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Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 16 May 2021, 20:38
by K4sum1
I posted this on r/discordapp, and it didn't work out too well.

I've had this idea for a while, long before the current redesign. I know there's plenty of alternatives, but most of them aren't as easy to use or work as well as Discord. I would like to change this.

I have the means to host a Discord alternative, I own a technology related forum. I may need to upgrade to a VPS plan depending on the solution, but I need an excuse to avoid the almost inevitable cPanel 98 anyways.



The main goals so far would be:

A fast and more compatible browser client.

A similar look to Discord, but without completely ripping it off.

A font that looks good, allows for easily distinguishing between l and I, and renders good under GDI and Linux.

Ability to import channels and messages from exported Discord messages.



Long term goals (This would be before the stable and full 1.0 release):

A dedicated option for users to create and submit custom themes, creating a bit of something for everyone.

Attempt to get feature parity with Discord.

Two clients, one similar to the current Discord client, and one similar to the chat clients of 10+ years ago. One for people who want something fully featured, the other for people on old computers or want something basic and lightweight.

Server nuke protection.

Bot similar to those Discord IRC bots, allowing users to access Discord servers using the client of our soon to be alternative. (This may sound a bit counterintuitive, but it has its benefits)



The list may seem a bit barren, but I don't want to overpromise and underdeliver. It could eventually beat Discord in some regards, for example, I'd like 10MB uploads and 100 free emojis per sever able to be used anywhere, but I don't know when those would happen. It's very likely, but unconfirmed.



What I would need:

Basic mockups, this doesn't need to be detailed or fancy, just a simple overview of what it could end up looking like. If I'm not lazy, I might finally make a few.

I need people able to code and develop. The most I can reliably do is edit CSS, and I'm pretty bad at it. I cannot do this myself.

I need a designer to design and preferably code the main theme and design an icon. I have a few people in mind, however if they all refuse, I would be willing to let someone from the community in.

I could potentially need testers, I have some people that I could use, but more is always better.

There may be more people needed for some tasks I haven't thought of.

If this idea is flawed in some way, please let me know, and I'll correct it or think of solutions.

If any of this interests you, or you want to help, please either leave a comment or DM me, and we can discuss further there.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 16 May 2021, 20:51
by BokeeXD(aka XP user)
That would be a great idea,making it run on Windows XP if possible.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 16 May 2021, 20:53
by K4sum1
BokeeXD(aka XP user) wrote: 16 May 2021, 20:51 That would be a great idea,making it run on Windows XP if possible.
I did imply that. One of the drafts mentioned the web client potentially working on Firefox 38 and Chrome 48, and mentioned the light client potentially working on 2k and 9x with KernelEx.

Though lower is always better.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 16 May 2021, 21:10
by freedom
are you planning on actually organizing a team to do any of this? or is this just another "cool mockups and ideas" thread?

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 16 May 2021, 21:20
by docR
freedom wrote: 16 May 2021, 21:10 are you planning on actually organizing a team to do any of this? or is this just another "cool mockups and ideas" thread?
Perhaps he'll enlist you as the project head, and pay you in the amount of a Vista desktop that doesn't 0x000000e6

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 16 May 2021, 21:27
by K4sum1
freedom wrote: 16 May 2021, 21:10 are you planning on actually organizing a team to do any of this? or is this just another "cool mockups and ideas" thread?
I would like to organize a team, but since it's gonna basically be volunteer work for something that will/will soon be open source, I don't think I could do too much.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 17 May 2021, 05:27
by Kouto
I hate to enter the thread on a downer, however, the trouble is... you could say all of this, but no one is going to help if you don't have any existing codebase to work with, already. Also, as far as I know, you don't even know any programming languages to the extent that would scale to the extent as Discord has, unless things have changed in the past six months, I don't know.

I imagine this is going to be some kind of self-hosted, decentralised alternative that would work in a similar fashion to say, diaspora (an ancient, GPL'd alternative to Facebook which sadly died down in development some years back) - users login to the instance of their choice, using their own client/authentication methods, and if they were to join a server on a specific instance (presumably run on some dedicated server of whoever's) their user profile data would be transmitted to the other server. DMs would be handed P2P I imagine.

(Of course, this would require some audit work when it comes to GDPR or other such things, but should you play your cards right, it might be a nice little alternative that could have some minor successes particularly in the Linux/FOSS world, I imagine.)

