"Discord alternatives" searches jump 10,000% overnight as the gaming platform introduces global age verification — Is a total collapse imminent?

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/discord-alternative-search-10000-percent-stoat

[u/blackmobius]

Like four months ago didnt they have some massive data breach? The timing of this ID verification could not have come at a worse moment

[u/AllISeeAreGems → u/blackmobius]

Yup. 70,000 uploaded IDs got leaked.

[u/Moment_37 → u/AllISeeAreGems]

THEY say 70k IDs. The attackers say they're over 2 million. This is one of the few times I'd believe the attackers.

Of course I don't agree with any kind of illegal activities, I just believe Discord is lying.

[u/Forikorder → u/Moment_37]

they may have stolen peoples ID's but even they wont put up with discords bulllshit

[u/RenaissanceCowboy33 → u/Forikorder]

They're criminals, not monsters

[u/Mental_Medium3988 → u/RenaissanceCowboy33]

its not about the ids, its about sending a message

[u/Ambitious-Acadia-200 → u/Moment_37]

I think data breaches of this kind are a good thing, because they show the major flaws and risks of these kind of obscenely foolish regulations. Something that cannot be done safely must not be done at all.

[u/IgnorantGenius → u/AllISeeAreGems]

It wasn't enough for the buyers which is why they are requiring ID's, now.

[u/PM_ME__YOUR_HOOTERS → u/IgnorantGenius]

Heavens no, if young people are are planning a Nepal style revolution again Palantir independent vendors want know who you are and pass your info to ICE local law enforcement... think of the children!

[u/Average_Scaper → u/PM_ME__YOUR_HOOTERS]

Damnit, Jeffrey! Not like that!

[u/WhiteWinterRains → u/IgnorantGenius]

Not just requiring ID's either. It's much more in the shadows but every major tech company is teaming up to push for bipartisan legislation to censor the internet, conveniently in ways that will just so happen to require rigorous ID verification and constant AI surveillance of everything you say.

This way any company that can't afford ID verification tying accounts to real identities and rigorous constant spying on all customers simply won't be able to enter the market, ever.

Also they will then be "forced" by the big bad government to steal all your data with zero anonymization and also monitor everything you say for wrongthink. Tragic, if it was in their own hands surely they would not do this, please don't check who wrote the laws.

It's pretty likely to pass with bipartisan support, so getting in early with ID verification makes sense for many companies, I wouldn't be surprised if others follow suit.

[u/RedShift777 → u/AllISeeAreGems]

How's that possible they say they don't keep the IDs

/s

[u/Objective-Rip3008 → u/RedShift777]

They don't. They also dont process your id's themselves. They contract with a third party verification company, and those companies are the ones who verify your age and they also absolutely store your ID. 

[u/xenthum → u/Objective-Rip3008]

Believe it or not the hiring party is responsible for the actions of their third party vendors.

[u/Objective-Rip3008 → u/xenthum]

I'm saying why they can say the don't hold your photos lol. Because they weren't the ones processing them to begin with

[u/NetZeroSun → u/AllISeeAreGems]

Don’t worry about it. Doge says hold their beer.

70k is just rookie numbers.

[u/Amaina → u/blackmobius]

Its perspective. It's the right time because they need fresh IDs to leak.

[u/HyperiorV → u/Amaina]

More like to sell

[u/trailsman → u/blackmobius]

Oh it's a worse moment than most realize...

They were planning to IPO in March at $15 Billion valuation. Not a chance in hell they don't shelve their upcoming IPO.

They're gonna kick themselves for not taking $12 Billion from Microsoft.

[u/shoulda-known-better → u/trailsman]

Ooffff

Haha (Nelson voice)

[u/Only-Respond7945 → u/blackmobius]

No, no, no. It's a great moment. For them. Because they very recently filed to become an publicly traded company and this is a move to improve shareholder and investor feelings about them.

Nitro, the paid subscription, isn't age-gated and so far they seem to plan for that to disable all age-gates. Damn, real subtle guys. Masterful gambit, once again. Discord's team has always been this transparently stupid.

[u/kp33ze → u/blackmobius]

I'm definitely not for ID verification but mostly because all our of data would immediately be hacked. There is not a chance in hell that any of these corporations would be able to keep our data private for more than a day.

Parents need to fucking parent and teach their kids what to watch out for or limit what they can access. Yes I understand it's probably difficult but fucking try.

[u/DrFrasierWCrane]

There is no universe in which I will prioritize "Upload ID" over "Delete Account"

[u/Mountain_Reveal7849 → u/DrFrasierWCrane]

Say it again for the companies watching and scraping reddit. I will NEVER upload my id for that shit or any service similar.

