Re:IRCv3
by shepherdjerred on Sunday October 11, 2026 @01:46PM
(#50045802)
The UX is pretty good. Significantly better than the older alternatives like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak.
But I am surprised there are no competitors in the space. It’s good but it’s not that good. I guess it comes down to adoption/network effects
Re:IRCv3
by nantangitan on Sunday October 11, 2026 @09:23PM
(#50050160)
Laden with ads is an overstatement considering Quests are tucked away in their own menu.
The problem with those many alternate chat clients is that they either require self-hosting, making them a nonstarter for probably 95% or more of Discord's userbase, or their lack of monetisation makes them non-viable long term.
It's laden with ads and microtransactions, but if you remove those (shady scripts abound for those who don't want to do it themselves), the UX is one of the best on the market. There's a reason so many alternative chat clients are basically Discord clones without the microtransactions (for now).
Its open source hostility doesn't really change how well it works. You can copy the good parts without the awful parts, like so many people and companies are already doing.