MSN had animated emotes for free like two whole decades ago. MSN had unlimited size file transfers two decades ago, I've sent entire games to my friends on MSN. IRC networks haven't really starved for cash either.
I pay for YouTube Premium since it came out, Netflix, indirectly I'm paying for my emails, matrix, even lemmy.
With Discord, all your money gives you is... emotes and further vendor lock yourself into a proprietary Chinese company and looking good to toxic gamers by flexing those emotes and server boosters.
MSN had animated emotes for free like two whole decades ago
And got discontinued one decade ago because it didn't have a viable business model. Discord is hoping to make a profit by charging for mostly frivolous premium features, which is one of the least evil business models I've seen in a while.
They’ve dodged an acquisition by Microsoft, provide a fairly reliable service, and don’t completely gimp a free tier.
Is this really the company you want to lead a crusade against for having a paid subscription tier?
The paid tier just gives you animated emoji, frilly profile pictures, and 1080p streaming (while the free 720p level is still very decent).
It’s such a useless paid tier that it’s practically no worse than asking for donations (even though they're a for-profit business). It’s a good thing they don’t make a shitty experience on the free tier as many other companies have been doing to recoup money.
They rank pretty low on the list of “tech/gaming companies who’ve fucked their user base”
Yeah exactly. I don't pay for it because I don't think what they offer is worth paying for. But I do use the free tier because it's a pretty good service and it's where people are. They haven't done anything near as bad as Twitter or Reddit have this year.
If other people are willing to pay for the cosmetics, I say let them. If the service is able to be profitable that way, all the better.
Technically Tencent was part of one of their most recent funding rounds but AFAIK they are far from a majority stakeholder, so it’s an incorrect claim.
Most people can still use Discord for day to day stuff without ads. The extra features are mostly cosmetic, or things like better quality video/audio, which comes with increased load
Poor people crushed by insane cost of living and stagnant wage growth who can't afford spending hundreds of dollars in subscriptions for bullshit, you mean.
I don't really get this take. If you don't like Discord Nitro, simply don't buy it. If you enjoy the features Nitro adds and don't mind paying the monthly fee, then buy it. I don't really understand what shaming people who pay for Nitro accomplishes.