I don’t understand why they went with a UI that is even less intuitive and far clunkier to use, when I already had various problems accessing features that I can access on desktop just fine. Such as changing my screen name on a server, would you have to do a lot when like me you run a transformation based roleplay server
Lemmy’s biggest competitor at this point isn’t reddit, it’s Discord, or rather, the monster it has become. It seems to me that instead of creating a subreddit nowadays, every project now wants to use a Discord server for everything.
The problem with that is:
Asking messages in a big, open chatroom (over, say, 20 people) gets real messy, real quickly.
Conversations on Discord are difficult to follow when multiple of them are going at once.
The conversations containing solutions to problems in chat or threads are not search indexable, which is the reason why reddit became quietly dominant in search results, it is simply the biggest centralized repository of organized English language text conversations available.
So why do people insist on using Discord servers to build their community? Simple, it’s the network effect. If somebody wants tech support, it’s way easier to click a Discord invite on an account for group chat you already have than it is to sign up for yet another forum that you only use once. But Lemmy doesn’t suffer from that problem of traditional forums because of federation.
Which brings me to my point, if Lemmy is to grow, it’s better to sell Lemmy to disgruntled Discord admins and forum owners to move their community than it is to get people to move off reddit at this point, since people who wants to leave reddit has all done so at this point.
Discord is the same problem for the internet as the Facebook grups were. Its hermetic, the info stays there, its hard to search thus the same problem is being asked over and over. StackOverflow and Reddit strength is that’s they are indexed and easy accessed
Discord is really bad for preservation of information. I can still find forum posts from 10 years ago on a given topic all over, but discord links seem to expire and break all the damn time and it’s hard to search through. It sucks that discord has become the defacto choice for user community space.
Lenny does part of this yes. Fediverse is the bigger ticket item. From a single account I can federate to different networks and post questions or have other interactions in different formats.
Discord sucks, but I’ve actually had a 100% successful help rate on it vs Reddit or Lemmy.
Typically Discord servers have specific tech support rooms, and you’ll get help pretty quickly. Only once I have had to ask my question a second time, because it was missed the first time.
Meanwhile Reddit threads just get downvoted, buried, and you’re never helped. Even when I try to search for threads that other people have posted, 90% of threads are just blank.
Lemmy is the worst. Doesn’t matter what you need, they’ll just call you stupid and tell you to use Linux and FOSS alternative, ignoring the fact you NEED to use what you’re asking help with.
A forum should work in tandem with a chatroom in an “ideal” online community, imo. Searchable Q&A with a communication for additional, nuanced interaction. They serve different purposes and can be more powerful when used together, than they could be on their own.
Lemmy does seem to have a bunch of old, crotchety internet nerds on here that like the “old ways” of the webs. But just tell 'em to “go fuck yourself”, if they’re being a dick; and than don’t reply to them again. It’s very freeing. They’re just butt sensitive about linux and foss, cause they were bullied on early internet forums and now act the same way, when expressing their loud-ass opinions. It’s like an unfortunate cycle of abuse that has existed on forums, but don’t let it discourage you from asking anyway… the question might help others
I’m a crotchety old internet nerd… tell me to “go fuck myself”, just for funsies! It’s empowering!
I feel like Discord fills a different need than forum type systems.
The one API I have on discord, likes Discord as a place for casual chat about the system. I think the devs prefer it because it is an active place for the community; to word it better, ‘hey look at this cool thing I did’ > response within a few minutes ‘that’s cool’ heart^5 fire^3 thumbs up^7. Whereas on a forum you’d be waiting for hours, or just not have that casual of a conversation.
It replaces the old usage of IRC servers.
The help channel is highly responsive, and great for things you want a quick chat about, need a response now, or if you get help now great, but if not, you’ll figure it out on your own before you would ever get help on a forum, so it’s not worth posting to a forum.
Threads really do help organize when a discussion is going to be large, and discord is very much searchable, just not from your browser search engine.
For changes to the API, ideas, issues, or bugs, they direct you to github “Discussions” or “Issues”. They do have an idea discord channel, but it’s a more casual thing, or far out there discussions.
Discord does get a lot of hate for it’s searchability, which is valid, but I don’t have a problem with it as long as places like Stack Overflow (or what replaces it) are still around.
there are levels of data hygiene and levels of inconvenience people willing to put up with. Pumping less data points into the machine is still better than pumping more
Personally hate the change to the swipe. I get that on some huge servers people probably use the “reply” feature a lot, but I definitely don’t have so much use for it as to give up the nice, coherent and logical UX of “channel/server list is on the left, user list is on the right, just swipe to them”.
IMO, swiping should be for navigating UI, not interacting with individual items. Now there’s a useless thing on the swipe and I have to reach to the top of the screen if I want to check who’s online and in the channel. Annoying.
That and the new DM screen doesn’t use swipe right as navigation, it’s just a “back” button now. Can’t quickly look at the DM list and go back to your conversation by swiping right-left any more. Literal lazy design because this is an easier way to program that interaction.
Don’t care super much about the DM button moving, it’s more convenient to access but breaks the UI paradigm. Shrug.
Oh, and the “midnight” theme is not new, you could use it for years now in the old versions.
Yeah I’m missing something, it’s almost actually the same like they moved a couple buttons and search is in a different place. I don’t understand the hate.
For me as a server owner who only uses mobile: the update made things far more difficult. I can no longer easily see which users can see which channels, I can’t see who is online easily, and it adds more steps to do what were simple tasks. Whatever things are changing, and while I hate gestures I can see how they are nice. Being disableable or being able to change what it does would also be nice.
All in all its just a good excuse to learn matrix.
I stopped updating Discord’s app once they did the shitty port of the iOS version to Android. Rolled back to 126.21 and haven’t updated since. Sure some things are bugged, like the new usernames (shows Username#0000 for unique names now but who cares) and the nitro profile animation things. Once that version stops working, I stop using Discord.
Yes, their logo redesign hides the gamer origins because Discord has eventually realized everyone uses it and they are trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator nowadays.
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