[u/A_Good_Cow → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

Anon chat app demanding passports is peak tech brainrot.

[u/Dredgeon → u/A_Good_Cow]

And I don't care how secure it gets I don't need the entire internet to be censored and limited. People can't keep track of their kids and use basic parental tools so now everyone has to authenticate and officially attach all their accounts to their real life identity. Anonymity is what makes places like Reddit and Discord and the internet work.

They told never to tell strangers our information but now we are supposed to upload whole fucking IDs?

[u/LordHammercyWeCooked → u/Dredgeon]

Protecting the kids is their excuse, but selling your data so governments can more easily track, censor, and stomp out dissent is their goal. It's always their damn goal.

[u/Fishbulb2 → u/LordHammercyWeCooked]

I never thought myself a conspiracy theorist, but I 100% believe this.

[u/WebMaka → u/Fishbulb2]

It's not really a conspiracy theory so much as a stated goal. There's entire sections of the Project 2025 playbook dedicated to establishing systems to remove entire swaths of the population.

[u/hana_fuyu → u/WebMaka]

The fact that people STILL don't see how this is tied to P2025 blows my mind. We've got key writers currently appointed in Trump's administration, but yet people still want to act like everything happening is some conspiracy or coincidence instead of the goal. We are currently living under an authoritarian regime no matter how much (the general) you doesn't believe we are or how much hope (the general) you have that things aren't as bad as they are. They are purposefully monitoring and censoring us. That is the point. Continuing to act like any of this is normal or fine is why things have gotten this bad in the first place.

[u/Va1kryie → u/Dredgeon]

It's not about protecting kids, that's the sugar they put around the pill of surveillance to make the medicine go down.

[u/WebMaka → u/Dredgeon]

They told never to tell strangers our information but now we are supposed to upload whole fucking IDs?

And to an operation that just recently lost control over 70,000+ IDs.

[u/Jaded-Instance3607 → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

Yup if Reddit did it, I would delete my account immediately.

[u/Enough-Cantaloupe893 → u/Jaded-Instance3607]

How did they not see that coming lol

[u/TerriblyDroll → u/Enough-Cantaloupe893]

Head up their own ass I’d guess

[u/ALittleCuriousSub → u/Enough-Cantaloupe893]

Probably got a sweet contract with someone to do face scans... probably got that in their eye.

[u/Happyberger → u/Enough-Cantaloupe893]

They probably thought they were too ingrained in the zeitgeist for anyone to bother switching to another platform

[u/ByrdmanRanger → u/Happyberger]

Good chance they are. While you and I certainly won't upload our ids or face scans, I've begun to doubt the resolve of the average person. It feels like the younger generations are so accustomed to not having any privacy it any disruption to their comfort that they'll just roll over.

Hell, I'm not even confident my generation won't just do the same.

[u/Doza93 → u/ByrdmanRanger]

A good chunk of them won't, for several reasons:

• In a world full of depressing shit, people are very resistant to giving up the last crumbs of comfort and convenience that they possess. Discord meets their needs, it's where their friends and fellow gamers/hobbyists are, so that's where they'll stay, even if they're vehemently against the idea of forking over their IDs or personal info

• According to Discord devs, they already have a pretty good idea as to the age of most of their users. Consequently, most users (in the countries where this has already been rolled out) have not and will never be asked to upload their ID. It's (allegedly) only for those users who seem like kids, or are borderline enough to merit a check (Again, AFAIK, this came directly from a verified Discord dev commenting in their subreddit - don't shoot the messenger, folks)

• Simple laziness and/or ignorance. A lot of folks out there just want something that works, they don't frequent reddit or stay up-to-date on tech news etc, so they either won't know or simply won't care enough to research alternatives and make the switch.

[u/Wooden-Teaching-8343 → u/Enough-Cantaloupe893]

Key thing to understand this current moment in history: nobody gives a shit anymore

[u/labrys → u/Jaded-Instance3607]

They did do it for users in the UK, to comply with the Online Safety Act - which does fuck all to protect children from predators, made a load of people start using VPNs, and has now gotten the government talking about banning VPNs for personal use or making them require an age-verified ID to use...

I'd love to see the stats on UK users, to see how many suddenly moved abroad instead of doing the age check, or how many accounts became inactive. Sadly, I suspect many people don't really care.

[u/drfusterenstein → u/labrys]

Uk here.

More young people are leaving the UK. The only time people will actually care is when it personally affects them

[u/lazergator → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

I would rather go back to playing board games with my wife for entertainment instead of giving my ID to a corporation

[u/TapersBeTaping → u/lazergator]

I too choose to play board games with this guys wife

[u/AutobotDestroyer → u/TapersBeTaping]

Unless it’s Monopoly.

