@anthropy I kinda feel stuck between a rock and a hard place with this whole situation tbh. Either i get scoffed at and called a problem by the privacy community, or I get in verbal fights and ultimately lose my friends trying to force them into using objectively better options. Don't get me wrong, I *know* there are better things, I just can't get through to all the people I need to be able to utilize them.
That is to say, I myself don't just use Discord, the only reason I still have it at all *is* because of my tiny private "server" for me and friends.

@anthropy No, in theory you *are* right, yes. But what do I do when I'm met with a "I don't want to set up a million options, and preferably I don't want to install a new app at all, because I'm used to being here, so if yall leave we probably won't talk anymore" kinda response?
As for my opinion on the alternatives, I've never heard of those except rocketchat. While I'm not against trying out lesser known options, popularity matters a lot to most people, if Stoat or something else gets enough movement it'll be much easier to convince people to switch.

@anthropy Unfortunately, being basically a discord clone is a much better selling point for the friends I have even a remote chance of convincing to switch off discord than having robust security features. And in comparison to matrix, stoat is more hassle-free I must admit.
I also don't have a way to host my own matrix server *with enough uptime* for them to consider it a good option, and without having a selfhosted server there's no discord bridging.
The whole situation kinda stinks, discord shouldn't have become what it is, because now it's just entirely too hard to replace with just *one* other thing, but that's the expectation.