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Discord’s secret weapon against open source competitors (it’s PluralKit) (medium.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Grail@aussie.zone to c/foss@beehaw.org

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Why are FOSS platforms like Matrix having such a hard time getting users to migrate from Discord? Because of PluralKit.

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[–] Kangie@lemmy.srcfiles.zip 52 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'm sorry, but no. PluralKit only really impacts a tiny minority of the userbase to begin with. It isn't enough to cause people outside that group to choose the platform, nor is it enough for people outside of that minority to avoid moving to whatever the next big thing is.

[–] Grail@aussie.zone 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

No, I definitely have friends who are allies and who care about accessibility for their friends.

[–] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 27 points 8 months ago

Sure, but that doesn't mean Discord's "secret weapon" has anything to do with PluralKit specifically.

Discord is popular compared to both commercial competitors and eg. FOSS projects like Matrix because of a variety of different factors, usability being one of the biggest ones. Accessibility may well be a factor (even a big one), but attributing all of that to just PluralKit honestly seems a bit short-sighted

[–] Grzmot@beehaw.org 13 points 8 months ago

You are certainly not wrong, but I think even if you add up all people with multiple personalities + their friends willing to stick with Discord due to Pluralkit, I would be very surprised if you'd be within less than 4 digits after the comma percentage-wise.

I think @Kangie was mostly responding to the clickbaity title of it being Discord's "secret weapon" to keep everyone on the platform when no, it just would not matter. It's like Mastodon and Twitter. The people who really, truly care are already on Mastodon and the rest is where the biggest community is.