I am on Discord and the balkanization+homogeneization is still as prominent there as everywhere else.

Server admins are just NPCs providing @everyone announcements from time to time, to keep the player engaged (spoiler: the average Joe is just irritated by those). Sometimes you get a quest from them.

Also: 99% won't read profile bios (and you have to pay for actual customization, don't you?) while forum signatures were front-and-center.

I have to say I'm surprised to see Discord mentioned as an opposite to social media instead of... just yet another iteration of the same ploy.

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squigz 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> Server admins are just NPCs providing @everyone announcements from time to time, to keep the player engaged. Sometimes you get a quest from them.

Maybe you should join better servers. I'll also add that this was common back in the forum days too. Most admins would just... admin the site.

> Also: 99% won't read profile bios (and you have to pay for actual customization, don't you?) while forum signatures were front-and-center.

Wrong on both counts.

> I have to say I'm surprised to see Discord mentioned as an opposite to social media instead of... just yet another iteration of the same.

I did not present it as an "opposite to social media" - I presented it as a counter to the idea that we've lost the personality GP is talking about

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BeFlatXIII 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You're one of the 1% who reads profile bios.

	▲	squigz 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Of course, because the alternative - that they're wrong, and more people actually do read bios - couldn't possibly be true. In any case, I see no reason to believe any higher % of people paid any particular attention to forum signatures back in the day.