There’s been quite a bit of…unsettlement (totally a word) regarding the news that Discord has a new CEO and the company is going public (typically a sign of things going shittier than before).
I’d just like to re-post this which I shared some time ago, if you’ll indulge me in my rare post which isn’t a Steam Deck / Gaming News # post - a rarity for me.
In the end, this is not the be-all-and-end-all alternative, it won’t be for everyone. Matrix exists of course. But this is a nice place. And I thought considering recent events I’d recommend it regardless!
Following is just a copy of what I posted last time. It’s mostly Linux chat, gaming, handhelds (like the Steam Deck), movies and…general chats. Anyway, here’s the post:
So…this one is a bit left-of-field.
A friend of mine (Gardiner Bryant of YouTube - who reports on Linux and the Steam Deck) has started a Revolt server.
What is Revolt?
It’s kinda like a FOSS alternative to Discord. You’ll see the layout is almost a direct copy, and it’s far less polished…but then again you haven’t got the downsides of Discord’s constant upselling either:
Why is this relevant?
…I can hear you ask? Well, so far its just a few developers and creators in there, but I thought of all spaces…maybe those very devs and creators whose work you use and watch…well it might be nice to join in there?
My personal friends who are in here so far are:
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imLinguin whose GitHub is here - but you may know most as a developer of Heroic Games Launcher
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Lazorne whose project is RetroDECK - my personal fav emulation option for the Steam Deck
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Eben Bruyns whose GitHub is here - but you may know best as the dev of Junk-Store
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Kyle Gospo whose project is Bazzite
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Gardiner himself, of course whose YouTube link is here,
What is the damn link to the damn server, woman?
I mean, you will have to make an account on Revolt, but it might be interesting to some here. You’re all very welcome!
No thanks. One more centralized service to enshitify. Will stick with Matrix.
matrix is part of the police state. https://mastodon.matrix.org/@element/110340953550548309
Just in: Orange farmers are part of the police state because they sell oranges to the government, including policemen.
I really hope indie gamedevs start moving off Discord. Sometimes it’s the only source for finding help or reporting bugs.
Revolt isn’t federated, encrypted, has no video chat, claims privacy but that claim seems to be simply because they are based in Europe. The layout is nice and ui is better than element but that’s the only upside i see. I hate the matrix client ui’s and chat sorting options.
Also, revolt self hosting is broken. The web call functionality (WebRTC) is being rewritten but that effort is stale and out of the box it simply does not work. There is no real documentation about this either. It just won’t work and you need to invest a lot of effort to figure out why. The moment self hosting properly works, I’ll give it another shot. Not being able to connect without a fat client is a show stopper for me. There’s no way I can get enough traction for my groups if the barrier to switch is higher than a sheet of paper.
When self hosting all the shortcomings you mentioned are perfectly acceptable for me.
Exactly. I wish they would have just built a great UI on top of Matrix or even XMPP, but they insisted on doing it this way. None of my friends want to switch to something that they’re boxed-in with, they don’t want an app just for one server. Matrix is the only option we have, but all of the UIs are… meh.
Yeah, they kinda screwed up Element with combining mobile and desktop features into one app. The first time I tried creating a call on desktop, it was suddenly apparent how confusing they had made it, because you can do it in multiple ways (normal calls & conference calls).
There are other UIs that look very nice, but sadly don’t support voice chat. Hopefully these other clients can catch up, but it’ll likely take a while.
So, I briefly tried out Matrix some four years ago and left because it was utter trash and from what I gather from your comment it is still pretty much trash now. But despite there not being a single usable client, people still try to convince everyone that Matrix, by some obscrure metric, is superior to all other chat programs.
Sorry to say, but a chat protocol on its own is a tech demo at best and as long as there isn’t a single feature complete and usable client, it’s an alternative for no one except hardcore tech enthusiasts.