Web UI wise, I feel like that should be one of the last things that should be focused on, as I imagine that would be something we would probably host ourselves for the average user, but also allow people to download and host locally for whatever purpose they may need it (reminiscent of KiwiIRC in that case, I suppose).

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 17 May 2021, 13:18
by K4sum1
Kouto wrote: 17 May 2021, 05:27 I hate to enter the thread on a downer, however, the trouble is... you could say all of this, but no one is going to help if you don't have any existing codebase to work with, already. Also, as far as I know, you don't even know any programming languages to the extent that would scale to the extent as Discord has, unless things have changed in the past six months, I don't know.

I imagine this is going to be some kind of self-hosted, decentralised alternative that would work in a similar fashion to say, diaspora (an ancient, GPL'd alternative to Facebook which sadly died down in development some years back) - users login to the instance of their choice, using their own client/authentication methods, and if they were to join a server on a specific instance (presumably run on some dedicated server of whoever's) their user profile data would be transmitted to the other server. DMs would be handed P2P I imagine.

(Of course, this would require some audit work when it comes to GDPR or other such things, but should you play your cards right, it might be a nice little alternative that could have some minor successes particularly in the Linux/FOSS world, I imagine.)

Web UI wise, I feel like that should be one of the last things that should be focused on, as I imagine that would be something we would probably host ourselves for the average user, but also allow people to download and host locally for whatever purpose they may need it (reminiscent of KiwiIRC in that case, I suppose).
I don't like how fragmented decentralized platforms are, but I might have a potential solution.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 18 May 2021, 23:28
by kcznsk
Why not just make a matrix client that supports legacy windows? The protocol is open, so anyone can make their own client.
It might be possible to fork an existing client like element, that already has most features discord has.
I don't know how hard it would be, but probably much easier than coming with something completely new.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 18 May 2021, 23:40
by K4sum1
kcznsk wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:28 Why not just make a matrix client that supports legacy windows? The protocol is open, so anyone can make their own client.
It might be possible to fork an existing client like element, that already has most features discord has.
I don't know how hard it would be, but probably much easier than coming with something completely new.
I tried Matrix before, but it didn't let me make an account.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 18 May 2021, 23:45
by kcznsk
R3n wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:40
kcznsk wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:28 Why not just make a matrix client that supports legacy windows? The protocol is open, so anyone can make their own client.
It might be possible to fork an existing client like element, that already has most features discord has.
I don't know how hard it would be, but probably much easier than coming with something completely new.
I tried Matrix before, but it didn't let me make an account.
Are you talking about matrix.org? I don't know why that would happen, but you can create a matrix account on any other instance, or even host your own.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 18 May 2021, 23:51
by K4sum1
kcznsk wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:45
R3n wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:40
kcznsk wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:28 Why not just make a matrix client that supports legacy windows? The protocol is open, so anyone can make their own client.
It might be possible to fork an existing client like element, that already has most features discord has.
I don't know how hard it would be, but probably much easier than coming with something completely new.
I tried Matrix before, but it didn't let me make an account.
Are you talking about matrix.org? I don't know why that would happen, but you can create a matrix account on any other instance, or even host your own.
Another thing I don't like is that since there are multiple instances, you have to have multiple accounts for what is basically the same program.
Forums having different instances makes sense, but general purpose social media should only have a few different instances of different programs.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 18 May 2021, 23:56
by kcznsk
R3n wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:51
kcznsk wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:45
R3n wrote: 18 May 2021, 23:40

I tried Matrix before, but it didn't let me make an account.
Are you talking about matrix.org? I don't know why that would happen, but you can create a matrix account on any other instance, or even host your own.
Another thing I don't like is that since there are multiple instances, you have to have multiple accounts for what is basically the same program.
Forums having different instances makes sense, but general purpose social media should only have a few different instances of different programs.
No, you don't have to make multiple accounts. Matrix works the same as email for that matter. You can have an email @gmail.com and email people outside of gmail, just like you can have an account on matrix.org and talk with people or join servers rooms from other instances as well. You aren't limited to only talking with people on your instance, just like you aren't limited to emailing only people on gmail.
I had edited my post before but since you replied before I had finished I'll put it down here instead:

