Open source projects using Discord for their community is sort of a red flag in itself.

We also have a Matrix room and a telegram room. https://matrix.to/#/#dothq:matrix.org https://t.me/dothq

> We also have a Matrix room

Thank you!

My apologies... as long as you have Matrix or some open source standard and a bridge to IRC or whatever, then it doesn't really matter that much to me. However, I would like to see true believers of "open" promote open standards as much as possible.

I love using Discord for my open source app [0] because instant messaging and low entrance friction makes it easy for me to find out what's wrong with the app when an user comes with a problem. Previously I only did email when users had a problem and it took ages to fix issues that I could not reproduce.

Why is Discord a red flag in your opinion?

It is indeed not very searchable, but I think there's always Github and the official website for more persistent information.

[0] https://lunar.fyi

Whenever I use Discord, I use it reluctantly.

- no native clients, you have to run the official client either in a browser or as an electron app and using either of them consume too much resources and make my laptop run much hotter than it normally does

- conversations are locked inside discord, you can't search them outside of Discord, imagine if all StackExchange websites including StackOverflow just became another Discord server and the disaster that would be for people everywhere

So yeah, if a project or community I care about uses Discord, I guess I will use it, but reluctantly and with displeasure.

Yes, the browser-based clients is something I don’t like either. I loved when Slack used to provide an IRC interface so you can use whatever simple client you want.

But the syntax highlighting is so good on Discord, that it makes it really easy to discuss technical stuff.

I would jump on a chat alternative that:

    • is Google searchable (like Gitter)
    • has good syntax highlighting (like Discord and Slack)
    • has CLI clients (like Mattermost)
    • has a low barrier entry for non-technical users 
        • sign in with Google
        • state your issue
        • get solution in a few messages
        • forget about it if you don’t need to be part of that community

Conversations are locked inside Discord the same way conversations are locked inside IRC, it's a community chat rather than a knowledge base/QA like stackexchange.

Correct me if I'm mistaken but logs of public IRC servers are often available without needing to make an account on IRC, right?

You're mistaken, that's a channel by channel basis not a server by server kind of deal.

Some channels include bots used to create public channel logs, but not all. Creating unauthorized public logs is usually considered against IRC etiquette so many channels go unlogged.

My major qualm with with Discord is the lack of multiple identities, and the anti-spam techniques being used by many "servers" that essentially require you share your profile and channel data. Also, if you add a phone number (some servers require this) then Discord won't let you remove it. I can only imagine the amount of data collection and telemetry they are doing as well.

"Privacy-conscious" and using Discord, quite a bit of cognitive dissonance. We need better messengers, not browsers imho.

wow, the people here really like to shit on others when they're just offering their hard work FOR FREE.

We need both.