Hi ya'll!

Hi ya'll! Long time no see, Mastodon-peeps ️

Anyways! Discord is about to start requiring strong identity verification from users if they’re on a server with age restrictions. Verification would happen, for example, via an ID card. Quite a move from a company that leaked the data of 70,000 users a couple of months ago.

This has sparked a lot of discussion today across several different groups. Tighter legislation in various countries has surely influenced Discord’s stance, but one could argue they might have chosen a different path.

This piece of news served as inspiration to reflect on the resilience of commercial solutions. The idea of moving fully toward open-source solutions often crosses my mind, and in many cases I’ve taken steps closer to that world — though not always.

Maybe the biggest pain point for me when adopting new (or old) technology is how many others come along. There’s little point in switching, say, to a new and more secure messaging app if hardly anyone else does.

At the same time, that’s very human, and also frustrating, because you’d think people would care more about more secure solutions.

Examples:
️ Threads vs 🟪 Mastodon,
🟩 WhatsApp vs 🟦 Signal.

In both pairs you have seemingly similar services built on very different foundations. I use all of them myself. Why? Because when choosing technology, other people’s presence weighs surprisingly heavily on the scales.

But what about Discord’s fate?

Since the enshittification there seems to be moving at full speed already, I think it’s entirely reasonable to consider alternatives for the future. Open-source solutions would again be extremely solid here. Why 'again', you might ask? Because before Discord, we already had good, functional software:

irssi & mumble

But why go back to those? Because they simply seem to work - year after year, decade after decade.

#SocialMedia #OpenSource #Discord #irssi #mumble #InfoSec