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by dist-epoch 708 days ago
The big problem Discord solves is that nobody wants to create YetAnotherForumAccount.
4 comments

TBH I consider that a feature, to guard against spam and trolls.

My ideal project forum is one where anyone on the internet can read the forum, but contributing to the forum requires some bare minimum effort of creating and verifying a new account. Both of those are the opposite of what Discord does.

> TBH I consider that a feature, to guard against spam and trolls.

It doesn't stop spam and trolls though, that will always exist, it stops real users who can't be bothered with yet another account.

I frankly don't mourn the loss of users "who can't be bothered with yet another account". Putting thought and effort into forum interactions takes longer than creating an account, so someone incapable of the latter is usually incapable of the former.
Idk if I have ever seen a spam account on a tech support forum. Like not a single spam post.

Edit: on a discord*

Have you ever managed one? I have, and it's a regular occurrence. Though not necessarily something that ends up being visible to every user (unless you happen to be around precisely when it happens, before we delete the content).
Seems hard to square spam being more of a problem in discord when visible spam is observably much less than in other forums
IMO Discord is a non-starter for many tech people due to privacy issues and frequent/random phone number requirements. I and many others are completely unable to use it even if we wanted to, because immediately after logging in you get hit with a phone wall. Not everyone gets this but it indeed happens to a wide enough array of people to be quite problematic IMO.
do people really consider this that much of a hassle

takes 1 minute to do

and no need to make/remember passwords with a password manager

> do people really consider this that much of a hassle

Yes, I consider this a huge hassle

If only we could standardize on a federated SSO solution for all sites.

https://xkcd.com/927