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.
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 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.
Internet Relay Chat
a technology handed down to use from the ancients.
Video chats though?
don’t be a creep
There’s Revolt, if you’re happy being on an empty platform that none of your friends will ever move to.
Why this over matrix which has similar features, actual users, and is federated?
Revolt has better feature parity with discord.
If all you’re looking to do is replace discord with a friend-group who is already on board, it’s ideal.
For gaming-related use cases, matrix isn’t there yet. It doesn’t noise gate voice calls, or support audio chat rooms, just to mention a few things.
I’m pretty sure Revolt doesn’t have audio chat in any form, or has that changed recently?
While I believe you can at least make voice rooms with element/matrix
It definitely does.
Matrix does not have audio rooms. You can start a group video call in a text group chat, in some clients.
It currently does not compare well with discord functionality.
As someone who hasn’t used any of the advanced Discord features (audio/video/streaming), and neither has really tried Revolt, how far along is it these days? I heard it was aiming for 100% feature parity but was behind in those advanced ones, but that was some years ago and haven’t kept up, it would be very good if it was at least at “acceptable” level in all those by the time Discord goes IPO
First i hear of this one, interesting, how far along is it?
Not even close to being a replacement currently. I’m hoping it gets there though
