The Discord Rant

I don't like Discord. I REALLY don't like Discord. Despite having been a very early adopter of the platform, I've probably been one of its most vocal opponents in the last 4-ish years, give or take. I'm writing this partially to even remind myself of all the reasons I dislike it, I honestly don't really think about the specifics as much as I used to because the thought of it now just makes my blood boil and that's pretty much all I need to set myself off.

Here's a nice bulleted list on while Discord is a perfectly usable platform, they certainly do NOT have your best interests in mind (and probably never did)

It's replacing things it should NOT be replacing (Wikis, forums, guides, etc) and is locking core functionality in many web applications and services behind a chat application you are now being forced to use
Culling of features in its paid subscription service (for the same price of course)
Adding features nobody asked for in its place
The CEO was previously the CEO of a social platform (also originally designed for "gamers") that was sued in a class action lawsuit for bad faith and breach of privacy
It's an extremely unsafe place for children with little (until recently) done to actually protect them, although there might be a reason why progress is so slow on that front
Hilariously, much like Social Media, actually discourages socialization (mostly text channels in servers) and leads to the user to (best case) waste time in pointless conversation you wont remember in a month and (worst case) gives you a variety of useful benefits such as

Lowering your self esteem and making you hate yourself for no good reason
Constantly feeling the need to compare yourself to others
Feeling ignored or voiceless because apparently nobody cares enough to actually respond to what you had to say (the problem with servers)
Getting groomed, manipulated and abused by some of the most disgusting people on the internet and permanently altering the trajectory of your life as a result (with years worth of trauma you now have to unravel)
Distracting you from what's actually important: getting off your computer and forming meaningful, lasting corrections with the people around you

I think my absolute least favorite thing about it, is just the overwhelming feeling that I'm being forced to use it. Being more and more tightly integrated into apps and communities, it's really difficult to get away from. Couple this with all the alternatives either sharing much of the same problems or never catching on, it's a really frustrating situation to be in.

It's funny, because technology-stack wise, Discord is absolutely an impressive achievement. There's a lot I value about it from a surface level, ESPECIALLY compared to the absolute mess Skype was at the time. Super high quality voice and video chats along with a very easy to use user interface, couple that with text channels, direct messages, and what could go wrong, right? Well, everything. And I can I confidently say I'll spend the rest of my life regretting I ever downloaded it. But hey, it feels good to be free, and if this sounds like you at all, than I recommend you take the plunge as well with me and stop using it.