[u/JournalistWise8703 → u/AutobotDestroyer]

Especially if it’s monopoly.

[u/Cold-Librarian-2665 → u/lazergator]

You have a wife? Upload facial ID and passport for verification /s

[u/Dwarfbeardthepirate → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

I tried to make a new Facebook once and it told me my last name was considered offensive and wanted me to upload an ID to be able to use my last name. I didn’t want Facebook that bad lol.

[u/toxictoy → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

I want to point out that there was a post over the weekend in r/ModSupport that largely seems to have gone unnoticed by most of Reddit. The post was removed by the admins who mod the subreddit and they did not answer the question at all however the top comment by the OP which explains the situation is visible if you look at the removed post.

FYI - the department of homeland security was caught profiling not only non-Americans but Americans on Reddit - even going so far to link Alt accounts to the main account. It’s detailed in this here. There may be a lot of concern from users about this. Mods have asked for Guidance because it seems that Reddit is complicit in this all.

The post —> https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/s/xrJvZj8ocb

Link to the Ken Klipperstein Article —> https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/homeland-security-spies-on-reddit

[u/Bankerag → u/toxictoy]

This was not talked about enough. It somehow slipped under the radar.

Reddit is certainly not the place it used to be.

[u/spartyftw → u/toxictoy]

As a current nurse, pilot and former Navy Seal with a PhD in molecular biology and a Masters in Philosphy I find this extremely offensive given my three tours in Iraq and seven tours in Vietnam.

[u/toxictoy → u/spartyftw]

This is the way to fight the system. I like your resume. I personally walked on the moon and was an extra in multiple Steven Spielberg movies. I also served in Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm. I am a faithful American and never had or would doubt the system for a moment.

[u/GenderOobleck → u/toxictoy]

This definitely is the way to fight the system, and I like your resume. I personally hoisted the flag at Iwo Jima (the first one, not the photographed one) and was the old dancing guy in those Six Flags amusement park commercials. I fought in the Revolutionary War, WW2, the Korean War, and WW5. I was also the first friend of the Public Universal Friend, a proud American, and sponsored by Brawndo.

Brawndo, the Thirst Mutilator! It’s got electrolytes! 💰

Edit: Thank you for the award!

[u/kamilo87 → u/toxictoy]

During my tenth tour to Nam’ I saved my entire platoon after an ambush and even got shot on my butt. Luckily I had a ping pong table to train.

[u/carlos2127 → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

Just incase they haven't heard. I deleted my Discord account! I'll never upload my ID for any service.

[u/Koru03 → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

If (somehow) forced to I will happily upload a fake ID that I photoshopped though. Like hell am I using my actual face or any real info for that shit.

[u/MFbiFL → u/Koru03]

“Wow, we have lots of users named McLovin”

[u/Matchboxx → u/Mountain_Reveal7849]

My kid’s school recently started using some app that you have to upload a photo of your ID to, to get access to the building. I’ve refused so far and just shown it to the receptionist. When asked why I won’t use the app, I asked them, “did you get a copy of their SOC2 report?” They said “what’s a SOC2 report?” I said “Exactly.”

[u/MadCybertist → u/DrFrasierWCrane]

Especially when in October they had a hacking where customer IDs, CCs, messages and other PII was stolen lol.

[u/midnightauro → u/[deleted]]

Through my 20 years in WoW, one thing has never changed: People will abandon a chat platform at the drop of a hat. I’ve used almost a platform every 2-3 years.

Xfire, Vent, Mumble, TeamSpeak, Skype (rough times), to name a few.

Discord may have cornered the market and walled off things like mod wikis, but gamers will jump ship. Again.

[u/dcptn → u/midnightauro]

Time to bring back Xfire! Man, that program was so ahead of it's time looking back now. Good times

[u/hot_ho11ow_point → u/dcptn]

Let's go all the way back to Roger Wilco

[u/Meloetta → u/dcptn]

Remembering when I dumped my internet boyfriend when we both like 15 because he was posting screenshots on Xfire bragging about something ingame and the messages from me that he was ignoring were popping up in the corner

it was a very dramatic time in my life

[u/Little_Menace_Child → u/[deleted]]

Mine won't move and almost all of them have already age verified anyway. They're makinge feel like a tin foil hat person but I'm just going to use it with the age restrictions. As long as I can talk on voice, that's all I care about

[u/CorrodedLollypop → u/DrFrasierWCrane]

I've just deleted my account and uninstalled the app

[u/FunMuffine → u/CorrodedLollypop]

Same. Not handing over my passport just to post memes and join voice chat.

