Over the weekend, hackers targeted federated social networks like Mastodon to carry out ongoing spam attacks that were organized on Discord, and conducted
If anyone is looking for an alternative to discord, please check out revolt.chat
The interface and user experience is the closest I’ve seen to discord (miles better than any Matrix client), has functioning voice chat (being rebuilt for more stability) custom server roles, and a functioning youtube music bot called Remix.
They’re doing awesome work over there!
Edit: Forgot to mention that it’s also open-source and self-hostable (although not federated)
I think the problem with projects like that is they end up with stuff like this: https://i.imgur.com/PRX4haL.png where the only recommended client is one that is unmaintained.
Though I hope Revolt succeeds because Discord has way too big of a monopoly.
I have just started using it, but I’m planing to migrate my small Discord group over to Revolt.
If you go to their website revolt.chat it’ll offer a download for desktop or a link to the web app, but they’re basically the same. They’re working on an updated client called Frontend which you can get a beta of from GitHub.
I’m on an iPhone and I used the save to Home Screen function in Safari while in the web app to get an icon for it, and I think it works pretty well! It can even do push notifications, but some weird artifacts of using the web app on mobile mean you’ll only get notifications from mentions in a server or a direct message (or group message).
It’s mostly about having the ability and wanting to avoid any extra layers of abstraction. I think docker takes up more disk space than pure install but not 100% on that. Only app that I have w docker is Immich right now and would love to just uninstall docker entirely but … I can’t.
First of all, I said “compatible”, not “exclusive”. Second of all, why would it fail? Even if there was no tutorial how to run it directly on a system, a docker image carries all the information you need to run it on a given system. That’s why we have Dockerfiles.
We like to think that what we are doing is the only valid way of doing things, specially when we are on the bleeding edge, and we forget that there’s a whole world of people and possibilities (and a history before ourselves) for whom our one solution is not the holy grail for. Not every production environment or homelab is centered around containerization. Yes, it is cool and useful, but it doesn’t exhaust every use case. Some people just don’t use containers and if your app is exclusively available that way, then it’s extra work to use it, or it just won’t even be considered at all.
Thank you. I would prefer not to install docker, that is just a personal preference, but so many apps are like uhh, we don’t know how to run this without Docker. Usually there is a way buried in layers of github issues but just like… why.
I’ve got a Matrix server up and running and have tried a couple of different clients, but at the end of the day the Matrix UX isn’t really an alternative to Discord, rather an alternative to Facebook Messenger/WhatsApp or other group message platforms.
The main thing I would point to is that Matrix itself only does text; the Element client uses Jitsi to add in audio/video calls and screensharing, but at least right now, it’s the only Matrix client to integrate voice, video, or screenshare.
My other gripes are just with the user interface, but if you open any of the Matrix mobile apps and compare it to Facebook Messenger and to the Discord mobile app, and you’ll see it really doesn’t look like Discord. I wish I could quantify it better, but Matrix just doesn’t feel like Discord whereas Revolt does.
Yep, you can host it all yourself. Both UI and the server. Not sure how backwards compatible the “public” client is - I remember Rocket.chat Android client breaking by not updating the server on at least 2 occasions over the past 2 years.
If anyone is looking for an alternative to discord, please check out revolt.chat The interface and user experience is the closest I’ve seen to discord (miles better than any Matrix client), has functioning voice chat (being rebuilt for more stability) custom server roles, and a functioning youtube music bot called Remix. They’re doing awesome work over there!
Edit: Forgot to mention that it’s also open-source and self-hostable (although not federated)
I think the problem with projects like that is they end up with stuff like this: https://i.imgur.com/PRX4haL.png where the only recommended client is one that is unmaintained.
Though I hope Revolt succeeds because Discord has way too big of a monopoly.
I don’t understand why everyone thought moving everything to discord was a good idea that wouldn’t backfire for a million reasons.
By chance do you happen to use Revolt? If so, do you (or @[email protected]) know which client might be good to use?
I have just started using it, but I’m planing to migrate my small Discord group over to Revolt.
