TLDR: The r/selfhosted subreddit has a Discord server. The owner’s account got hacked leaving the server in a precarious state. They submitted a support ticket, but Discord has not taken action in weeks and probably won’t at all, so they are considering starting a new Discord server.
selfhosted use Discord
Lol
Discord absolutely failed them They consider starting another Discord server
Double lol
I definitely agree. Lol. But I also totally understand using Discord. I assume the community isn’t meant exclusively for people who currently self host, but also for people interested in starting to. In that regard, Discord will most likely be what those people have and are willing to use.
Correct. I have received help from that server in the past, and it’s unusable now. Part of what I hope to accomplish is to replace Discord, or at least offer my friends an off-ramp. Getting started with Discord is way easier, and in the year 2026, I wouldn’t know what other client to use to look for a community that gives me quick help via live chat. I no longer know how to use IRC, I’ve found.
I get the point that that’s where the people are, but also kinda feel like the selfhosted community should act as a vanguard to a point. Sure, maybe you have a ‘front door’ on a corporate platform, but kinda feel like in the case of selfhosted sticking to your principles and purposefully rejecting platforms that don’t fit the vision is kind of important especially when you’re currently in the middle of finding out why.
Also I feel like discord has a limited lifespan until it will necessarily turn into worse. They lose money each year so I wonder when their vc money runs dry
Judging by the sales emails I’ve gotten from them they’re trying to break into business use and compete with slack/teams. And all I have to say to that is “lol”.
But why a new Discord server? 🤦
That’s the punchline brother man
“Fool me twice well… Shame on… Shame on…Point being we been fooled once we won’t get fooled again!”
Fool me twice, get a free ticket to fool me thrice.
What a flippin’ moron he was…both of them actually.
They’re a completely unserious owner if they use Discord still as a “selfhoster”, that and getting hacked on top of that shows how careless they are as a moderator.
Self hosting and providing a public service are two very different things.
I’ve never self hosted a discord alternative, but it doesn’t seem like it’d cost anything to just spin it up beside existing self hosted infrastructure.
Here is some advice then: Don’t run a public service until you understand the risks and are capable of protecting yourself and your users. It isn’t as simple as booting up a service for self use. By using Discord they minimised damages to users it would be worse if they lost control of a Discord alternative with RCE exploits.
Users probably wouldn’t be too damaged if an IRC server with a few public channels got hacked. I realize IRC isn’t a true Discord alternative (and I realize that’s what you were picturing when you commented- I’m not debating your point). I just can’t imagine why a self hosting subreddit would need more than text chat + help bot.
You just make a few channels on existing IRC servers don’t need to host anything. I mean if you know what you are doing go for it but unless you actually do, don’t put servers on the internet for trawlers to take over.
A fediverse IRC server network sounds pretty cool tbh. #bringbackirc
E: Oooo a middle ground: https://thelounge.chat/ Self Hosted IRC WebClient
At least they’re admitting their fault.
Edit; Their matrix room if anyone is interested.
Discord sucks.
The irony.
Stoat chat has been a good Discord alternative.
last i checked it was very difficult to run your own instance (including voice chats)
What advantage does it have compared to Matrix?/IRC?
It mimics discord, so functional voice rooms with screen sharing, text channels, and so on…
Matrix has all that these days too
I have not seen a matrix voice channel ever in any of the servers ive seen. Also using element.
Join different servers then? Not sure what to tell you.
I use element and I am in many different matrix servers with voice rooms. I host my own as well, voice is done via livekit which makes connecting via MatrixRTC very easy, and is easy to setup and host.
Those same voice rooms support webcams / video, as well as screen sharing.
So voice is done via a different software not matrix?
Matrix is a protocol, its all through some other software. Livekit is just a good and easy webrtc server that you can tie in with something like synapse
I literally use matrix voice for my d&d group every week lol, just join a server that has voice
Only thing I dislike is the lack of software based noise cancelling is a bit awkward but very managable
It’s worked okay for me so far as well. The mobile apps aren’t super stable yet and notifications don’t work but it works for what it is right now. I do miss the stability of discord but I’m not going back
Fluxer as well. It has iOS and Android apps in beta too.
Those saying “just self-host Matrix/Stoat/XMPP”, do not understand the power of network effects. If people are too lazy to sign up on your custom server, and you end up with 50% of the users you would have gotten if you used Discord, is that worth it? What if it was only 10%?
I wish there were a solution to this. Interoperability sounds nice until you have multiple competing standards (like Matrix and XMPP)
The solution is for everyone to migrate to Jami, which is obviously the better option!
There’s a certain irony making this comment on Lemmy.
Well I’m not trying to start a community around helping people, I’m just a participator. If I wanted to maximize the number of people I could help, I might move back to reddit
edit: a word
I understand that POV, but if people want help, they’ll go to where it is. Walk the talk of FOSS. That’s how we’ll build better communities.
They won’t go to Lemmy. Anybody getting into self hosting will not just know what Lemmy is. Nor will they per se care for FOSS to the same extent you do. So having people helping around on conventional platforms seems perfectly valid to me.
They could always advertise a Matrix room and bridge conversations if the moderators really wanted to as well, instead of isolating themselves.
Do you know what a hyperlink is? You just click on it and it takes you to Lemmy. You sign up, pretty much the same way you have done for every other service you have ever used. What are we doing here? Are we not trying to build alternatives to the corpo-surveillance hellscape that the internet has become? Give users a little more credit, and a little more incentive. Otherwise, you’re sending mixed messages when you offer a way to get their photos away from google or something, but you force them to use fucking Discord for support.
It’s fine if you disagree with me, but please keep it civil. The reason I’m saying they won’t go to Lemmy is because those hyperlinks will usually lead to the relevant docs, a couple of blogpost, or Reddit. I personally have never seen a Lemmy or Piefed instance in my search results when I looked up a problem.
To give an example: I went to Google and I put in the query “how to start self hosting on a linux server”, which is what I assume someone getting into it would look up. The top site (skipping the AI response and for some reason, Youtube videos?) was Reddit. That’s why it makes sense to me to offer help on a more conventional platform for people getting into self hosting. The people among them who get into federated services will naturally find their place here. They are not forced either way.
If a little light sarcasm is incivility to you, then you’re in for a real struggle. I don’t know how most people end up self-hosting but I suspect it’s more of an organic process. For me, jeez… I can probably trace it back to using StumbleUpon browser extension, hearing about Linux, then installing it as a way to avoid studying for exams. Once I was using Linux on my computer, I suppose self-hosting was inevitable. Where did I get the info? Wherever I could find it.
Why, use Redddit if you are in a self hosting community, I understand the community of curious people are there but are you really going to be selling yourself short like that? Than to be using discord as a self hosting community messanger?
Points furiously
THIS Alanis! This right here!Guys, while we’re at it… Is there any discord alternative that has some kind of safe guarding against power tripping mods?
How do you even define that?