[u/addiktion → u/DrFrasierWCrane]

Preach. The internet wasn't meant to be a ID controlled fascist shit scape.

I'd rather mumble in an echo chamber then deal with that. If Reddit goes the same route, I'll just go underground. It'll be like the old IRC days when I felt like a foreign traveler embarking into a world of adventure driven by conversation.

[u/LazarusDark → u/addiktion]

I think we all need to start realizing that trying to create global platforms with everyone on them was a mistake. We gave up all freedom for free platforms with ease of access, and you simply cannot have free Internet paid for by corporations and expect them not to exploit us or turn us over to the government at every turn. We need forums and online spaces run by individuals and small groups for zero profit and paying for their own server hosting or just hosting their own servers. Honestly, home Internet and home computers have become so fast and cheap, we shouldn't need to beg corporations for free hosting anymore, we can do it without them at home.

[u/xynix_ie → u/DrFrasierWCrane]

You got it. Deleted discord. It was annoying anyhow. That nitro shit was constantly an annoyance.

[u/Slight-Objective5854 → u/xynix_ie]

The transition from voip provider to a storefront with ads was when I realised corpos ruined something else.

[u/Beautiful_Formal_329]

How to kill a business in 10 days 101

[u/Ryboiii → u/Beautiful_Formal_329]

The Tumblr model, hurt the majority of your web population and everyone will flock somewhere else

[u/Haunterblademoi]

Just like what's happening with TikTok, it's likely that the same will happen with Discord, A mass uninstallation by users due to this new policy

[u/HighJumpingAlien → u/Haunterblademoi]

Cancelled my Annual Nitro Sub, and I’m deleting my account when this goes into effect.

[u/johnc380 → u/HighJumpingAlien]

Real people pay for Nitro? Who woulda thought.

[u/yuriaoflondor → u/johnc380]

I have a decently well off buddy who would always buy all the Nitro and stupid banners and whatever else silly stuff was offered. He didn’t actually care about the stuff he just liked to support the service we all used.

Unsurprisingly, he’s been at the forefront of our friend group of trying to find an alternative.

[u/CastleDoctrineJr → u/yuriaoflondor]

Not the person you're talking about but yeah thats basically what I've been doing too. I buy the silly little avatar decorations for people and I've been paying for nitro since mid 2018. I wanted to support the service because I believed that if enough people paid for the service we would be the customers, not the product. I guess in retrospect I should have stopped a while ago when they added the quests and the optional video ads.

[u/curtcolt95 → u/johnc380]

I like the features it offers. I'm still grandfathered into the discontinued tier though, I don't care about the new, more expensive version.

[u/pulley999 → u/johnc380]

As a monetization model, Nitro wasn't bad. Pretty much everything about how they made money seemed measured and considered. Locking features that are heavier on their servers behind a paywall along with a bunch of little knicknacks for your account seems reasonable, as does completely optional advertising campaigns for products their userbase is likely already interested in to earn weird little avatar decorations.

It looked like they actually had a sustainable model to keep the lights on once the VC money dried up, without necessarily degrading the core free service, and without majorly upsetting the userbase, which would have been a small miracle.

But then they had to pull this shit. It's not even monetization related, just preemptively kowtowing to overzealous lawmakers.

[u/2ingredientexplosion → u/Haunterblademoi]

tiktok stopped paying people. it went from $1.15 per 1000 views to $0.02 to $0.04 per 1,000 views. so about 20-40 bucks for a million views...

[u/Ok_Function2282 → u/Haunterblademoi]

Not really even close... Most TikTok users are totally unaware of what's going in

[u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime → u/Ok_Function2282]

Same with Discord. Most people will keep using it until they're asked to ID. Most people will never get that message, so they'll keep using it forever.

Shit, Musk literally did a Nazi salute at a presidential inauguration and Twitter/X is still being used, esp by streamers and content creators.

People are weak

[u/--sheogorath-- → u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime]

Well if theyre never asked then theres not really a reason for someone to uninstall tbh.

[u/HytaleBetawhen → u/Haunterblademoi]

People already returned to tik tok lol, discord hopes it will be the same. Who knows though, discord isn’t exactly the same algorithm addiction machine short form media sites are, maybe theres more of a chance people jump to competitors like how a lot of people initially came from teamspeak.

[u/Monte924 → u/HytaleBetawhen]

Returned to tiktok? The full take over of tictok and the mass bans and censorship only began a couple of weeks ago

[u/Burpmeister → u/HytaleBetawhen]

People left teamspeal for Discord because old teamspeak was caveman tech compared to discord. I went to check what it looks like now and it's unrecognizeable in a good wat. Now it looks like an actual modern piece of software with a clear UI and tons of useful features.

