Sure, pick a server (like you did for Lemmy) and register. Choose any of the supported apps and start.
Can you? Can I? Best I understand it’s a world of pain. If there was a clear winner in the discord-a-like OSS race all these alternatives wouldn’t be coming out of the woodwork. Maybe it’s matrix (with an actually good client, proper decentralization, easy containers), maybe stoat, maybe … I’ve always hated discord anyway and have little need currently, I can wait.
B0rax@feddit.org 18 hours ago
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 17 hours ago
Yah, did so long ago. Comment still stands. We are in Selfhosted…
B0rax@feddit.org 17 hours ago
You didn’t selfhost your Lemmy instance…
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 17 hours ago
Different usecase, but I wouldn’t be particularly scared. OP is about a selfhosted discord replacement (lacks E2EE so far I think), I’d quite like that if didn’t look like more of a maintenance burden than the rest of my stack combined (even without moderation burden, but I’m thinking of keeping a small server). I also think it’d be a social boon to have millions (even thousands) of independent discords pop up.
Do you host your own matrix ? Did it go down when matrix.org did ?
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 19 hours ago
I admit i mostly use matrix as an instant messenger, but it works fine for when i need comms with my friends while gaming or when i want to share my screen for something. Sure it still has some jank to it, but if you look at how janky it used to be even just a year ago, the trajectory is pretty clear to me.
I havent used discord for like 8 years, because i simply dont need all the random features that discord has, but maybe thats just me.
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 17 hours ago
Fair cop, sounds useful, and I have used it in the past for similar. I was however looking at it in the context of Selfhosted.
its being used basically everywhere at this point. Government, healthcare, military, university, private industry, schools, etc.
True, and I have good hopes for it, partly because of the adoption, you will however note the scale of your examples, basically it’s an IT department project rather than a set and forget selfhosted container (I recognize there’ll always be moderation to do). We shall see, I’m in no hurry.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
I have, and am, selfhosting Matrix, and it isn’t that big of a deal if you’re someone that, you know , self hosts things. That is just outside of what most people can or are willing to do. That’s totally fine, but finding a FOSS platform that will host a VoIP/video server for you and not try to monetize you is almost certainly going to be rare or short lived.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 14 hours ago
I see. I havent selfhosted any matrix servers yet, so i havent looked into it too much. I know that there are a few server implementations besides synapse that are mature and stable (and supposedly much more resource efficient) and they do support docker deployment.
GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 15 hours ago
The problem is that there are very few people who are familiar enough with both Discord and Matrix to give a meaningful answer.
Personally, I use both, but for completely different use cases. I do not understand how one could be used as a substitute for the other. Perhaps I’m missing something, or perhaps everyone who thinks Matrix is a good substitute for Discord just don’t use Discord very much.
If you have a small group of friends who occasionally hang out in chat, sure, Matrix is fine. If you’re in dozens of Discord servers, each with dozens (or even hundreds) of channels, and hundreds or thousands of users, no. At least, not with Element. Perhaps there’s a better client out there for that?
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
This is spot on. Discord and Matrix are, IMO, quite different. Matrix is more like Slack or Teams. You can do voice and video calls, if you configure it to do so, but it isn’t like Discord in that regard at all. If you don’t use Discord for that and mostly just chat with your friends then sure, but you have a lot of choices in that case.
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 15 hours ago
Seems likely, certainly Matrix has some pretty evangelical supporters. I think you nailed it with discord being more useful for mid sized numbers and having a client that handles it pretty well. I’d also add pretty painless onboarding. An OSS offering that matched it’s primary features (and has E2EE) or has a good framework, roadmap and people to get there would come in pretty clutch as discord goes public and starts monetizing everything in sight. A million (or thousands) independent FOSS ‘discords’ in the night would be a sweet sight.
GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 13 hours ago
Normally my policy is “E2EE or GTFO”, but the concept only applies to a subset of Discord use cases. A good Discord alternative needs to handle the same variety of use cases as Discord.
E2EE for a public forum makes no sense. Lemmy doesn’t have E2EE either, obviously. That’s an absurd idea.
Discord is mostly used for public or semi-public spaces. I’m in Discord servers for some of my favorite games and game studios, for example. The only barrier to entry is clicking a link, which is usually publicly advertised. I’m also in some semi-public Discords that are locked behind a membership of some sort (like Patreon), but those are still full of an arbitrary number of people I do not know. It’s not a private space. E2EE would be counterproductive.
That said, I have a few friends who habitually DM me on Discord, and I’m like “dude, I know you have Signal. Use it FFS”. One thing I like about Lemmy is that when you go to send a DM, it literally warns you against using it for DMs:
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 12 hours ago
Totally valid point, especially w.r.t. ease of onboarding for public usecases. Sure would be nice if it functioned (optionally) as a private forum as well. Seems like a lot of commonality there and covers the DM case and the ‘semi-public’ but discord is totally logging everything case. One can hope, but I agree, first things first.