[DoItToMe81]

I've used Discord on and off since 2017. I wouldn't say it's the same at all. Perhaps it's a generational gap, but I find it is much more, for lack of a better word, 'policed' than traditional chatrooms and IRC. People seemed much more open to discussing divisive topics, usually (ir)religion related on IRC for sure.

Over the years, the freer Discord communities I've been a part of have ended up having to close off to newcomers and wound up dying, because people have inevitably got upset and gone out of their own way to close down the community. And Discord seems to have many more people who get upset at things you ordinarily wouldn't ever conceive as being remotely abrasive.

I remember 'raids' on IRC and a lot of petty interpersonal drama, rumour mongering and community splits and feuds, but moderation was far more lax and I never had a single community I was on get falsely reported and taken down by the owners of the IRC server.

I don't feel it's a platform where people are allowed to truly speak their mind like the communities I was once a part of, because all it takes is a few upset people to mine for reportable posts and your community is gone. There's no alternative site, no way to self host and no other server to jump to. It's just not the same.