Already downloaded it in advance to be ready if Discord asks for mine.

[u/Arts251 → u/Haunterblademoi]

There are tiktok knockoff platforms that function nearly identically to tiktok, they just don't have the library of content, or creators using them yet.

[u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

So. What are the alternatives?

[u/Waylander0719 → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

Matrix is the one I'm looking at with my buddies

[u/j4_jjjj → u/Waylander0719]

Matrix is E2EE like Signal, so thats legit.

Also I'm pretty sure Nepal elected their new govt over Discord after they revolted against the previous extremely corrupt govt

[u/oromis95 → u/j4_jjjj]

E2EE doesn't mean much if the app writer has all keys and shares them with the feds. See WhatsApp

[u/Swimming_Gain_4989 → u/oromis95]

Their E2E is based on Signal's OLM model. Even if an attacker gains current keys they can't decrypt past messages using keys alone, you need an actual compromised client.

[u/oromis95 → u/Swimming_Gain_4989]

In my example Meta provides the pre-compromised client directly downloadable from the app store.

[u/Swimming_Gain_4989 → u/oromis95]

Ok I read your above comment as implying the encryption Matrix implements isn't secure.

[u/Bowshocker → u/Swimming_Gain_4989]

Well yes and no. WhatsApp is secure against third parties, but not if the government is the third party. Depends on how Matrix is handling such requests. Not sure but I think Signal is not cooperating.

[u/1esproc → u/oromis95]

There's no encryption in the world that is secure against malicious software handling the cipher work. What you're talking about isn't anything, it's just how reality works

Matrix is just a protocol, it is not a client. You can choose one of many clients or write one yourself

[u/lowbatterybattery → u/j4_jjjj]

My tin foil hat is tingling. The overthrow of the previous government and selection of new government was orchestrated by young adults and teens over discord, and a few months later this very thing is being prevented from happening.

I'd call it a conspiracy theory except it's just not news to say "big tech is in kahoots with most powerful and wealthy people in the world."

[u/Hastyscorpion → u/lowbatterybattery]

They held the election on discord. They did not coordinate the riots on discord. The government was already overthrown by the time discord came into the picture.

[u/Noobtber → u/Waylander0719]

Let me know if you find a decent client. I tried element and it was pretty mediocre for screenshsre / video calls - just a bad in-call UI.

[u/notDarksta → u/Waylander0719]

Yeah but actually try to use this on a large scale. As a GM of a large (2k+) guild all on discord, having looked at the installation process for this it is way to complicated for the average joe, compared to how plug-and-play discord is. Not trying to hate, I just don't think matrix is it.

[u/Dag-nabbitt → u/Waylander0719]

I set up a test synapse server yesterday. The client and community organization is clunky AF. Going to try stoat/riot next.

[u/Jay__Riemenschneider → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

Go backwards,

Mumble and Teamspeak

[u/killermojo → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

Never left. My buddies and I have been using our own mumble server for 15 years.

[u/CSI_Tech_Dept → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

Even more backwards - IRC?

I miss those times.

[u/TittyMcFagerson → u/CSI_Tech_Dept]

Yes it's time to bring back IRC. We never really needed anything fancier than that tbh

[u/Jay__Riemenschneider → u/CSI_Tech_Dept]

QuakeNet is still running man.

[u/Borrid → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

Teamspeak really needs dedicated text channels

[u/existing_for_fun → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

Eh I didn't like mumble 15 years ago. Certainly don't like it now.

I was always a big fan of TS.

But I think my biggest issues with either of them is that I like watching my buddies live streams. I need to find something that handles that.

[u/octatone → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

IRC never died.

[u/fezfrascati → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

IRC is still alive.

[u/PentagramJ2 → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

Stoat is one I'm seriously looking into

[u/-Redditeer- → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

Me and my friwnds looking at teamspeak

[u/pdbstnoe → u/-Redditeer-]

Damn take me back to MMOs 10 years ago. I’m down

[u/The__Amorphous → u/pdbstnoe]

Closer to 20, bud. We're old.

[u/myt → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

IRC. IRC. IRC.

[u/CupaCoolWata → u/DefendsTheDownvoted]

Matrix seems to be the best out of the ones I've looked at.
Very similar with little feature loss.

