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this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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Technology
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The point was not the amount of money they are making, the point is that regardless you are being sold for profit. Any platform that is ad-driven should be avoided if you want any form of privacy.
But Discord isn't ad driven, it's driven by their premium subscriptions and their weird store. I'm sure they sell message data to AI companies like every other messenger these days, but they're not a messenger like Signal is; they're a space to hang out and game.
If anything, the exclusive deals mean your community posts only make it to fewer AI services. Publicly accessible places like Lemmy are scraped to death and share all manner of user behaviour by design.
As long as you don't try to replace Signal by Discord, I don't really see the problem to be honest. I'd switch to Matrix once Element becomes faster and less buggy and has decent video streaming capabilities and some of Discord's features, but with the way things are going that'll take a couple of years.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/discord-starts-down-the-dangerous-road-of-ads-this-week/
They definitely sell user data. There is no doubt in my mind about it. I think the idea that Signal can't be used in the same way is down to the marketing, especially sense Discord is now trying to transition away from gaming https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/discord-is-pivoting-away-from-games-to-become-your-place-to-talk- Signal literally has the same features + more than discord. You dont have to reveal your phone number to strangers anymore. Usernames are there. 1k+ member group chats EXIST. (I'm in one for fight for the future), screen sharing exists in calls. Theres no reason to need discord unless thats just where everyone else is.
The ads Discord implements aren't like the ads that track your every move online. This is basic product placement. I'm not even opposed to that as long as they keep it minimal and remove that shit from the paid subscriptions.
Signal doesn't have anything close to the Discord experience. It lacks basic interaction patterns like channels. Voice calls work completely differently from a conversation standpoint. I don't think Signal even implements threads, if it does I've never been able to find them. The UI for managing things like emotes/sticker packs is a lot better, especially for communities.
The there are the advanced features. Webhooks are used quite often for automation. Forums and discussion boards are used by larger communities. Roles and access control don't exist in Signal because it doesn't have a concept of communities.
Discord is much closer to Slack and Teams and Mattermost than it is to Signal and Telegram and WhatsApp and iMessage. On the protocol level, all of that could be implemented by exchanging special messages between devices, but the only app Signal devs want you to use contain none of that. Signal does have stuff Discord doesn't have, such as encryption and cruptocurrency built in, but neither seem to be dealbreakers for everyone else.
You don't need to use Discord, nor do you need to use Signal. I have Signal, but nobody else does. You don't need to convince me, convince everyone else, because my Signal conversation list has been empty for months since I last reinstalled my custom ROM.
I'm sure Signal can be used in the same way as Discord, in the way you can technically run a copy of Microsoft Word on the PlayStation if you stack enough hacks on top of each other. For the vast majority of the user base, that's not going to happen.