When I last used Matrix/Elements I had to deal with “lost keys” issues multiple times in just two months. This issue is a dealbreaker if it happens just once in a year and apparently, it’s still a semi regular problem for some of my friends.
Just accept it, Matrix will never be a replacement for Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram or even just Microsoft Teams.
Never is a strong word. Element has made a lot of progress and I can see the potential in it to compete with some of these platforms.
But no, it’s not there yet.
I did notice the recent developments in discord. If discord starts putting ads in their platform I might switch
They already have done that a while ago.
Just switched my friend group over to Matrix. Honestly looked at Revolt, but no federation was a non-starter. Convincing friends to leave is hard enough, unfortunately being locked into a single server was a non-starter. It’s too bad, they have a great UI, but I think they should have left the backend to trusted protocols.
Just imagine the good they could have done by being a new competent Matrix client that can do everything, but instead they are a Discord clone.
If Discord is going to be abandoned by people, I wish we’d go back to proper forums that’s much more accessible and searchable. Continuing down this road is just going to lead to the continued burying of useful information behind these services.
I think we just need to split roles again.
Discord did there best to be an all in one solution and we just need a return to real time chat and voice along with asynchronous communication like forums
Amen! I remember the good old days of speciality community forums based on VB or even phpBB or in some cases Woltlab. I miss the simpler times.
Discord is more of a chat room than a forum though, lemmy is a federated alternative to forums.
discord is not a forum (even if they want it to be with the forum channels), its never been a good location to store information. That being said, its amazing for real time communication unlike forums. I hate that devs use it for FAQ and bug forms and stuff. I stopped reporting bugs if it requires me to join a discord.
Forums are just not great for real-time interaction like discord chat is, not to mention the integration of voice chat, video streaming, etc is just too convenient to give up without replacing it with something similar. I too wish discord/whatever replacement gets attention was more searchable and kept stuff long-term, but… if you want to post info that lasts, post it on lemme and link it on discord or whatever.
True, but I can’t help having nostalgia for ye olde forum days.
Reasonable, but you’d be fooling yourself to act as if forums will meaningfully replace Discord for most users.
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I think there’s room for both, as in the old days there was typically an IRC channel along side forums that was typically a secondary channel (but not always).
But yeah, forums would be ideal, preferably with federation support so there is no need to make an account with every single one.
Well, you see IRC and forums went together because they filled two different needs and we understood that back in the day.
IRC was for chatting, short, quick real time communication that would be lost to the ether as soon as you signed off, unless you had a bouncer or log bot.
Forums were for long information, be that long posts or posts that needed to endure for a long time. Sure you’d get some one liner responses to those posts, but forums were not at all instant like IRC. Though the information did stay much longer, and was much more searchable and organized.
Discord has spoiled us, being quick and chatty while also allowing for longer posts and being searchable. At least within the Discord client. Shoot they even added those “forum” channels to replicate the old forum feel. But real time.
i wouldn’t say discord “spoiled” us by trying to reinvent forums, i’d say it unnecessarily blurred the lines. classic case of feature creep.
So why not matrix?
Is revolt federated?
No and they don’t plan to federate it. Not on their roadmap.
Further Matrix is guided by the Matrix Foundation, a non-profit group.
But I mean sure let’s just dump one for-profit app for another as if it won’t follow the same path.
I think you need to re-read my post.
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I did not say to dump one for another
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I literally mention Matrix exists
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I say this won’t be for everyone
Another reminder, this is not my server, I just thought this was fun and I’m sharing an alternative. But I’ve tried reading all I can about Revolt, and I can’t see where they say it’s “for profit”. Can you link me to that?
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It’s easier to use and more polished. Also, not federated or decentralized. Although you can self host it
Self hosting and open source to me is the most important part. Federation can come if the need arises. I was just curious.
I’m personally going to stay on my matrix channels as they seem more established. But it’s good to have options.
Right now discord seems fine but I’ve already lived through many de-platforming events. And one day it too will go the way of the dodo. People getting attached to nameless online services is funny.