If you go to their website revolt.chat it’ll offer a download for desktop or a link to the web app, but they’re basically the same. They’re working on an updated client called Frontend which you can get a beta of from GitHub.
I’m on an iPhone and I used the save to Home Screen function in Safari while in the web app to get an icon for it, and I think it works pretty well! It can even do push notifications, but some weird artifacts of using the web app on mobile mean you’ll only get notifications from mentions in a server or a direct message (or group message).
well i use guilded the most
I did try it, but it was missing video streaming last I checked. Also, they made self hosting without docker incredibly difficult.
may I ask why you’d prefer setting things up manually without docker?
Imho, copy & pasting a provided docker-compose is much simpler.
It’s mostly about having the ability and wanting to avoid any extra layers of abstraction. I think docker takes up more disk space than pure install but not 100% on that. Only app that I have w docker is Immich right now and would love to just uninstall docker entirely but … I can’t.
that’s true. Docker images indeed take up more space, especially if you don’t prune old unused images, it can quickly pile up.
to mitigate that, always go with the alpine-version of a service (if it’s available) since these are much smaller in size and are barely noticable.
New apps should be Docker compatible out of the box, change my mind.
An app that expects to be widely distributed and used but is Docker exclusive failed before even starting.
First of all, I said “compatible”, not “exclusive”. Second of all, why would it fail? Even if there was no tutorial how to run it directly on a system, a docker image carries all the information you need to run it on a given system. That’s why we have Dockerfiles.
We like to think that what we are doing is the only valid way of doing things, specially when we are on the bleeding edge, and we forget that there’s a whole world of people and possibilities (and a history before ourselves) for whom our one solution is not the holy grail for. Not every production environment or homelab is centered around containerization. Yes, it is cool and useful, but it doesn’t exhaust every use case. Some people just don’t use containers and if your app is exclusively available that way, then it’s extra work to use it, or it just won’t even be considered at all.
The wisdom of moving slowly and fixing things
Thank you. I would prefer not to install docker, that is just a personal preference, but so many apps are like uhh, we don’t know how to run this without Docker. Usually there is a way buried in layers of github issues but just like… why.
If the app is not Dockerized, it’s useless.
why not matrix?
I’ve got a Matrix server up and running and have tried a couple of different clients, but at the end of the day the Matrix UX isn’t really an alternative to Discord, rather an alternative to Facebook Messenger/WhatsApp or other group message platforms.
The main thing I would point to is that Matrix itself only does text; the Element client uses Jitsi to add in audio/video calls and screensharing, but at least right now, it’s the only Matrix client to integrate voice, video, or screenshare.
My other gripes are just with the user interface, but if you open any of the Matrix mobile apps and compare it to Facebook Messenger and to the Discord mobile app, and you’ll see it really doesn’t look like Discord. I wish I could quantify it better, but Matrix just doesn’t feel like Discord whereas Revolt does.
Matrix VoIP is a thing, and it’s usable for audio & video on many clients, element and fluffychat come to mind, but probably more.
element call is also coming into element (and possibly other clients) for video calls and screensharing
why does that matter?
installed userbase and the inertial resistance of individuals users (and even more so as a group)
Not Similar to Discord
No voice chatrooms so it’s not similar. The most similar open source solution I’ve seen is Mumble
mumble
Ventrilo? TeamSpeak?
what’s the license?
what the fuck was wrong with IRC
No voice chat, mainly. I don’t want to play League and chat on IRC lol.
About a dozen modern QoL features, like not having to host your own server to be able to receive messages on mobile clients
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yea
Jumping from one proprietary system to another isn’t really an improvement.
Revolt isn’t proprietary though???
At least you have control over your data and you and your friends can blame you for server crashes lol.
I didn’t realize it was possible to host your own backend locally… I thought it was just hosting the webUI locally.
Yep, you can host it all yourself. Both UI and the server. Not sure how backwards compatible the “public” client is - I remember Rocket.chat Android client breaking by not updating the server on at least 2 occasions over the past 2 years.
Nah, I remember the FMHY crowd keeping their own instance up
mumble
Ventrillo and Teamspeak as well