I've read several comments here on HN from so called "insiders" over the last few months that old.reddit.com is going to go away this year. They already shutdown i.reddit.com for mobile users so I tend to believe that old.reddit is next.

Well there's the Thing Reddit Should Have Done: made their awful feeble chat more like discord!

Yeah I've said this at least dozens of times. The subs for those who want a slower reddit and discussion linked to the subs for faster communication, probably with some levers like "you're talking too fast" or "AI has detected too. many cucks and soyboys, calm down, here's a 24 hour time out"

Yeah I'm slightly dumbfounded that we are so much at loss on where to go next, I can't really take calls to boicot reddit but go to Discord seriously. Where are the lightweight newsletters or lightweight forums as an alternative.

I like Discord well enough for the right purposes but it does make me truly sad to see so many niche communities go behind closed doors like Discord.

Discord isn't indexed or searchable by folks (or search engines) outside of the server, and even then, it's a real-time chat application that just doesn't lend itself to the type of content that makes reddit special. Discord also has investors who will want payback on their investment...so users on Discord may find themselves in the same boat some years down the line.

But people use it because the barrier to entry is so low. Even non-technical people can set up good looking and functional communities.