Users of novel or unusual operating systems or devices (i.e. innovators and early adopters) are also locked out of the client until Discord sees fit to port it to their platform.
Uhh, you know that Discord has a web interface , right? So this is just disinformation, and calls into question your motivation, if you have to resort to strawman justifications.
This article is much the same if we replace āDiscordā with āGitHubā, for instance, or āTwitterā or āYouTubeā.
There is a fundamental difference between what they listed as one though: GitHub and YouTube are open to read and access and download and clone. Discord and Twitter are not.
I have much more of an issue with Discord than I have with GitHub or YouTube. Both GitHub and YouTube have free access, and host the largest part of the relevant userbase (synergy effect of having an account).
Itās certainly worth discussing in project teams, but personally, Iād never leave GitHub in the current ecosystem for a niche product or platform - if I want contributors and collaborators or visibility. The vast majority of users already know GitHub and most accounts are on GitHub. That canāt be said for niche platforms or self-hosted alternatives, which introduce barriers.
Before GitHub Sourceforge was somewhat similar. It was a proprietary but open platform. In a project I participated in (Mumble) it was reasonable enough (no more complicated than between any other platforms) to make the switch to GitHub. I see todays GitHub the same way. As long as it remains so primary prevalent and open to free access itās good enough, and when it goes downhill itās easy enough to switch away to a better alternative.
Iām still fond of alternative FOSS platforms, that they exist and evolve, and maybe easier account creation, synchronization, or federation will make them real alternatives. But for now, they are niche. Which of course doesnāt mean niche is unviable or an alternative. But even as an invested and interested FOSS developer, user, and collaborator theyāre barriers to me. Which makes it obvious to me itās even moreso for less invested people.
I agree, GitHub is nothing to worry about, it uses Git, it decentralize and is easy to create redundancies either via git clone or creating a mirror with a self-hosted platform on a private server. If GitHub does go into a questionable direction? Iām not worried about it because I got redundancies in place. :)
If you follow the logic of this post and the ā¦ enthusiastic community here. Your project will attract the kind of people who will figure out what a lemmy is and make an account and use a lemmy. And will scare off everyone else.