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I hear people are doing a surprise-pikachu about Discord's new ad push?
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/discord-heightens-ad-focus-by-introducing-video-ads-to-mobile-apps-in-june/
Truly surprising that a *checks notes* proprietary, centralized, VC-funded platform started enshittifying the moment it gained enough market share to make it very difficult for people to flow elsewhere. 
Nobody saw that coming! 
Any people reading this who rely on Discord: this is your nudge to consider moving elsewhere.
Where? I don't know. What I do know is that whatever alternative I suggest, you will find a myriad of reasons why it just "won't cut it."
But I also know that if resources were spent on making the hard-to-enshittify decentralized platforms better, they would get better, while still remaining hard to enshittify.
So, perhaps it's worth it to trade some short-term convenience for long-term resilience. 
I am not on Discord, and I have no intention of ever setting up an account. I got fooled once or twice by centralized platforms, but I learned my lesson and I am going to avoid being fooled again if at all possible.
And you know what? It is really quite possible.
If more people made a similar decision, it would be even easier. Every little bit counts.
We really refuse to understand how much power we actually do have as far as saying "no" to abusive technologies is concerned.
@rysiek I agree with this in principle, but is there a decentralized equivalent of Discord/Slack? I hope there is. I'm unaware of any though.
@unifex I already said I am not going to offer an alternative.
They do exist though.
@rysiek If you know of a decentralized version of anything, and you rally against centralized things, why would you not recommend decentralized alternatives?
@rysiek@mstdn.social@unifex I already said why:
https://mstdn.social/@rysiek/114201644002543556
Whatever alternative I suggest, the thread will be flooded with people having opinions on why they are not "good enough."
Personally, I have no interest in getting bogged down in a week-long thread about the minutia of every single possible solution. Been there, this is simply not a productive use of my time.
It's not difficult to find these alternatives, and some have already been mentioned by others in this thread.
@unifex somehow people prefer to spend time coming up with reasons why not to switch, than finding ways to make the switch work in the imperfect world we inhabit.
So I am not going to dive into that kind of discussion.
Instead, I am pointing out that Discord is a proprietary, centralized, VC-funded platform that is starting to enshittify – so that people get a nudge to try to find their own solutions. For those that can't be bothered to do that, me offering suggestions would not help either.
@rysiek Yeah, I can understand the desire to not dive into some conversations like that. Started a separate post asking for alternatives. :)
First and foremost, we should not expect from an alternative platform doing exact same things as their mainstream counterpart. I think that’s one of reasons why most people don’t bother with alternatives and thus the exodus is slated to fail.
There’s a reason why an alternative platform was enacted at all – and the reason is, of course, to potentially pursuit anything for better. And if an alternative platform is supposed to do same toxic things as their mainstream counterpart, we will continue to normalise what in a healthy society would be successfully boycotted a long time ago.
@rysiek Yeah, sorry. Didn't realize what I responded to was part of a thread. Just reading back on the thread now.