For the record, the element webapp works fine on both MyPal and New Moon on Vista. I had tried on MyPal on XP mode and it also worked fine. The client doesn't install on Vista though.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 20 May 2021, 09:44
by K4sum1
So, I've decided to move the customizability goal to the long term goals section, and added a couple other goals to the list.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 21 Jun 2021, 01:01
by tyl0413
R3n wrote: 16 May 2021, 20:38I need people able to code and develop. The most I can reliably do is edit CSS, and I'm pretty bad at it. I cannot do this myself.
Well good luck with that. I really dislike discord and most alternatives but if people are unwilling to even use the stuff that already exists why would they use yours.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 21 Jun 2021, 02:03
by K4sum1
tyl0413 wrote: 21 Jun 2021, 01:01
R3n wrote: 16 May 2021, 20:38I need people able to code and develop. The most I can reliably do is edit CSS, and I'm pretty bad at it. I cannot do this myself.
Well good luck with that. I really dislike discord and most alternatives but if people are unwilling to even use the stuff that already exists why would they use yours.
Well, some of the issues I have with Guilded and others are that they're confusing. A goal is to have a Discord user be able to use this and feel at home.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 21 Jun 2021, 03:50
by roytam1
alternatives of discord? first one come to mind is mattermost, which ReactOS is using.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 21 Jun 2021, 03:51
by K4sum1
roytam1 wrote: 21 Jun 2021, 03:50 alternatives of discord? first one come to mind is mattermost, which ReactOS is using.
I've looked through all the existing ones, I either can't host them or don't like them.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 21 Jun 2021, 12:21
by Bird
The ability to voice-chat isn't enough, right? This old Teamspeak 2 is such a good piece of software, running on everything between Windows 98 and Windows 10, also in a Virtual Machine on Linux. Unfortuneatly it's closed-source and the existing code can't be modified.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 21 Jun 2021, 18:17
by K4sum1
Bird wrote: 21 Jun 2021, 12:21 The ability to voice-chat isn't enough, right? This old Teamspeak 2 is such a good piece of software, running on everything between Windows 98 and Windows 10, also in a Virtual Machine on Linux. Unfortuneatly it's closed-source and the existing code can't be modified.
I don't much care for the voice chat idea.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 23 Jun 2021, 11:42
by dastoopidfurrytwo
R3n wrote: 16 May 2021, 20:53
BokeeXD(aka XP user) wrote: 16 May 2021, 20:51 That would be a great idea,making it run on Windows XP if possible.
I did imply that. One of the drafts mentioned the web client potentially working on Firefox 38 and Chrome 48, and mentioned the light client potentially working on 2k and 9x with KernelEx.

Though lower is always better.
I got something simular running on WIn3.1/95

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 25 Jun 2021, 19:24
by MelonicOverlord
I feel it would be easier to maybe just modify the existing Discord client to support older OS'???

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 25 Jun 2021, 19:44
by K4sum1
MelonicOverlord wrote: 25 Jun 2021, 19:24 I feel it would be easier to maybe just modify the existing Discord client to support older OS'???
Alright, go ahead.

Also, that doesn't fix the issues of Discord, paywalling features, unoptimized frontend, Firefox slowness, etc.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 09 Jul 2021, 04:16
by littner
I would be interested in making a discord alternative.
However, I have yet to acquire the technical knowledge that is required to make such a program. I'm currently learning Python in my free time (whether that's of any use to this project is out of my purview) I'm currently thinking about using Xfire --now deprecated-- as a potential reference to the program, as it included many of the features you listed. I hope we can figure out a way to create something better than discord and Xfire combined.

Image

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 09 Jul 2021, 17:47
by lizard_wizard
MelonicOverlord wrote: 25 Jun 2021, 19:24 I feel it would be easier to maybe just modify the existing Discord client to support older OS'???
Discord is actively hostile towards users who use modified clients, no matter how benign the change. I believe it's against the discord TOS. There was a guy who developed a terminal-based linux client for the service, and his account was banned for violating the TOS.

Would like someone to help me create a Discord alternative

Posted: 09 Jul 2021, 19:14
by littner
Discord is actively hostile towards users who use modified clients, no matter how benign the change. I believe it's against the discord TOS. There was a guy who developed a terminal-based linux client for the service, and his account was banned for violating the TOS.
https://cancel.fm/ripcord/