Start making your plans for a replacement because it will be going to shit soon.
Discord in Early Talks With Bankers for Potential I.P.O.
Submitted 4 weeks ago by lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/technology/discord-ipo.html
Comments
MyOpinion@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Now is the time for Matrix to improve usability and whatnot, because I think that’s the most credible replacement.
Glitchvid@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I really wish Matrix had been more successful, but it has some pretty core problems that prevented it from gaining more traction.
It fell into the same trap as XMPP, though perhaps even worse, with a focus more on its protocol and specification than a single unified product vision. The reference server implementation is slow, and using a language not optimal for its purpose, with alternative server implementations left incomplete and unsupported. It took a long time for them to figure out voice and video and for it to work well, and the “user flow” still isn’t at Discord levels.
I’ve rooted for Matrix for a long time, but as a former XMPP evangelist, to me the writing on the wall says it isn’t suited for success either. I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t see a way through.
Teknevra@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I tried revolt a year or so ago and it was pretty rough
hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
The trouble with relying on each community to self-host is that it’s unlikely to ever make it to the masses that way. Self-hosting is a significant barrier.
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
interesting; is revolt self hosted too or is it just purely a discord alternative? it looks almost identical from screenshots.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
I can’t wait for Discord to enshittify so that lazy devs can’t say “join our Discord for updates and support!” anymore.
Hate that shit.
Damage@feddit.it 4 weeks ago
It’s quite shit already
lars@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
Fiiiiiiiiiinally.
How can it not be awful for them too? Like users may even try to ✌️search Discord✌️ for their issue only to come up short and have fo ask a question asked a million times already. Gross.
toynbee@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It seems unlikely that will stop, at least with any speed, TBH.
Zangoose@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Jesus_666@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Welp, there goes the neighborhood. If they want to do an IPO they’ll probably enshittify the hell out of the platform and jettison all remotely raunchy communities. Because nothing says “good investment” than a service that just drove out a fair chunk of its user base.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I just hope Enshittification will cause devs to ditch it and start using proper forums instead. It‘s always tragic when a software has no other way of giving feedback and answering questions than Discord where you can‘t find anything, let alone with an external search engine. The abandonment of internet forum culture and searchable discussions has been one of the biggest losses in the virtual space.
deathbird@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
Devs using Discord instead of forums perplexes me as much as it annoys me. It’s just the wrong tool for the job.
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
gentlemen start your enshittification.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Great time to start working on a replacement… if you have several million hanging around.
Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Enshitification is on the horizon…
ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
On the horizon? They crossed that horizon a long time ago. It’s just going to accelerate now
regrub@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Bet they’ll to the way of Slack and put old messages behind a paywall
Rooty@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Finally, I hope Discord’s inevitable enshittification will be the kick in the ass that will launch a platform that doesn’t gargle donkey balls - preferably someting fediverse capable.
Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Matrix
j4yt33@feddit.org 4 weeks ago
I always liked TeamSpeak, is that still around?
tehn00bi@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Like IRC?
Franklin@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
here it fucking come, if you thought it was enshitified you haven’t seen anything yet!
skozzii@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Well, it was a good run.
regrub@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I want to adopt Matrix but getting started is the hardest part
Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
Getting my friends to shift over is a pain in the ass for sure
singletona@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It was hard to get everyone off aim too but it happened.
Then again there is always IRC.
msage@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
I have my friends and family on Matrix.
My instance is over 7 years old.
Love it, can’t imagine being without it.
notnotmike@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
I have a friend who is just so damn stubborn when it comes to mixing up their “comfortable” things if they aren’t the one to come up with the idea
Very frustrating
LWD@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
The hardest part of using Matrix is basically everything about Matrix. They’re an unholy combination of Slack, Discord, and Signal… And not very good at any of those things
satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Duuude. Discord is a dumpster fire right now. I’m interested to see how much hotter that fire can get.
wabafee@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Enough to power cities that run out power because Canada cut them off.
MrVilliam@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
What’s the best alternative software to gear up to transition to? I’m pretty pissed because they finally got decent integration for PS5. I was playing Space Marines with a couple friends, one of whom is playing on PC, so we’ve been able to crossplay with voice chat.
recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Simplex is cool, but it’s more of a Signal/SMS replacement than Matrix. It doesn’t really do rooms as you might want, and discovery of peers is pretty manual.
Cool tech, just not a Discord replacement.
zeropublix@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
psyspoop@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Maybe Revolt or Matrix?
