[Kaze404]

Discord is the reason I'm a software engineer. I joined back in 2015 and after a few months of usage I had an idea for a bot, which prompted me to learn programming and develop it. I did so, and eventually my little bot was in over 1500 guilds / servers, which eventually lead me to getting my first internship as a software engineer. Now, 6 years later, programming is how I'm able to live a life I did not think was possible to make by having fun at work every day, and I'm incredibly thankful for Discord for giving me the opportunity to do what I love for a living.

That said, I can't express how frustrating it is to see a platform you're so grateful for grow so much in such a short amount of time, and gradually become worse because of it (or, at best, see no significant improvements). Over the years I have vented over and over to anyone who would listen about the ways I want Discord to be better (not for me, but for everyone), and I don't think I have the energy to do so anymore. I could write huge lists about the basic features Discord is missing, but to me it's a slap in the face whenever Discord prompts me to "join my university's server by inputting my e-mail" (even though I'm not a student), while 6 years after launch you still cannot collapse the sidebar on the left that insists to take up 300px of your screen no matter what.

I understand that it's pointless to complain to deaf ears. Over the years I have applied to work at Discord countless times, even talking to one of their managers over LinkedIn, but unfortunately we couldn't make it happen because of USA Visa restrictions. Because of this, I'm forced to sit at home watching a platform that has given me so much deteriorate over the years. I have considered building a competitor, alternative clients, and even bridges to other services like Matrix, but alas I'm stuck here.

[bccdee]

> you still cannot collapse the sidebar on the left

The sidebar bothers me all the time, when I want to have two windows side-by-side on my screen. The actual chat ends up being smaller than the sidebar.

I wrote a javascript bookmarklet that automatically shows/hides the sidebar element on hover. I've gotten a lot of use out of it. It's 821 characters --- less than three tweets long.

Why haven't they solved this problem for users? It's shocking that the only way to shrink the sidebar is to inject javascript.

[Rietty]

Would you mind sharing/making a gist of it please?

[bccdee]

Sure:

javascript:(function(){ function sleep(ms) { return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms)); } let sidehover = false; let guildhover = false; let sidebar = document.getElementsByClassName("sidebar-2K8pFh")[0]; let guildbar = document.getElementsByClassName("guilds-1SWlCJ")[0]; async function hide() { await sleep(50); if (!sidehover && !guildhover) { sidebar.style.display="none"; } } async function show() { await sleep(150); if (sidehover || guildhover) { sidebar.style.display=""; } }; guildbar.addEventListener("mouseenter", () => { guildhover = true; show(); }); guildbar.addEventListener("mouseleave", () => { guildhover = false; hide() }); sidebar.addEventListener("mouseenter", () => { sidehover = true; show() }); sidebar.addEventListener("mouseleave", () => { sidehover = false; hide() }); hide(); })()

The `sleep(150)` and `sleep(50)` can be tweaked to adjust the delay between when you hover over the server bar and when the channels bar is displayed (that's the 150 ms) and between when you move the mouse off the side bar and when the channels bar disappears (the 50 ms).

If you're using the electron desktop app, you can open the javascript console with ctrl-shift-i and paste it in there for the same effect.

[Liskni_si]

Not OP but I also use a collapsible sidebar. Src here: https://github.com/liskin/dotfiles/blob/home/src-webextensio...

[bozhark]

as Rietty said, would you please share?

edit: i before e

[bccdee]

I posted it as a reply to Rietty -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28343549.

[computershit]

> I have considered building a competitor, alternative clients, and even bridges to other services like Matrix, but alas I'm stuck here.

Despite it's recent missteps, Discord has, if nothing else, provided us with an excellent technical foundation of what a modern one stop shop communications platform should look like. I'm keen to be involved at any level of a competitor.

[freid]

Wow, we have basically the same story. My first programming project I build without a tutorial was a discord bot using discord.py and now I'm working as a swe intern. Grateful for this community and sad to see it deteriorating

[Snetry]

I went down the same route and if Discord and the helpful people that I met on my way werent there I would probably be somewhere else.

I guess this is the end of an era