IRC plus GNU Jami are still freedom respecting zones! I sincerely hope all this age verification crap causes cypherpunk FOSS solutions to grow in popularity.
It won't. Most people don't care about privacy or FOSS. I've been trying to get my friends to switch to something else for years, and they couldn't care less.
ID verification is the least of my worries, to be honest. I've been on the internet long enough to acknowledge a need for something like that. I'm uncomfortable with the fact that data is a valuable commodity now. Discord is storing my online habits and conversations somewhere on their servers. Deleting that information is deleting money.
If people weren't worried about that before, then they certainly won't care now.
It took down Teamspeak and several other alternatives last time discord tried this: <a href="https://www.techdigest.tv/2026/02/discord-discord-triggers-surge-for-alternatives-like-teamspeak.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.techdigest.tv/2026/02/discord-discord-triggers-s...
Anecdotally, I suddenly had almost my entire friend group on matrix after that as well. I had campaigned for months but AV was the thing that got them to finally sign up.
rustcleaner · · focus · HN ↗
thetallguyyy · · focus · HN ↗
ID verification is the least of my worries, to be honest. I've been on the internet long enough to acknowledge a need for something like that. I'm uncomfortable with the fact that data is a valuable commodity now. Discord is storing my online habits and conversations somewhere on their servers. Deleting that information is deleting money.
If people weren't worried about that before, then they certainly won't care now.
VCFundedGenYer · · focus · HN ↗
perching_aix · · focus · HN ↗
I dread the day I'll make claims like this, even figuratively.
Even at a most surface level reading, this would suggest something like their MAU (monthly active users) at least halving soon/already.
I'd be very surprised if it was trending down even, let alone at this! Forget hyperbole, this is an outright überbole.
By all means though, got any data?
Scaled · · focus · HN ↗
Anecdotally, I suddenly had almost my entire friend group on matrix after that as well. I had campaigned for months but AV was the thing that got them to finally sign up.
iwontberude · · focus · HN ↗
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