[HN Gopher] Discord Is Not an Acceptable Choice for Free Softwar...
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       Discord Is Not an Acceptable Choice for Free Software Projects
       (2020)
        
       Author : sneak
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2026-02-09 19:20 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sneak.berlin)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sneak.berlin)
        
       | zzo38computer wrote:
       | In addition to the reasons described there (which are valid, and
       | I agree that they are good reasons to avoid Discord), there are
       | others, such as, you might not have a telephone number (or you
       | do, but it cannot receive SMS), and you might not want to require
       | everyone to register with someone else unrelated to your project.
       | (Also, I have seen that apparently Discord will require face
       | scan, so that is another reason to be avoided; if you do not have
       | a camera (or if you do not want to send a face scan to them) then
       | that will not work.) (And, you should also avoid needing
       | Facebook, etc)
       | 
       | However, I think that IRC can be useful. IRC is not the same as
       | Slack and Discord like they mention, but often the other things
       | are not needed, and IRC also is not too complicated to use and
       | does not require a large web app or other stuff like that, which
       | is a significant advantage of IRC. Also, another thing they did
       | not mention, which can be helpful, is NNTP, which can be used
       | both for announcements and for discussion, like email can be.
       | This way, no web apps are needed, and email subscriptions are not
       | needed; however, it can also be bridged with email if needed.
        
       | abnormalitydev wrote:
       | 2020 and you got banned instantly off of Discord.. Last year I
       | tried Windows 11 in a VM and I couldn't even get to the part
       | where I create a local user. Turns out I needed a Microsoft
       | account which I tried with a disposable email only to be told
       | that I couldn't sign up because the 'email address has suspicious
       | activity', despite only being created there and then. How funny
       | 
       | What zzo said though, IRC is simple and many free software
       | projects already use it (eg Tor, gentoo) but I think there's a
       | different barrier to entry since users may want old chat history
       | (bouncers), IRC-specific spam and client choices (GUI, CLI, no
       | mobile??) (& I'm pretty sure IRC networks used to be somewhat
       | anti-Unicode? correct me if I'm wrong). Then again I should
       | expect hackers to actually know how to use that, but probably
       | less so of an enduser
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next
       | month_
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945663
        
       | hannahstrawbrry wrote:
       | Few things will make me choose against using a
       | tool/framework/software faster than seeing that I need to join a
       | discord server to get necessary information to use or install it.
       | If Discord is the primary method of user support I am greatly
       | apprehensive but if documentation is locked inside a server, I'm
       | out. There is no software or tool I have seen that's good enough
       | to make me brave the headache that comes with that knowledge all
       | being locked inside of a discord community.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Some previous discussion:
       | 
       | 2020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22384356
        
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       (page generated 2026-02-09 23:01 UTC)