So You Want To Write An Open Source Discord Replacement
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@0xabad1dea things you additionally MUST do:
- advertise it by exclusively mentioning which programming language and software stack was used
- requiring manual compilation for anything other than the linux distro it was made for
- require the user to fill out a yaml config file with gateway and api shards information
- link to your personal git server running some esoteric frontend as the only way to report issues or feedback
- provide only mobile app support for postmarketos
- "run this command in a terminal to install the client"
- make the aforementioned command for windows a powershell script that requires changing execution policy to run but also provide no instruction or forewarning about it
- make voice chat require some fucked codec that isn't fully open source and so "sorry you're gonna have to get that yourself" and then link to a github repo with no releases, no instructions, a bespoke c building pipeline nobody ever heard of and no automated script that fetches any of that on first launch@hellpie @0xabad1dea I see you tried out stoat/revolt as well?

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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
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@hellpie @0xabad1dea I see you tried out stoat/revolt as well?

@DJGummikuh @0xabad1dea no i didn't, for the reason in here (https://raru.re/@hellpie/116056742280236438) i stop way sooner than finding out how bad it was
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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 i'd actually argue that Whatsapp and clones already offer a decent alternative for text chats for a lot of people, so audio/video chat is *absolutely* part of any minimum viable replacement
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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 it@0xabad1dea @drahardja One login, alll your ‘servers’ listed.
Anything that makes you do a new separate signup per ‘server’ has a lot more friction than Discord.
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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 it -
@0xabad1dea @gabboman if you don't make it distributed, you also have to host the entire bloody thing - which gets expensive once you add video chat and/or screensharing at any meaningful scale
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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 it@0xabad1dea I think a huge part of the last point is the room and privilege management, allowing you to somewhat properly moderate your server. The ability to create thematic rooms is, I think, what drives many people to matrix, even in smaller communities it can be super helpful to have different thematic areas on the same server. A feature that I learned to value a lot
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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 it@0xabad1dea federation is extremely useful though here.
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> - any fucking clue how Discord works and why people use it
I think this puzzles me most. I just... don't. I tried, multiple times. I don't get it.
> - a user interface that is Normal
> - higher standards of user experience than how irc actually works in the real world... which is also why I wouldn't agree here, because I find Discords UI horrible :'-D
But so is Element's etc. whelp
@ljrk@todon.eu @0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange then you probably shouldnt be the one to develop a discord replacement
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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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 it@0xabad1dea Dear user, please download our program and then use this Terminal command to bypass system security feature
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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 it@0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange discord has multiparty end to end encryption so you do actually need this for voice and video data
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@0xabad1dea Dear user, please download our program and then use this Terminal command to bypass system security feature
@0xabad1dea @isis yeah, that tends to happen when properly using the system security features require an annual ransom
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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 it@0xabad1dea (I realise I'm muted here, but I think some of those negative points are significant)
- No federation: some bastard can come along and buy it. Doesn't matter if I can run my own if everyone else is on the Nazi Server. Federation is not proof against this (see email) but it's a necessary start.
- No multiparty e2e encryption: we don't care about black or gay or trans people being allowed to talk without everything they say being fed into the secret police machine. They, however, do. -
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 itThank you.
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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 it@0xabad1dea End to end encryption would be a really cool bonus
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@0xabad1dea End to end encryption would be a really cool bonus
