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Wow I noticed a visual indicator in the app just now that a server was unreachable due to issues with discord. It’s not every day the actual app ui directly and

Wow I noticed a visual indicator in the app just now that a server was unreachable due to issues with discord. It’s not every day the actual app ui directly and in real time communicates issues with the core service. Kudos? Discord is also incredibly annoying with their nitro upsells, but I guess I’m using it for free, so a little advertising is fine :)

Justsignedup 3y ago
Are they actually profitable? I thought their big challenge was getting in on the Slack market, because kids are great but they don't really pay.
- thot_experiment 3y ago
  Anecdotally I play games with a lot of "kids", and most of them pay for nitro. Obviously subcultural bias but it seems like it's pretty common to me, and I can imagine their costs might be below average since they're not super growth obsessed?
  - Macha 3y ago
    Discord are definitely growth obsessed. They've tried to glom onto trends before like stages to copy clubhouse, they've tried to get into game retail to chase the epic store and shut that down, and now they're going after the WhatsApp/signal userbase by replacing usernames and the latest update opted people in to being searchable by their contact lists.
    - rightbyte 3y ago
      This seems like a way to water down their niche? I.e. isolated community forums? Maybe the end game is being TikTok too ...
      - Macha 3y ago
        Discord is a VC funded company, so it's not enough to rule a niche. Their VCs are going to push them to chasing a larger userbase, even when that's at the expense of their current userbase. I think we're definitely on the start of the enshittification curve with Discord by now.
thot_experiment 3y ago
Nitro is one of extremely few SaaS things I actually pay for, it's seems very worthwhile given how generally not fucked the discord experience is in terms of trying to extract value from their users.
- corytheboyd 3y ago
  I’d pay for it if I felt the need to at this point. So far, all of the features offered are things I don’t need. I’d pay a base $2/month (or similar) fee at this point to avoid changing shoot-the-shit-with-friends providers every few years.
  - thot_experiment 3y ago
    Isn't the base tier of discord $3/mo? If you pay that you are 100% paying exactly a "avoid changing shoot-the-shit-with-friends providers every few years" fee. You paying that fee makes them sustainable and helps create incentives for them to continue providing you with value.
Forricide 3y ago
Yep, they've had that feature for quite a while, too. I've always had the impression that - although obviously there is pressure within the company to monetize - they seem to have a lot of developer focus on 'just doing the obvious things that clients want'. Almost every major complaint or feature request I can think of from the last decade or so of using Discord has been addressed in some way, which is really cool to see from software... even if they do somewhat irritating things sometimes.
- kulahan 3y ago
  I still think their interface is kinda ass (I hate buttons that only appear on mouse over), and I still run into bugs from time to time. Still, considering their only initial draw was insane ease of sign-up, they’ve really catapulted the program into something genuinely decent. It’s definitely the best “””free software””” improvements I’ve seen.
- jlokier 3y ago
  > Almost every major complaint or feature request I can think of from the last decade or so of using Discord has been addressed in some way, A feature request I've seen from many people over years, which Discord haven't implemented, is the option to make public channels readable and searchable on the web, or make the data easily exportable for projects to put it on the web themselves. These days many open source projects and companies use Discord as their meeting place for public discussion, development discussion, support queries etc, instead of the web forums and mailing lists they used to use. The inability to find the content of those discussions from search engines is a major pain point, though not enough to switch to something else because Discord is so good in other respects.
- steezeburger 3y ago
  Maybe they'll add a way to mute every channel in a server at once one day!
  - vulcan01 3y ago
    You can mute servers in Discord, at least for the past year or so.

Justsignedup 3y ago

Are they actually profitable? I thought their big challenge was getting in on the Slack market, because kids are great but they don't really pay.

thot_experiment 3y ago
Anecdotally I play games with a lot of "kids", and most of them pay for nitro. Obviously subcultural bias but it seems like it's pretty common to me, and I can imagine their costs might be below average since they're not super growth obsessed?
- Macha 3y ago
  Discord are definitely growth obsessed. They've tried to glom onto trends before like stages to copy clubhouse, they've tried to get into game retail to chase the epic store and shut that down, and now they're going after the WhatsApp/signal userbase by replacing usernames and the latest update opted people in to being searchable by their contact lists.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    This seems like a way to water down their niche? I.e. isolated community forums? Maybe the end game is being TikTok too ...
    - Macha 3y ago
      Discord is a VC funded company, so it's not enough to rule a niche. Their VCs are going to push them to chasing a larger userbase, even when that's at the expense of their current userbase. I think we're definitely on the start of the enshittification curve with Discord by now.

thot_experiment 3y ago

Nitro is one of extremely few SaaS things I actually pay for, it's seems very worthwhile given how generally not fucked the discord experience is in terms of trying to extract value from their users.

corytheboyd 3y ago
I’d pay for it if I felt the need to at this point. So far, all of the features offered are things I don’t need. I’d pay a base $2/month (or similar) fee at this point to avoid changing shoot-the-shit-with-friends providers every few years.
- thot_experiment 3y ago
  Isn't the base tier of discord $3/mo? If you pay that you are 100% paying exactly a "avoid changing shoot-the-shit-with-friends providers every few years" fee. You paying that fee makes them sustainable and helps create incentives for them to continue providing you with value.

Forricide 3y ago

Yep, they've had that feature for quite a while, too. I've always had the impression that - although obviously there is pressure within the company to monetize - they seem to have a lot of developer focus on 'just doing the obvious things that clients want'. Almost every major complaint or feature request I can think of from the last decade or so of using Discord has been addressed in some way, which is really cool to see from software... even if they do somewhat irritating things sometimes.

kulahan 3y ago
I still think their interface is kinda ass (I hate buttons that only appear on mouse over), and I still run into bugs from time to time. Still, considering their only initial draw was insane ease of sign-up, they’ve really catapulted the program into something genuinely decent. It’s definitely the best “””free software””” improvements I’ve seen.
jlokier 3y ago
> Almost every major complaint or feature request I can think of from the last decade or so of using Discord has been addressed in some way, A feature request I've seen from many people over years, which Discord haven't implemented, is the option to make public channels readable and searchable on the web, or make the data easily exportable for projects to put it on the web themselves. These days many open source projects and companies use Discord as their meeting place for public discussion, development discussion, support queries etc, instead of the web forums and mailing lists they used to use. The inability to find the content of those discussions from search engines is a major pain point, though not enough to switch to something else because Discord is so good in other respects.
steezeburger 3y ago
Maybe they'll add a way to mute every channel in a server at once one day!
- vulcan01 3y ago
  You can mute servers in Discord, at least for the past year or so.