explicitly mean a specific individual server and I would be shocked if you found anyone who hadn't used IRC for more than even a day or so that tried to call, say, EfNet a "server".
      - akkartik 3y ago
        <moleman>I call EfNet a server.</moleman>
        akkartik 3y ago
        In fact I see this block in my .irssi/config: servers = ( ... { address = "irc.efnet.net"; chatnet = "EFNet"; port = "6667"; }, ... );
jhgg 3y ago
They're called servers because we wanted to pick words that were familiar to what we were originally competing against, which was team-speak/ventrilo/mumble servers. Picking words people are familiar with in order to convey a concept is a generally smart thing to do. A discord server was meant to be analogous to a ventrilo server. Calling them servers made that idea clear to our users, which helped users understand our product and what purpose a server served. I would say that the term has served its purpose well. Internally we call them guilds, because having a "server server" is a bit ridiculous.