Thanks!
its kinda useless without Voice, TeamSpeak however is making excellent progress. im hoping we just gi bsck to forums and stuff like TeamSpeak and vent.
Sure! It’s great that there is other options, too. So people have options available to them if they want to explore those.
I’m not promoting this as a end-game solution to everything. It’s not even my server.
I’m just sharing this in case people who enjoy gaming and Linux and the people behind the projects, they might want to join in.
It would appear there is a character limit to the password that is not disclosed, nor prohibited, while creating your account.
Classic
In terms of desktop applications, looks like Element and Revolt look pretty comparable these days. Mobile app Revolt looks better to me. Matrix seems way more established considering downloads of Element (there’s numerous Matrix applications) on Google Play and FlatHub
Mobile app Revolt is nice, but doesn’t support servers that aren’t the main one yet last I tried.
By memory there’s a community-made app for Revolt as well, but I can’t remember what its called, or the git link! When I find it again, I’ll link it here :)
I wanna give it a go but it’s way too buggy
I just use the site, via my browser. And I’ve not had any issues! Though I’ve no idea how well the app performs
Is there a way to puppet a discord account through revolt like there is on matrix? There are a lot of communities I am in that I need discord for.
Not currently a Revolt user, but this would be a requirement for me to consider switching, too.
It looks like its API supports webhooks, so should be relatively straightforward to enable it (or perhaps through a third party, like Zapier)?
This thread is depressing: https://www.ntaskmanager.com/blog/discord-alternatives/
Mumble’s fine for VC. Lemmy&jabber anything else.
Does Signal not do everything people need?
You can do a call in a group chat, right?
Discord is too big at this point for people to leave it. I’ve never heard of revolt until now, I don’t see a need in switching because of a new CEO that hasn’t done anything yet.
Discord is too big at this point for people to leave it.
Never seen a ‘too big to fail’ platform fail, huh? It happens more frequently than you’d think
Woolworths and Sears certainly will never not be the most dominant retail spaces in the United States. They’re gokng to live forever!
(I feel like most people here are too young ho even fully grasp the sarcasm on full display in my comment)
Pfft. It’s not like you can buy a house from Sears or something.
Edit: Guessing I got downvoted by somebody too young to understand the reference
Right??? Could you imagine buying a house from SEARS??? And at a reasonable price too!!!
Luckily I see I’ll be a fancygirl with my Sears options as I look!
Nor me either, but I’m going to start packing my parachute now. You probably said the same about Reddit a few times before you ended up here, too.
You probably said the same about Reddit a few times before you ended up here, too.
That account was created Jan 29th 2025, so you’re likely correct
Nothing is too big to end. I’ve seen so many VOIP clients over the years and Discord is just another.
Software isn’t forever. Services come and go. Empires fall.
Regardless, the drive to switch is in selfhosting. If you want actual security and not to have to worry about a corporation handing their logs over to the Feds, Revolt is very appealing.
Perhaps, but we’re now in an age where IPO announcements, CEO changes and even new features inevitably lead to enshittification. There is no harm in having a backup plan.
I’d even say that anyone who doesn’t have a plan B is an idiot, given recent history.
Discord’s fine now but it sure won’t be in 5 years. Companies going public like this always end badly
How do you know that for sure?
Ever heard of Skype?
What about it? Different application but sure. Let’s hear your example anyway
Take a look at Snapchat, Microsoft Solitaire, or most dating apps. That’s what this usually looks like after 5-10 years.
So free? With a paid sub option? Hmm… Maybe they can call it nitro or something. Maybe limit fil size sharing I less you pay the sub too. Oh and lock streaming quality too!
You must be young.
Only 40
That’s like saying one vote doesn’t matter or people protesting not to vote for their party because of a single issue but cause to effect more than the issue. Don’t entertain bad behavior or no one ever learns.