JohnWorks@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
I see everyone suggesting revolt but what about teamspeak?
Ulrich@feddit.org 4 weeks ago
Revolt chat
singletona@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
XMPP, IRC…
You can try matrix if you’re a masochist.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 4 weeks ago
First thing they will do is put in some AI that can talk to people for you or something.
REDACTED@infosec.pub 4 weeks ago
There are already bots for that. I’ve seen them in less popular channels
Xanza@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Discord, the social chat app popular with the video game community, has met with investment bankers in recent weeks to discuss preparations for an initial public offering as soon as this year, two people familiar with the talks said.
The people, who requested anonymity because the conversations are confidential, cautioned that the talks were still exploratory and that I.P.O. plans remained subject to change.
LWD@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Discord knows everything about its users. Why don’t its users get to know about the future of their app
singletona@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Privacy for Me but not for Thee.
AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
I wonder if Flotilla on Nostr will be ready in time. The nostr community can unfortunately be a bit iffy right now, but I like the tech, and I’m always excited to see someone taking a good stab at Discord.
boonhet@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Soon as you hear the term instance, most people are out.
AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Call it a server, then. Tons of people already call them Discord servers. And it’d be a lot more true of Flotilla than Discord. Functionally, from a UX perspective, there’d be VERY little difference to an end user. You’d get an invite somehow, probably through a link, maybe combined with whitelisting your identity for more private communities, and you’d be in, using a client remarkably similar to Discord once it’s in a good spot. For most users, they can fully ignore the technical complexities.
hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
I don’t think Nostr can take on Discord. A big part of Discord is the voice chat channels, which, as far as I know, Nostr just isn’t built for.
AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
It’s true that nostr as a protocol doesn’t seem to have any real capacity for voice, but given a Discord-like community would probably “live” on a fixed relay, that server could also very easily provide something like a TURN server like Matrix clients use for voice and I think video support. The client could integrate support for it, and the typical clueless user wouldn’t see the difference. For the more ephemeral nature of most voice communications, there’s no real need to publish voice chat through Nostr events. It could be done, sort of, for any talks that need to be archived, but it’s not a requirement for the vast majority of the voice chat happening on Discord anyway.
ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
So, tell me about matrix and how to use its full basic potential…
Pregnenolone@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Unfortunately this is probably going to be a buy for me.
Seeing how the market reacted to the enshittification of Reddit, means that Discord probably has a lot of upside on the share price. The parallels between the two services can’t be ignored.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
reddit and discord goes hand in hand, since they often are used in conjuction with each other, where they are censured on reddit they go and complain discord.
jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Run away.
danny801@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
[deleted]semperverus@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Its the closest thing I’ve found to the discord experience, but it still feels young (I.e. buggy and laggy, UI feels off in a few places). Other than that its almost 1:1
YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
I’m glad I deleted my account a while ago.
L1845@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I guess it’s back to ventrilo.
TheEschatonSucks@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
💩
Tower@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
It’s good timing that I’ve been learning Docker to run Jellyfin and *arr. Guess I’ll look into throwing matrix or mattermost on there now, too.
taiyang@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Another tough but not impossible migration for my crew, but there isn’t a good enough alternative yet. Plus they finally got around to fixing streaming on Linux, apparently, and I’m about to swap back once my new m.2 is installed.
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
That explains all the AI crap they’ve been chasing for a while now. They’ve been trying to juice up the value to make it look appealing to potential buyers because you can basically slap “AI” on anything and it instantly shoots up in value.
Discord is effectively dead if this goes through.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
They also put adds on the screen and have been shilling their apps for a while now. There is not even a button to go to the webapp on their mobile site, you have to switch to desktop mode just to get in.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It has been in the works from the very beginning. They dropped their mask when things got put behind paywalls and they started censoring criticism. Hell they artificially pumped up emote slots on servers they were secretly running just to get the most users on them. why? To control the narrative. Those servers had the most users for this reason and their owners were thrilled about becoming essentially redundant over night which was more than just a little suspicious until they got found out. They also run their subreddit where they also censored any criticism for this weird bait and switch.
To those who say „who cares about emotes?“ I can only reply: You‘re missing the point. It‘s not about the what but the how. Discord is a sleazy company that gaslights their users to an extreme degree sometimes.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
much like reddit its other counterpart is doing right now. Juicing up its value by “eliminating tons of accts regardless of the status of those acc”