The main problem I see with FOSS projects using Discord is a misunderstanding of what the platform is, and what it works best for. Discord works fine as a chat

The main problem I see with FOSS projects using Discord is a misunderstanding of what the platform is, and what it works best for. Discord works fine as a chat room. As a way to have casual conversations about everyday topics, with the expectation being that you'll likely never have to refer to them ever again. If you want to discuss what you had for breakfast that morning, knock yourself out. Something like Discord or Slack or Matrix is perfect for that. The problem is that many people try to use it as a website, wiki, forum and support desk rolled into one, and it's terrible for those use cases. It being a walled garden means it's a bad solution when it comes to attracting users to a project since it doesn't show up in Google, and for providing a searchable archive of information for things like support purposes. It having a design meant for chatting means it doesn't work well as a forum, since the layout isn't as clear or understandable as a traditional one there, nor does its search work well for that purpose. And requiring people to login to even view it means it fails miserably as a support system, since many people won't have an account when they need help with something. Unfortunately, because it's 'free' and 'convenient', we get a lot of project teams deciding to use it for everything rather than having a separate website or forum or wiki. It's like the online creator equivalent to that office worker trying to use Excel for everything when they really need a custom designed system or database. In the same way no one should use an IRC server for documentation, no one should rely on Discord for the same thing either. The data ownership point is definitely worth noting though. Can Discord really do anything if your users consent to you logging their posts to an external service?