I don’t really like discord, but my gaming group have been using it for rpg stuff. Chat channels, video calls and easy to setup bots have all been really useful.
But I get the feeling the enshitification is going to get worse, so I was looking for somewhere else to migrate to. The video stuff isn’t as important, we could switch easily to other services. But before I start a new campaign, and spend time setting up bots with routines for rolling dice and calculating tables, I’d like to do it somewhere that isn’t in talks for an IPO.
I’m not really up on stuff like this, so I don’t know if there’s some obvious similar choices or an alternative medium that I haven’t considered.
During the pandemic, discord has been a lifeline for me and I did not find alternatives that had a specific feature that may appear irrelevant but that I found deeply comforting: When people are hanging out in a vocal channel, you can see them. It was not much, but it was the closest we had to going to university and seeing groups of friends just chilling together.
There are many other platforms for text and vocal chats, but this is a feature I am still looking for.
Prove me wrong !
You know, I’m gonna be the oddball suggestion here.
Forums. What forums? I don’t know, the last time I used them was proboards back in 2010 so I’m sure I’m out of the loop on the options, but I do miss forums sometimes. That was where I ran RPGs, back in the day.
We are considering a seperate play by post game using some of the forums and sites set up for that. But having a voice and video chat with friends, with easy options for adding dice and game management bots is appealing.
Yeah, I hear you. And even if you post at lightning speed, there’s something about forums that just feels slower compared to the speed posting in a chatroom can get you.
Matrix. But if you want something that looks and feels exactly like Discord, there is Revolt. It’s FOSS.
If only revolt added federation. Then I’d be behind it 100%
In the FAQ, they state that federation is not in their roadmap, but if someone can do it, then they are willing to merge it. Since Revolt is written in Rust, we can use Lemmy devs’ activitypub federation crate. I might take a look at it someday.
I’ve even thought about it, but I don’t know rust and right now just don’t have the time, but it seems like it’d be fairly simple. Matrix and revolt have a lot in common, it’s just translating between the two
Oh no like I meant using ActivityPub to federate between different Revolt instances or even other future software that might be an alternative to Discord and is federated using ActivityPub.
Oh, yeah no activitypub isn’t meant for private messaging. It’s great for things like mastodon and lemmy, but there is zero privacy, it’s meant to blast out to anyone who wants to listen. Messaging the best standards right now are Matrix and XMPP.
Well yeah. Revolt is not really E2EE (yet), so it doesn’t matter. And it is not impossible to build a private messaging app with ActivityPub, see sup from the dev of Pixelfed. It also seems like some people are trying to get E2EE encrypted DMs in Fediverse to be a thing: https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/encrypted-dms-activitypub/
Yes, but if you need a truck, use a truck. If you need a car, use a car. They both do similar things, but the reason it’s taking a while for that stuff is because the protocol was not built for that in mind. They’re two different use cases. You’re not the first to have the idea here, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. Use each protocol for what they’re good at. ActivityPub was designed to be a great social network protocol. Matrix and XMPP were both built to be great secure messaging protocols. Trying to shoehorn either one into a use case it wasn’t meant to be results in a subpar experience.
What would be neat is if the Lemmy Client added a messaging protocol with it, so it could be both a matrix and a lemmy server. Each user gets their own Matrix handle out of the gate, so DMs are actually Matrix DMs. Then you could also open any matrix client with it too. The clients I have no problem with them being dual purpose, the protocols though, those are very specific.
I wrote a somewhat lengthy “Introduction to Matrix/Element” comment for someone here recently. If you arent paranoid, then you can ignore the sections about not using and removing the web client session after account creation. Let me know if you have any trouble.
The comment in question: https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/16768943
To use element like discord (with servers and voice channels) you will create a Space(=discord-server) and then add Rooms(=discord-channels) to it.
Normal rooms are usually text only but you can still start a video call (doesnt have video on by default) inside one which all room members will get notified for.
To get something like voice channels you create a “video room” which people can then join and it acts like a voice channel that also has screen sharing and video functionality.
There is full permission management so you can give everyone in the space access to all rooms or use levels like guest/member/moderator/admin/owner etc or you make it invite only. Lots of options.
There’s Revolt, if you’re happy being on an empty platform that none of your friends will ever move to.
Never say never, once Discord goes IPO and the enshittification goes bad enough to annoy gamers Discord is fucked, and Revolt is a drop-in replacement, the fact that it can be self-hosted will also be a plus for some people, mass migrations are rare but they DO happen
Hah, that’s fine, because it would be for our group activity they’d be fine with making accounts. I never used discord to chat with people outside my small group of irl friends.
Oooh! This sounds like me!
Internet Relay Chat
a technology handed down to use from the ancients.
Video chats though?
don’t be a creep
OP literally mentions video calls for RPG stuff, and although I haven’t used irc in a hot minute, I’m pretty sure it’s not relevant for them.
https://revolt.chat/ it is from UK and is GDPR compliant.
Remind me… is that the same UK that currently tries to force apple and google to include governement backdoors into their encryption?
Its open source and you could selfhost a server.
No need to use UK webspace.
Matrix.
Jabber, a.k.a. XMPP. It’s decentralized, featureful, standardized, and low on server resources.
Here’s a user’s guide I wrote.
https://contrapunctus.codeberg.page/the-quick-and-easy-guide-to-xmpp.html
I think Element/Matrix could do the trick
At least that’s what I intend to do with some friends for our gaming sessions and daily mindless chat
I’ve never felt a desire to move off old-school IRC.
Funny enough, Skype is dead now, just like ICQ, MSN, and many others. But IRC is still alive. Decentralized protocols <3
Unfortunately, it’s only alive as long as you don’t close your client.
The community had solved this problem decades ago. Of course, bouncers, relays, and other solutions are not for everyone. But there are also modern web clients like https://thelounge.chat/ that always stay online. You can use them pretty much like discord for text chats.
I’ll be that guy in 2051.
Too soon, add 500 years.
Matrix? I think you can setup text channels and also do voice/video/screen sharing in the channels as well if you’re using element, though I havn’t been able to convince my friends to jump ship yet, so don’t know how it compares to discord
First i hear of this one, interesting, how far along is it?
Not sure tbh
If you want a different level of shitty platform, You could just move to a VTT like Roll20.
FoundryVTT or bust
I bought foundry but never had time to get the hang of it, and in the end we preferred minimal vtt, just chat and a dice / auto bot. But maybe some day I’ll get into it! Defintely vastly better than roll20
Features-wise, Guilded has all of the same features that discord has (and maybe slightly more).