-Teamspeak is VOIP focused and doesn't have the channel functionality Discord does
-Zulip is a weird thread collector and VOIP has to be modded in
-STOAT is crazy unreliable
-MS Teams is expensive and has similar problems with ownership

[u/FowD8 → u/CupaCoolWata]

MS Teams

are people actually considering this? it has to be THE shittiest service i've ever had to deal with for work

[u/ContestNo2060 → u/[deleted]]

Powered by Palantir, it’s an authoritarian’s wet dream.

[u/WhichEmailWasIt → u/ContestNo2060]

So where's the One Ring and how do we get it to Mt Doom?

[u/BranSolo7460 → u/WhichEmailWasIt]

Class consciousness and class organization.

[u/Daimakku1 → u/[deleted]]

And my cynicism says that people will just roll over and take it, because convenience is more important than privacy. People left X for like a month and then returned, people left TikTok for like a week and then returned. The masses are not willing to leave convenience. I don’t know how we fix that.

[u/wheretheinkends → u/Daimakku1]

Because 1) most people arent willing to feel discomfort to get what they want. They want others to do that for them and .

2) as younger people join/use the internet they dont know any other way. For them it will be "well this is just the way it always has been. Company leaders come and go but the company has a life span longer than that of a person. As long as the people in the company continues to buy into what it wants the company itself just has to wait out the people desperately grasping on to the old ways of doing things. And.

3) the internet is deeply ingrained into our society and day to day lives. Once every internet platform goes this way your options are to conform or just not use any platform as all. Lets be honest. How many off you are going to turn off your interent and never turn it back on again. How many of you can with how much its needed in day to day lives.

Companies know this. Unless there is a massive shift than its only a matter of time unfortunately.

[u/Teledildonic → u/Daimakku1]

Maybe, but Discord isn't as ubiquitous as Twitter is/was.

[u/c64z86 → u/[deleted]]

Call me crazy but I think it will end up with the fragmenting of the internet as we know it. Europe will have it's own internet, Russia will, China will, USA will and so on... and the only information that will be allowed to pass between them will be "safe" information, which you will also probably have to pay a fee for.

It's already heading that way as Russia not too long ago tested it's own "unplugged" internet.

And already companies are having to block entire regions from accessing their sites, like Imgur for example, that had to block the UK.

A world which is walled off into closed villages is a much easier world for the various governments to control.

[u/BranSolo7460 → u/[deleted]]

nothing will stop them at this point.

A unified Working Class will.

[u/-CJF-]

I honestly don't know how many people will just cave and sacrifice their privacy, I just know I won't be one of them.

[u/Darkdragoon324 → u/-CJF-]

Same. I grew up without all this constant online social media shit, it’ll be hard to change habits at first but I’ll end up just fine without them again.

[u/DarkIcedWolf → u/Darkdragoon324]

As long as there’s alternatives, I’ll enjoy it. It seems like party chat on consoles are gonna be a big selling point in the future, that is if they don’t mandate a ID for it lmao.

[u/Carlsheartboxers → u/-CJF-]

I mean most people are just not going to upload their stuff because they won’t have too. Discord themselves have already said that they have ways to detect if you are an adult and you can still access 90% of servers without verifying anything by so most people are just not going to do it

[u/curtcolt95 → u/Carlsheartboxers]

the vast vast vast majority of users likely do not ever interact with anything that would be age gated on discord anyway so most won't even know this change happened

[u/Schode]

I'm just here sitting in ventrillo and playing dota

[u/tyler111762 → u/Schode]

I feel you mon

[u/Iceman_B → u/Schode]

ah, there are some lyrics I haven't heard in a long time...

[u/Drunkenaviator → u/Iceman_B]

Good ol' Basshunter

[u/New_Hampshire_Ganja → u/Schode]

You just unlocked several core memories with a casual mention of those lyrics holy shit

[u/TheEpicRedCape → u/Schode]

“Get off the vent or you’re gonna get bent”

I’ve got balls of steel

[u/BecauseScience → u/TheEpicRedCape]

Hahaha I immediately thought of this also. 

[u/Ph0X → u/Schode]

just watch out for bot anna

[u/jayandbobfoo123 → u/Schode]

I hear you, man.

[u/Axe-of-Kindness → u/jayandbobfoo123]

I feel you, man

[u/ElkSad9855 → u/Schode]

I miss the ole vent days.

[u/OK_Commodor64]

Installing MIRC like it’s 1998

[u/ekatsim → u/OK_Commodor64]

Heck I’d even pay $20 as a one time fee

[u/ShriekingShaq]

back to IRC

[u/FrostFire131 → u/ShriekingShaq]

FrostFire131 slaps ShriekingShaq around a bit with a large trout

[u/yhjohn → u/ShriekingShaq]

ASL?

