Some of the communities that closed down in response to the API changes explicitly shifted to Discord
Sigh
Legitimately one of the most annoying things out of all of this is how so many tech writers have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to explaining the feelings and behavior of reddit communities. Like they don’t ever seem to interview anyone or ask direct questions to understand what is happening, they just take a cursory glance at comment threads and pinned posts, and assume they understand what’s going on. I can’t count how many articles I have read that get the facts about this whole situation right but still seem to completely misunderstand it.
They did not “shift” to Discord, they used already established Discord channels in lieu of the subreddit, until the subreddit came back.
Many subs already had parallel discord channels, but users don’t use one or the other, they use both. Because Discord is a fundamentally different kind of platform. It’s exactly the same way that many forums back in the day would also have chat rooms attached. Same community, using two different methods of online communication, at the same time, for different purposes. No one would ever have suggested IRC was equatable to a forum.
All that happened was when the subs closed, users congregated in the Discord to stay connected. It was never going to be a new permanent home. They were not seeking a new home, that’s the critical part. I’ve seen very, very few people suggest Discord as a permanent replacement and if they are it gets shot down. They were simply waiting out the protest on Discord until they could go back to Reddit or, if an alternative showed up, go there. It was a bomb shelter.
Yeah. Rather a decent number of communities have actually moved to Discord, or are trying to, including a decent sampling of larger communities like MFA.
There’s been some kind of wonky takes in Fediverse about some of those moves that seem to reject the validity of migrations that aren’t coming to our spaces. Mods will post “going to Discord, fuck this place” and they’re like “it’s temporary, Discord isn’t a forum”.
I really hope they don’t replace Reddit with Discord, it’s a closed-source software with data not being indexable by a search engine. Even if they did find a solution to index all that data into a search engine, it would be awful to have to install a software to actually see/interact with it.
Well the good news is if you actually go to the Discords who attempted to move over from subreddits, they’re all unnavigable messes with zero way to actually find new information or posts, so the whole thing has been a failure. Why people thought a cringy closed source gamer chat platform was a good replacement is beyond me. They were wrong and the results show this. Discord is not for that use case and is not remotely a Reddit replacement.
Didn’t /r/malefashionadvice explicitly close the subreddit and recommend everyone go to their Discord? I can’t check it now since I’m at work, but if I remember right, it is still closed with the mods saying they expect to be removed at any point.
You sure it wasn’t “let’s go to discord to get updates where we will move”? Discord won’t work well unless it’s a very small community.
Edit: I just joined and they created many smaller channels, I guess that helps them scale to larger number of users. So yeah I was wrong, but I still insist for majority of subreddits discord isn’t a matching platform and more like a compliment, when you want to talk live with somebody.
Discord is great to hang out in large or small groups, but it is nearly useless for sharing information beyond a few pinned comments per channel. Their search is extremely “fuzzy”. Searching for anything and what you want is likely to be buried in results containing common words that look kinda sorta similar to the word you searched.
I’m pretty unfamilar with Discord, was after my time. But for the little I do know, I think you’re probably right. MFA might be a different kind of community where smaller more real time chats like Discord can work, but for the majority it doesn’t seem like it would be a good forum/reddit replacement.
And ironically enough I just saw a story where Reddit followed through on its threats to remove the mods. So they removed them all and the sub is back open, but locked so no one can post.
Like they don’t ever seem to interview anyone or ask direct questions to understand what is happening, they just take a cursory glance at comment threads and pinned posts, and assume they understand what’s going on.
Being a staff writer with deadlines will do that to you.
Sigh
Legitimately one of the most annoying things out of all of this is how so many tech writers have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to explaining the feelings and behavior of reddit communities. Like they don’t ever seem to interview anyone or ask direct questions to understand what is happening, they just take a cursory glance at comment threads and pinned posts, and assume they understand what’s going on. I can’t count how many articles I have read that get the facts about this whole situation right but still seem to completely misunderstand it.
They did not “shift” to Discord, they used already established Discord channels in lieu of the subreddit, until the subreddit came back.
Many subs already had parallel discord channels, but users don’t use one or the other, they use both. Because Discord is a fundamentally different kind of platform. It’s exactly the same way that many forums back in the day would also have chat rooms attached. Same community, using two different methods of online communication, at the same time, for different purposes. No one would ever have suggested IRC was equatable to a forum.
All that happened was when the subs closed, users congregated in the Discord to stay connected. It was never going to be a new permanent home. They were not seeking a new home, that’s the critical part. I’ve seen very, very few people suggest Discord as a permanent replacement and if they are it gets shot down. They were simply waiting out the protest on Discord until they could go back to Reddit or, if an alternative showed up, go there. It was a bomb shelter.
“They didn’t shift to Discord, they just moved temporarily to discord. How can writers get it so wrong”
Lots of mods posted a note saying “see you on Discord” when they shut down. This is not exactly an egregious error.
Yeah. Rather a decent number of communities have actually moved to Discord, or are trying to, including a decent sampling of larger communities like MFA.
There’s been some kind of wonky takes in Fediverse about some of those moves that seem to reject the validity of migrations that aren’t coming to our spaces. Mods will post “going to Discord, fuck this place” and they’re like “it’s temporary, Discord isn’t a forum”.
I really hope they don’t replace Reddit with Discord, it’s a closed-source software with data not being indexable by a search engine. Even if they did find a solution to index all that data into a search engine, it would be awful to have to install a software to actually see/interact with it.
Well the good news is if you actually go to the Discords who attempted to move over from subreddits, they’re all unnavigable messes with zero way to actually find new information or posts, so the whole thing has been a failure. Why people thought a cringy closed source gamer chat platform was a good replacement is beyond me. They were wrong and the results show this. Discord is not for that use case and is not remotely a Reddit replacement.
Not to mention it’s almost impossible to keep up with a very active Discord server
Yeah, I’m too old for that pace of information. Would have loved it in my younger days though.
I ran up a $300 bill on AOL chat rooms when I was 12
Even more impressive once you consider inflation
Didn’t /r/malefashionadvice explicitly close the subreddit and recommend everyone go to their Discord? I can’t check it now since I’m at work, but if I remember right, it is still closed with the mods saying they expect to be removed at any point.
Yes, they left a message with a link to their Diacord.
You sure it wasn’t “let’s go to discord to get updates where we will move”? Discord won’t work well unless it’s a very small community.
Edit: I just joined and they created many smaller channels, I guess that helps them scale to larger number of users. So yeah I was wrong, but I still insist for majority of subreddits discord isn’t a matching platform and more like a compliment, when you want to talk live with somebody.
Discord is great to hang out in large or small groups, but it is nearly useless for sharing information beyond a few pinned comments per channel. Their search is extremely “fuzzy”. Searching for anything and what you want is likely to be buried in results containing common words that look kinda sorta similar to the word you searched.
I’m pretty unfamilar with Discord, was after my time. But for the little I do know, I think you’re probably right. MFA might be a different kind of community where smaller more real time chats like Discord can work, but for the majority it doesn’t seem like it would be a good forum/reddit replacement.
It’s certainly not for me at any rate.
You are absolutely correct about this.
And ironically enough I just saw a story where Reddit followed through on its threats to remove the mods. So they removed them all and the sub is back open, but locked so no one can post.
Being a staff writer with deadlines will do that to you.
Reddit was way better than discord. This is a step backwards for humanity. Thanks, spez.
@deweydecibel Is that how Ruqqus started? Because new /m/ruqqus discussion started here
@mastermind
Might I suggest using Discord as an alternative to Reddit?
Idk I have heard people talk about something called Lemmy? And kbin? Anyone know anything?
/s