I keep second guessing whether or not to mention Uproar here out of fear we'll get roasted, because it's still got its blemishes, but here goes: https://uproar.chat

We're hoping to do better than discord, hopefully you get some use from it!

Backend is written in go, frontend is vanilla html/js/css, TOS and PP are readable in one breath each.

edit: looks like nobody can see this unless it's vouched. I guess because of the link and VPN.

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stryan 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

From a normie perspective:

- No screenshots on front page, I have no idea what it looks like

- no video chat, no screen sharing

- No downloadable version isn't a feature. What's a PWA?

- "Live audio space" doesn't explain whether it's drop-in voice channels like discord/slack huddles or scheduled audio calls

- The name makes it sound like a Discord clone

From a technical perspective:

- Not FOSS, can't self-host or federate. What makes this less likely to rug pull than Discord/any of the other alternatives

- No information on who is making this

- No information on how messages are encrypted

- Webpage looks vaguely AI generated

- Bot API is A) hidden at the bottom of the very long tutorial, B) seems to be limited to normal user actions (I could be wrong!), and C) desperately needs an index or sidebar

- Unclear whether anonymous channels are truly anon or just anon on the client side

Some stuff seems neat: I am intrigued by anonymous channels and from your feature table it hits more table-stakes features than most Discord alternatives. But I would give it a few touch ups if you want it to stand out.

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uproarchat 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Thanks for checking it out and taking the time to give feedback. You made some good points. After staring at the site for so long, you go blind to these types of things, so you're helping a lot here.

>no video chat, no screen sharing

Screen sharing and video chat were added just a few days ago, and I wanted to get that tested more before mentioning it so prominently.

>No downloadable version isn't a feature. What's a PWA?

At the moment, we're a small team, and not all engineers. None of us know Swift or Kotlin, but aren't against learning. Usage is something we want to see before investing that much time into writing these, so in the meantime, a PWA is the best middle ground.

One key differentiator from Discord is that we're not against third party clients, so if in the meantime someone comes out with one we're not going to make any efforts to stop it.

>The name makes it sound like a Discord clone

I see what you mean, if you had a magic wand, what would you call it?

>"Live audio space" doesn't explain whether it's drop-in voice channels like discord/slack huddles or scheduled audio calls

We have video now, but to answer directly, it's similar to a Space on X.

Thank you for the feedback, I will be working this weekend to make these things better articulated on the website!

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stryan 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Glad you're taking it in-stride, I was worried I was a little too direct. Everyone and their mom is making a Discord competitor these days but being Not-Discord isn't enough to stand out.

> I see what you mean, if you had a magic wand, what would you call it?

Naming things is, of course, the hardest part of programming so somewhat hypocritically I can't say I have an answer :) . It probably depends more on what you view your target audience as and what your main selling point is. Discord worked as a name since it falls in line with a lot "gamer branding". If you have a theme going on I'd go with that, otherwise the age old traditions of picking a random communication related or mashing two words together (Linphone, Threema, Skype, etc) are probably the easiest.

Personally I think I'd go with "Microcosm" or something similar. Sounds cool, abbreviates well to just "micro". Or maybe something with "vox" in it. Honestly it probably doesn't matter too much, people will get used to saying anything.

	▲	uproarchat 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>Glad you're taking it in-stride, I was worried I was a little too direct. Quite the contrary, this is the advice we needed. >Everyone and their mom is making a Discord competitor these days We did a significant amount of research into this and didn't find any contenders. Which services do you see that are competitors in the same space?

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workfromspace 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Uproar isn't available in your area yet

> We're rolling out to new regions over time to make sure we get things right.

> Stay tuned.

Dead before born.

	▲	uproarchat 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If you don't mind me asking, what country are you coming from?

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dang 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

(It doesn't look like you've been spamming HN so I restored the comment)

	▲	uproarchat 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks Dang!