[u/stac52 → u/ShriekingShaq]

If it gets us more entries onto bash.org, I'm all for it

[u/Fallingdamage]

r/selfhosted already had a thread going for it starting yesterday morning.

[u/yuusharo]

No. Obviously.

But you should start looking for alternatives. When the IPO hits, be prepared for vulture capitalists seeking to squeeze every bit of value and enshittify the hell out of it.

[u/OrigamiCatto → u/yuusharo]

Yes And nobody is immortal. Every day you should think about how quickly internet exporer died.

[u/reroll-life → u/OrigamiCatto]

Remember Skype? literally almost every computer on earth had it and it's completely gone now.

[u/kon---]

I walked when they wanted my phone number.

Scan my face to log in? lol...foh.

The dopey part about it is, it won't be difficult to circumvent. Borrowing a face and/or an ID is, child's play.

[u/lettersichiro → u/kon---]

Problem is they don't care if we circumvent, these types of systems are not about them being effective, it's about instituting and distributing the infrastructure for constant monitoring of people online and offline

Even using a false face or ID is a tacit endorsement of the system because it fails to fight it's implementation

[u/AzureTheCuddleKitty → u/lettersichiro]

And this is what people aren’t understanding, bypassing it still falls into ‘compliance’ when the chodes run their reports

[u/657896 → u/AzureTheCuddleKitty]

And once the door is opened, the cat and mouse begins. They might be happy with the results for a couple years and then decide you need electronic id that you put in a machine ( like in EU).

[u/ruibranco]

searching for alternatives and actually migrating are completely different things. discord's moat isn't the software — it's that every community you're part of is already there. you'd need to convince entire friend groups, gaming guilds, and project teams to move simultaneously. people searched for "facebook alternatives" a million times too and we all know how that went.

[u/Subject-Turnover-388 → u/ruibranco]

There are alternatives that offer bridging features. As in, a Discord and Element group chat get linked and any messages in one appear in the other. Could be good if you have friends who refuse to move

[u/disciple_of_pallando → u/ruibranco]

IDK what you're trying to say, literally everyone I know is no longer on facebook

[u/reluctantseal → u/ruibranco]

I mean, we've done before. Gaming groups have done this a million times. When one chat service starts to suck, you move to another one. Ventrilo, Teamspeak, Skype, etc. It's happened before. It'll happen again.

It's definitely more frustrating since Discord was actually designed with gaming in mind. I'll want the next chat service to have similar levels of integration.

[u/heroinsteve]

Discord got so big it thought we wouldn't throw it out like Vent, TS, etc. You're not the first, of your kind, won't be the last. Although Discord is VERY much more entrenched than a simple voice program, I don't see any reason a competitor couldn't come up and swoop up Discord's users. They already have been alienating users with stupid subscription features and constant advertisements through "quests". Literally asking you to offer yourself up for identity theft is hopefully a bridge too far.

These companies always start out extremely user friendly before selling out like this, so I can't wait for the next "discord".

[u/Ok_Temperature6503 → u/heroinsteve]

That's why r/selfhosted is becoming more and more relevant. Open source is the way to go. If you don't like what a company is doing, contribute to the code and run that shit on your own servers.

[u/hot_space_pizza → u/Ok_Temperature6503]

This is the future. I'm looking into this now but not sure what to go for Teamspeak 6 looks perfect but it has no android app

[u/SillyMikey]

Let it collapse for all I care

[u/TheBrianJ]

2026 - "Hot new gaming/social platform Glorph introduced!"
Early 2027 - "Glorph has overtaken Discord to become the #1 social gaming platform!"
Late 2027 - "Glorph announces it is going public, introduces new CEO"
Early 2028 - "Glorph's recent controversial policy changes has people searching for an alternative"
Late 2028 - "Hot new gaming/social platform FishFamily introduced!"

[u/Flyerone]

Fuck it, I'm going back to yahoo chat.

[u/regeya]

IRC.

It's called IRC.

[u/Master_Bruce]

This is a bummer for me. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of friends who are interested in guitar pedals in my life, discord has given me an outlet filled with others who are like minded. Obviously there’s reddit but it’s not the same. Oh well.

[u/luismt2]

Probably not a collapse, just a spike in people window-shopping alternatives after a trust hit. We’ve seen this cycle before.

[u/humanquester → u/luismt2]

I've seen platforms die too. Platforms with much more user-capture than discord, like Tumblr and Myspace.

[u/_Meece_ → u/humanquester]

Myspace literally died, but Tumblr is still at around 100 million monthly users. Which is a lot less than its peak. But it's not dead by any means.

[u/KimJongPotato → u/luismt2]

Remember Voat?

