> I don't get why so many people tout discord as this god send of a service.
Because it is free as in beer. History teaches us free as in beer whilst paying with privacy/ads wins from paid. Example: Android.
All the alternatives (Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Skype, Mumble) are much worse than Discord. They're either not gratis or they are not portable or they're more difficult to set up, or their interface or features sucks, or they're centralised (while Discord uses anycast and multiple servers behind the scenes). Discord is also a voice chat and chat server in one with the latter having resume support when you're AFK. This lead to entire (gaming) communities residing on Discord.
I dislike Electron as much as anyone else but it isn't a dealbreaker for most people; just a memory hog and a minus. If the plus outweigh it, it gets chosen. Even though Ventrilo/TeamSpeak/Skype/Mumble use much less resources.
As for Discord the company, they're a startup still, who are trying out business models. Who knows what their next one is going to be.
Completely forgot about Ventrilo. I remember it being a bit of a pain to get up and running.
I think between Nitro & the Store they're going to do well with generating income. Tieing free games to Nitro was a smart idea IMO, but they still have an option to use them seperate.
Because it is free as in beer. History teaches us free as in beer whilst paying with privacy/ads wins from paid. Example: Android.
All the alternatives (Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Skype, Mumble) are much worse than Discord. They're either not gratis or they are not portable or they're more difficult to set up, or their interface or features sucks, or they're centralised (while Discord uses anycast and multiple servers behind the scenes). Discord is also a voice chat and chat server in one with the latter having resume support when you're AFK. This lead to entire (gaming) communities residing on Discord.
I dislike Electron as much as anyone else but it isn't a dealbreaker for most people; just a memory hog and a minus. If the plus outweigh it, it gets chosen. Even though Ventrilo/TeamSpeak/Skype/Mumble use much less resources.
As for Discord the company, they're a startup still, who are trying out business models. Who knows what their next one is going to be.