Discord : an internet cancer

Preamble

Before I start writing this article, I just want to clarify that I will NOT go over the technical aspect of Discord (such as the spyware and all) as it has been covered many times by other websites like This one !!!, but basically, it’s exactly how you expect it to be, spying, selling data, monitoring open processes, terrible electron based app….etc

@@ -28,9 +28,9 @@ I also wanted to make it clear that this is PURELY from my personal experience w

Chapter one : Curiosity

Picture yourself, it’s 2018/2019 and you are playing your favorite game, be it Minecraft, League of Legends, CS:GO, doesn’t matter. You start to play nicely, you make some friends, some enemies, typical gameplay. And then, one of them decides to take a step closer into your life, so they invite you to this cool new platform you have never heard about, Discord. Upon checking, you notice it’s a modern chat application for gamers…. “huh, must be nice” you might say. And then you are faced with a choice, you either create an account, or you don’t.

@@ -52,9 +52,9 @@ So you join that group they invited you to, it could be anything from a small fr

Chapter two : The hierarchy

Now this hierarchy is not inherently bad, but this is how Discord (and even the communities on Discord) keep you addicted to them. When you join, you start as a peasant, a pleb, a noobie even. You have an ugly color for your username, and no access to “channels”, only few ones with cooldowns so you don’t talk much. And then you look at the members list, and you see a beautiful rainbow, people divided into categories, or roles as they like to call them!!

@@ -109,9 +109,9 @@ If you are paying attention, you would know that all of these will always end wi

Chapter three : Discord takes a once thriving community and splits it

Yes, there are always splits, and communities divide into multiple tiny sub-communities with their own opinions about useless matters. That is how you are kept invested. People love Drama, they love wars and they love picking sides.

@@ -133,9 +133,9 @@ So you basically killed a community, in 6 easy steps !!! And of course this will

Chapter four : Discord users are NOT your friends

Discord is made in a way that makes it easy to get attached to people, and also really hard to get rid of them, because you share the same servers, same friends, and the border between Private talk and Public talk is really blurred. Not to mention how hard, if not impossible it is to find someone who you met before but lost their contact. Because not only could they change their tag, but there is no way to search their username, and the servers can disappear from a minute to an other, or go private, or anything really !!! Now Shy actually talked about this issue on their article about Discord, but here I’m making a different point, in their article they say that it’s hard to get rid of someone you know via Discord, which is absolutely true. But it’s also easy to lost contact with someone literally in a split second, even people you deem “close” to you, they just…disappear!! So for y’all thinking about dating on Discord, that’s a terrible idea !!!! Imagine you’re in a Discord server, vibing with some awesome people, chatting about everything from the latest memes to the mysteries of the universe. You’ve become practically inseparable online pals, sharing inside jokes and bonding over your mutual hatred for pineapple on pizza. Life is grand, right? @@ -154,9 +154,9 @@ So, for those pondering the idea of Discord romance, think twice!

Final Chapter : Login-walls

People have made this point before and i will make it again, but locking important information behind a log-in page, with no way to find them using a Google search is stupid at best and manipulative at worst, because in this situation. Not only are you putting your faith on Discord servers to not fail one day, but on server Owners to not delete their work (and potentially rare unrecoverable work from other users). Not to mention that you actually need to be in that server to even know of the existence of these kind of resources. Regardless of how you see it, this is just putting valuable info in the hands of random people who could easily lock them behind a specific role that can be obtained either by paying, or by stroking their digital e-penis !!!

@@ -182,9 +182,9 @@ In conclusion, Discord’s penchant for login-walls is like lo

Conclusion

In this digital adventure, we’ve explored the mysterious realm of Discord, a platform that’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a place where friendships blossom and vanish like shooting stars, where power dynamics create hierarchies that keep you hooked, and where valuable information is locked away like a dragon’s hoard.

@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ If you ever have more anecdotes, insights, or questions to add to this digital s

Author: Crystal

Created: 2023-11-01 Wed 20:09

Created: 2023-11-01 Wed 20:16

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