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You should consider moving that slack to discord. Discord has unlimited server history for free with pretty good search. The only features you lose compared to slack are ones that are largely only useful for organisations.

(If you do move it to discord, invite pls :P)



...Can we not have more projects move to a proprietary, closed source chat system? (And one that tracks every mouse movement you make...)

Zulip, Discourse, Element(formerly Riot) / Matrix all exist and are fairly nice. And of course, IRC. Searching works well for Zulip/Element.


If they move from a different proprietary closed source chat system.. meh?


I miss nntp


> Discord has unlimited server history for free with pretty good search.

Until they pull a Google and either make it not-free, or drop it altogether. It is difficult to have any faith in the long-term prospects of all these services that depend mostly or only on the goodwill of a company.


Hahah, thanks! They aren't my slacks to move, I'm just a member. I'd love to move them, but I'd probably suggest a forum rather than a discord.

I actually wrote a piece: https://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/3451 ( discussed on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29154216 ) about the advantages/disadvantages of various chat/discussion software options.


Or Element/Matrix. It's nearly comparable to Discord these days, plus it's open source.


The window of time of slack eventually occluding stuff is actually one of the semi useful features of the free version.


Discord is too associated with gamer culture which is fairly rancid.


this is a nonsense argument. you can moderate and restrict your discord channel to enforce whatever culture you want. if you don't want bad culture infesting your channel then don't let it happen. i would still suggest people use matrix over discord, but it has nothing to do with gamer culture.


Discord has a centralized profile system built around gamer culture and the idea of using a “handle” that is rightly disconnected from your identity. It has so many features designed around gaming.


> Discord has a centralized profile system built around gamer culture and the idea of using a “handle” that is rightly disconnected from your identity.

You make it sound like this is a bad thing?

Letting people use handles has been a thing since way before modern gamer and it is probably the only right way if you want interesting people to share stuff.

Some (most?) of the most civil places that exist on the internet - including HN - has pseudonymity.

The only people who thrive with mandatory Real Names policies are:

- people who operate under a false but real looking name anyway (trolls etc)

- people who are squeaking clean by todays standards (and even not all of them because what about tomorrow or next week or next year?)

- people who have nothing to lose anyway or don't realize the problem of Full Name Policies.

> It has so many features designed around gaming.

It works really nice for non gaming too.


> Letting people use handles has been a thing since way before modern gamer and it is probably the only right way if you want interesting people to share stuff.

The issue is being unable to have, under a single login, completely isolated identities for each server (or group of servers).

> It works really nice for non gaming too.

IMHO the Discord branding (specifically the copy) works great for a gaming audience but is slightly off-putting for a non-geeky audience (think non-tech business types).


> IMHO the Discord branding (...) is slightly off-putting for a non-geeky audience (think non-tech business types).

I strongly dislike Discord because it is a proprietary platform. But the off-putting of "business types" sounds like a great feature!


People should be able to be who they want in any community, making one central identity doesn’t allow that.


Ok, now I see.

I actually agree with that point.

I'd like to mention though that one model I really liked was what the one that Google landed on with Google+: a central identity only known to one entity and then as many pseudonyms as you want that you can switch between but that can only be traced back by the provider, and where they promise not to do it except for good reasons.

Of course these days we know that such promises need to be backed by laws to really be effective, but what a nice idea - as long as the identity provider can be trusted!

Also, when I think of it Telegram has something very close to this if someone wants to test what it feels like. And just like Google+ it is not totally obvious: you first have to create a channel, then you can reply to other groups as that channel. Maybe you must activate something in your channel settings too.


What you’ve described there could also be attributed to a plethora of chat systems that predate “gamer culture”.


Data point: A large fraction of my social life is on Discord, and if any gamer culture has leaked in, I haven't noticed.




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