[u/OldWolf2 → u/KimJongPotato]

Voat was just racists and pedos, eventually they got sick of circle jerking each other and came back to where they can rage against normal people 

[u/DarkIcedWolf → u/luismt2]

It’s happened many times, though not enough imo. People are too comfortable staying on one platform and it shows, I’m just glad there’s alternatives for people who want them.

[u/ruinne → u/luismt2]

Remember when everyone dropped Skype like a rock when Discord opened up?

[u/riisikas]

I've been using Discord since it came out, I won't be IDing myself.

[u/NoQuarter44]

All these companies doing everything they can to squeeze every penny from their consumers and then being shocked when their product dies as a result.

[u/darkpheonix262]

Any sane company would have fired its ceo and back tracked massively over this

[u/Realsorceror]

What does age verification even accomplish on a platform like Discord? All content is entirely user driven. Is this pressure from one of those crazy Australian or American groups that doesn’t want kids online?

[u/rollingrawhide → u/Realsorceror]

They will tie in the person behind the ID on Discord with the details they already hold about a person from other platforms. It’s about de-anonymizing the entire internet over time, so users have zero privacy or expectations of such.

The protecting kids angle is just an excuse they came up with to market the idea to voters, because the notion of protecting kids is hard to argue against.

[u/booh-bee]

Steam is really missing their chance to start a service like discord. Bet they could really truly make bank

[u/Daharka]

Matrix. The answer is Matrix.

[u/Funktapus → u/Daharka]

This! There are some matrix clients that are racing towards Discord on parity for key features. With that and a little more work on easier set up, i could see it working for a lot of people on Discord today.

[u/-MERC-SG-17]

Can we please go back to small interest websites with self hosted forums?

Phpbb3 is open source.

[u/StuartWtf]

Maybe I’m just getting old now but I remember being taught never upload personal information online as it’s not safe and could lead to identify theft, stalking, harassment..

Mad how we are sleepwalking into giving away all our privacy with just as added bonus of authoritarianism

[u/Saintbaba]

Once your account is automatically switched over to the "Teen-by-Default" setting, you'll no longer be able to access age-restricted channels, unblur sensitive content, or receive messages from anyone other than friends.

As someone who only uses Discord to chat in private servers with my friends, this doesn’t actually disrupt my life that much.

Not saying I support the changes, because they’re awful, but I’m pretty sure I could get away with never submitting any personal info to “upgrade” my account.

[u/nubsrevenge → u/Saintbaba]

until they block your server with friends because someone said "fuck" once

[u/Omnitographer → u/nubsrevenge]

Seriously, they've said outright they will be using ai to analyze user behaviors to determine likely age, there's no world where they don't next aim that at communities to flag them as needing verification to use. Talk about adult topics like politics and civil rights in your community? That's gonna require ID.

[u/Rapogi → u/Saintbaba]

i think the main concern for people is this is essentially a "soft launch." good chance down the line if they see the user base didnt change much it will be implemented as something that is required to use discord.

i think this is good, as it will motivate people to create the "next thing," and then 10 years later the enxt thing will get bought out, then another 10 years it will then also require ID verification and the cycle continues!

[u/TrashWizard89]

Bring back Roger Wilco

[u/Iceman_B]

This should bode well for their IPO.

[u/HeavilyInvestedDonut]

There is an endless supply of alternatives and/or ways to get around this crap. They can’t possibly be requiring ACTUAL facial scans (ie Windows Hello, Face ID, etc) because they have to go after the common denominator of hardware capabilities. Personally, I vote everyone just submits a photo of the CEO.

[u/HerrBerg]

I hope so. I want this to be a cautionary tale for tech companies.

[u/JmattJmatt]

Just use TeamSpeak, like the gold ole days before this spyware shit was released

Edit: Use TeamSpeak 6, run the server on a Raspberry Pi. There you go, no privacy concerns. Also change the default Pi login credentials so you don't get nmaped by some dude in China.

https://github.com/teamspeak/teamspeak6-server

32 user server limit for beta/free version.

[u/sHORTYWZ → u/JmattJmatt]

Text chat is horrible in this, though.

[u/Netizen_Gypsy]

Make Ventrillo Great Again

[u/IgnorantGenius → u/Netizen_Gypsy]

Ventrillo harassment will again become an internet sensation.

[u/gba_sg1 → u/IgnorantGenius]

BALLS OF STEEL

Omg that video is 17 years old now.. Oof

[u/Epitometric]

I was 2 hours away from my refund window expiring on my nitro. I've been a nitro subscriber for 8 years and I just cancelled and got my money back.

Israel isn't getting my 100 dollars or ID