So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
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@0xabad1dea @jenesuispasgoth ok but everyone and their grandma can make a chat system. And tchap is a frontend for element.io
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@katarjin.bsky.social
The basic concept is fine. The user interface is a mess. -
To be honest I do not think the normal user who is just sick of Discord and looks for something similar does really care, but it is good to have it in case you want it later I guess
Most of my friends do not even know what federation means, I have to explain to them what I learned from using Mastodon and WAFRN myself
@crowfea
That normal user will care in a few years when the platform is bought out by a sociopathic billionaire and everyone has to start all over from scratch. -
So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea Counterpoint on the federation thing: I don't want to make 50 different accounts for 50 different instances. So at the very least federated identity and authentication should be supported, if not actual message federation.
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@ljrk @katarjin.bsky.social @0xabad1dea
I'm with you. I didn't/don't get Slack, Discord, Matrix (and neither IRC). I understand group chats but as soon as they get busy I'm completely overwhelmed and feel left alone by the tools@realn2s @katarjin.bsky.social @0xabad1dea IRC I can work with (I use Halloy), but only smaller group chats ^^'
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So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea > So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
I really don't, it sounds like a lot of difficult and thankless work… oh I get it.
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I disagree about federation and encryption. Any platform which is centralized or not encrypted will inevitably be co-opted by fascists and capitalists. Antifascism and anticapitalism should be primary design goals for all software projects regardless of whether or not the masses care.
I think you're spot on with everything else. It's possible to meet those goals while providing the features and UX people want. We don't have to choose between safety and convenience.
@krapp @0xabad1dea I think when she says no federation she means that each organization hosts its own server which functions completely independently of others. Since discord is divided into different "servers" which you have to switch between, its fine if its replacement makes you switch between different REAL servers in order to message different groups.
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I disagree about federation and encryption. Any platform which is centralized or not encrypted will inevitably be co-opted by fascists and capitalists. Antifascism and anticapitalism should be primary design goals for all software projects regardless of whether or not the masses care.
I think you're spot on with everything else. It's possible to meet those goals while providing the features and UX people want. We don't have to choose between safety and convenience.
@krapp @0xabad1dea Also my impression is that the primary use case for discord is for very large groupchats, frequently open to anyone on the internet, in which case encryption isn't very useful as bad actors can either join the chat themselves, or send phishing emails to all 100 chat members knowing that one will probably take the bait. If you want to chat with a small group of people confidentially, signal already exists.
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@the_wub @0xabad1dea
Respectfully, this mindset of infinite customization will drive away all but the most dedicated enthusiasts.I think a priority should be to have a small team of talented UI/UX designers create a likable, aesthetic, and intuitive interface that doesn’t feel like it was designed by an alien species tripping on acid.
@freediverx @0xabad1dea I said nothing about an "infinite" number of options.
As for "likable, aesthetic, and intuitive interface" beauty is, and always has been in the eye of the beholder. As is "intuitive".
It is impossible to make UIs that fit all devices and fit all users. There are idioms in "modern" UI that still catch me out.
Like making a "search" or "add (contact)" button a free floating element in a completely different colour instead of being a choice under the main menu element.
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@freediverx @0xabad1dea I said nothing about an "infinite" number of options.
As for "likable, aesthetic, and intuitive interface" beauty is, and always has been in the eye of the beholder. As is "intuitive".
It is impossible to make UIs that fit all devices and fit all users. There are idioms in "modern" UI that still catch me out.
Like making a "search" or "add (contact)" button a free floating element in a completely different colour instead of being a choice under the main menu element.
@freediverx @0xabad1dea Would it not make more sense to have, as with IRC or Mastodon an open defined communications protocol which allows people to write clients that they find "likable, aesthetic, and intuitive" so that end users can choose which client they want to use?
Be it a CLI client under Linux, a default web client or a program written to match a particular desktop (KDE, GNOME, XFCE, Phosh etc).
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@freediverx @0xabad1dea Would it not make more sense to have, as with IRC or Mastodon an open defined communications protocol which allows people to write clients that they find "likable, aesthetic, and intuitive" so that end users can choose which client they want to use?
Be it a CLI client under Linux, a default web client or a program written to match a particular desktop (KDE, GNOME, XFCE, Phosh etc).
@the_wub @0xabad1dea
Without giving it too much thought… yes.…after a couple seconds of thought, I’m thinking of a fun but balkanized ecosystem of apps built around the open protocol, and later someone coming uo with a very polished and elegant client app that becomes very popular, and then the developer“embracing and extending” the protocol to create yet another walled garden fueled by VC and insatiable greed.
Which brings me back to, how do we prevent this cycle from repeating?
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So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange It needs to be sustainable, otherwise you will need a replacement for the replacement. Federation might help achieve that.
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So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea you do need federation because without federation it will enshittify
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@nojhan @0xabad1dea also, that looks more like slack
But it's probably *close enough*
@0xabad1dea @RandomDamage I don't see much difference, TBH. Tomatoe, tomatoes.
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So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea as someone who uses discord mostly as IRC but with emojis and images... What *are* the main reasons people use discord? Like this seems like there should be so many open alternatives, but I'm obviously missing something.
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So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea To clarify about federation, dozens if not hundreds of projects have tried federation, and there are only two that have actual federation and an actually decent UX.
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@the_wub @0xabad1dea
Without giving it too much thought… yes.…after a couple seconds of thought, I’m thinking of a fun but balkanized ecosystem of apps built around the open protocol, and later someone coming uo with a very polished and elegant client app that becomes very popular, and then the developer“embracing and extending” the protocol to create yet another walled garden fueled by VC and insatiable greed.
Which brings me back to, how do we prevent this cycle from repeating?
@freediverx @0xabad1dea There is no app, no matter how polished and elegant that will be seen as "polished and elegant" by all users.
Who controls the protocols, how changes are defined is the way to keep control away from those with insatiable greed.
FOSS does allow for forks so as long as forking a protocol is possible then control can always be wrested from the greedy.
This is impossible with systems such as FaceBook and Twitter where one company controls everything.
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So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
Things you don’t need:
- federation/distributed systems
- multiparty end-to-end encryption
- an entirely new operating system kernel specially designed to—Things you DO need:
- a user interface that is Normal
- the ability to use languages other than English and writing systems other than Latin
- higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world
- any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use itI have muted replies to this post due to the usual reasons
@0xabad1dea what is
- a user interface that is Normal
???
- Because #Windows-esque #UI & #UX is fucking atrocious brainrot and I refuse to accept such neurotypical, proven-to-be-wrong horseshite to begin with!
For anyone reasonable, there's @zulip, @RocketChat and #IRC + #Mumble & #JitsiMeet already...
Remember:
DUMMY THICC APP & CENTRALIZATION = BAD! -
note that I didn’t even touch on audio/video calls and screen sharing, which are HEAVILY used features of discord, but we can start with “a solid chatroom experience” as the minimum viable replacement; if you can’t get that part right, discussing the rest with a straight face is clownshoes
@0xabad1dea #Zulip & #RocketChat do that if you want to have logs like a fed and suffer from FOMO so you can't use #IRC...
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@0xabad1dea things you need : enough furries on the team?
@archiloque @0xabad1dea transfem furries!
- They may also make reproduceable builds on #nixOS for all OSes whilst at it...
