FreeGameDev

Could it be we need an open source equivalent of Discord? It was said elsewhere that even open source developers choose Discord.

I wonder what the people like so much about Discord.
Is it
- the network effect (everybody is there because everybody is there)?
- the back history (letting you see postings done before you logged in)?
- the colours?
- other features (quite many as it seems)?

Answers to this question might help us getting the community back.

Greetings
Peter

PeterX {l Wrote}:Could it be we need an open source equivalent of Discord?

Yes, could be.

PeterX {l Wrote}:Answers to this question might help us getting the community back.

Sadly I cannot help you with that, because I can't use it (and frankly, don't even want to). Discord does not run on my machines, my firewall is throwing way too many warnings and being closed source I don't think it's a good idea to add exception rules for it...

Right now I'm busy with TirNanoG, but once I'm finished with that, I'd gladly start an Open Source Discord project with your help. (That is, if there's really a need for such a project. I guess this could also solve @Julius problem with php-bb and Flarum too.)

Cheers,
bzt

The developers of Discourse (the open source forum software) are currently working on a add-on for a Discord like chat. This might have a chance of succeeding as there are already a lot of Discourse forums out there and it could be a nice supplement.

Just making a FOSS Discord clone will not help as there are already quite a few of those with little success. The most popular is probably Element (Matrix). By now the network effect of Discord is just too strong.

Julius {l Wrote}:The developers of Discourse (the open source forum software) are currently working on a add-on for a Discord like chat.

Those are good news. So there's already something being worked on.

Julius {l Wrote}:Just making a FOSS Discord clone will not help as there are already quite a few of those with little success. The most popular is probably Element (Matrix).

Are you sure that Element/Matrix and others have all the features Discord has? Last time I used it it had endless shiny stuff.

Julius {l Wrote}:By now the network effect of Discord is just too strong.

It's a shame and it's probably true. But I'm hoping against all odds this isn't true because I'm a die-hard optimist.

Edit btw thanks for the TirNano RPG engine.

Greetings
Peter

Text chat wise open source stuff like Element, Rocket Chat, Mattermost etc are quite similar in features to Discord. The only real difference is the audio-chat. There is of course Mumble for that, but the integration of it in Element for example isn't the best.

Julius {l Wrote}:The only real difference is the audio-chat

I don't think the audio-chat is the reason for many people to use Discord. So the existing open source alternatives are good enough to compete. Then I must admit that probably the network effect is the reason. That's too bad!

Greetings
Peter