I don't understand the appeal of any of those, least of all Discord itself. It's unsearcheable, focused on immediacy, confusing and full of blinking things. The old Reddit interface (or current HN one!) are unsurpassed IMHO.

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literalAardvark 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's because you're not in the target market. And I guess not interested in the space.

Discord's key value proposition is that it's a trusted zero friction voice chat with a lot of features.

The workflow that made it huge: organizer creates a server for a game, creates a short link for a voice channel. The organizer then goes to play their game, shares the short link with their group.

The members click the link, write whatever they want as the name, click join and are in the voice chat. Say hi and go into the dungeon to have fun.

Need more? Just share your screen with one click. Streamer mode kicks in and hides all pii in the discord interface. Easy global bindings for push to talk.

If the outing is fun some of them will create profiles and stay in the server and play together again.

It's all very organic and easy, while being trusted as a brand so people don't have to hesitate to click your jitsi.weirdgamer.tk link.

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amanzi 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I agree with the previous commenter - I hate Discord for all the same reasons. But you said: "That's because you're not in the target market. And I guess not interested in the space." and this is the bit that frustrates me... I must be the target market because several services I use try to get you to use Discord for support, and some will only provide support via Discord.

	▲	bambax 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes! If Discord's appeal is that it's a tool/space to just have fun together in the moment, then fine! but that's exactly the opposite of a support system.
	▲	literalAardvark 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I get all the hate, I just wanted to explain why it's also loved. It's a great, great tool and I really wish they'd offer a business tier that opts out of all the data leak features.

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KronisLV 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Most people are on Discord, joining servers has very little friction (no separate accounts), there's decent bots and mod tools and such, ability to create as many channels per server as you want (e.g. for discussions, media, music, whatever) and participate in text based conversations more or less live. It's also easy to jump into a VC and chat while you play games with friends, share screen, stuff like that.

Most alternatives suck for that purpose. There is search for server members and the "blinking things" keep you up to date with where the new stuff is and I presume give you dopamine hits. It's simply not old school forum software and considerations that'd make sites like that good don't enter the equation at all - which also makes attempts at turning Discord into a support forum for any "organized" group or project misguided at best, but also great for the more casual gaming/interest oriented communities.

	▲	dizhn 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It does have a weird source of friction. The need to find an invite to the "server". Sometimes you'll find one but it will be dead. There's no way to search to find a server then join it as far as I know.