Why projects start with a Discord and not an alternative - Comment found on Mastodon

jherazob@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 100 points –

Original comment, copy-pasted for convenience:

why do so many projects start with a discord and not with a wiki, or github, or web presence?

simply, discord is the fastest, most frictionless way to do the following:

  • garner a community of support ensuring that there is an audience for the project
  • provide access to idea validation for the creators of that project. rapid feedback for their project = rapid progress
  • provide the easy creation of (not necessarily accessible nor good, but) quick resources for the project

forums, websites, hell even github can only hope to match the value proposition of discord, and it's something people fail to take into account when they criticise the move to discord as a file host/forum/wiki/project website

if you want people to make a file host/forum/wiki/project website, they're directly competing with the frictionless, fast, yet unsustainable and frankly web-shit discord. the fast, frictionless nature is enough for people to use and accept, hell, even to make infrastructural to their project

a platform that could create a non-webshit, easy way to provide the value that discord provides, all while being just as fast and frictionless if not faster/more lubricated, would absolutely blow discord out the water

I am a sysadmin and my level of tech friction tolerance is different from the people referenced here leading projects, but I'd like to gather opinions on this, the fact that this regularly happens as described suggests there's a whole lot of truth to it, but i feel like it's overstating the friction, am i wrong here?

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If people need to make an account, I'd bet your engagement drops at least 90%. That's the friction they mean.

That was my thinking when reading the above - Discord's big advantage is numbers, a lot of people will be on Discord already so getting them to sign up is a really low bar. Sign-up is also simple (compared to federated options).

We're moving instance and I set up a Matrix space as a fallback in case the current one goes down and as a way to have secure private messaging. We did discuss setting up a Discord channel and a Matrix bridge (as lemmy.world have done) but it may not currently be worth it as public discussion can shift to the new instance. However, if that wasn't the case then it's something we'd definitely do.

As Lemmy integrates nicely with Matrix, I'd like to think that future solutions would involve a Lemmy instance as as public web-friendly forum (especially if we can get wikis built in) with Matrix for secure and private discussion and possibly a bridge to Discord (and other messaging platforms) to make it easy for people to join in there.

How do you see Matrix integrating with Lemmy? They don't seem compatible in any way.

It is already integrated - if you add your Matrix ID to the relevant bit of your settings in Lemmy you get a secure messaging button that takes you to Matrix. That's why it makes sense to also start a space for a Lemmy instance there because there's an existing incentive for Lemmy users to have a Matrix account.

Isn't that just how matrix works? If I post my Matrix ID on a website, clicking it will take you to Matrix. If you don't have a Matrix account, you will be prompted to pick a server and a client and create an account. The Lemmy default UI just hides the link behind a button labeled "Send Secure Message"

It's still built into Lemmy unlike other messaging platforms. You can, of course, provide a link to Matrix in your profile but the secure DMs button is part of the interface.

I wouldn't call that an integration with Matrix anymore than I would call a button that said "Send 'user' an Email" that had a mailto link attribute an integration with email.

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I mean with IRC you can just click a link and automatically connect to a server and start talking to people. You just have to pick a nickname.

Somehow people still don't use it so there's clearly more to that.

The "somehow" is because IRC is extremely bare bones. It doesn't stand up to modern expectations of what chat software does. Plus accounts aren't all a bad thing. Anti-spam is vital for the internet today, as is rigid ways of preventing impersonation. IRC is a relic of a simpler era.

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