A proposal to solve BetterDiscord (and other client mods)
BetterDiscord is a great extension that many people use, but it violates the Discord ToS and even used to cause security issues. It's one of many client mods that exist that aim to enhance Discord's functionality. They're all commonly used for plugins and themes, but the only way we can get rid of it is if we make the changes that people want.
Many client mods come with a built-in plugin and theme store. I do think Discord can pull this off themselves, and encourage more developers to get into coding in the process.
When I imagine it, people could upload plugins and themes, likely via a webpage on the developer portal. These said plugins and themes can either be used by themselves (which would not allow it to be used publicly), or go through a process to allow it onto this special store, likely requiring themes to be approved or declined by Discord. Some client mods already do something similar to this, but they generally go through less scrutiny.
Similar to reporting users, reporting plugins and themes should also be possible, as a way to tell Discord that certain plugins and themes violate the rules.
BetterDiscord comes with a server list, and this was originally mentioned, but has since been removed from the post (and honestly, it's fairly cringeworthy to read years later. It also now actually exists, thanks to Server Discovery.)
Lots of changes would need to be made to make this work, and may be far-fetched, but if this was implemented, most of us wouldn't need BetterDiscord.
We love Discord and don't want to violate the ToS, but we want more customization. If this was implemented, we'd have that ability.
Thank you for reading!
OTHER QUESTIONS
Why is BetterDiscord/BeautifulDiscord/Powercord/etc. against the ToS? Client modifications aren't monitored by Discord, and Discord is trying to keep the platform safe for everyone. Regardless of if it's open-source or not, Discord isn't able to always monitor the clients every single day to check for malicious code. It'd be a bad look if they were allowing clients and plugins that was actually trying to steal user accounts. And from a business perspective, it'd make sense why it's not allowed. (This question originally stated it was a security issue, but I don't see it that way anymore.)
Why can't this be limited to Nitro or Nitro Basic? BetterDiscord was offering plugins and themes entirely for free, as does BeautifulDiscord and Powercord. If almost all the themes and plugins are locked behind a paywall, this will merely bring people back to BetterDiscord. Why use the paid option when you can use the existing ones for free? I'm not against themes just for Nitro users, though. In fact, Discord is currently offering extra themes for Nitro users, and I actually think that's fine - although, I also think it's a pretty clear cashgrab. Many other services offer plenty of extra themes besides light and dark for free.
Why do you have hope this will even happen? To be fully honest, I don't. The mere thought that this could even happen in the slightest is thanks to Stickers and Server Discovery. Stickers used to partially have the payment model that I'm requesting-- some stickers were locked behind Nitro and Nitro Classic, others weren't. The difference is that all stickers were paid in some way. Server Discovery is basically an official server list, and it's being managed incredibly well. Additionally, some Discord employees have publicly created client mods for other services before, and one even helped make a few of these client mods more secure, to the point where the security issues were minimal. I believe that if Discord genuinely wanted to do it, they could.
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This seems like a very good idea.
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Good idea. Discord should really do this and limit it to classic/nitro users
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! Glxy I don't think it should be limited to classic and nitro users. the plugins could be limited to classic and nitro users but being able to change themes would be available to everyone. Classic/Nitro users already have some benefits.
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What about to give creators of themes and plugins a badge or 1000 Downloads=Nitro that would be netter then let us pay for them!
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please don't put all of the themes behind a paywall :(
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BetterDiscord, is indeed a better version of Discord. Being able to change your themes, importing your own themes, and creating your themes is a really good idea. It makes Discord look much more better.
For people saying that BetterDiscord should be added but only with Nitro, that wouldn't be a good idea. If they were to put it behind Nitro, users would just go back to BetterDiscord, and there would be no purpose.
Overall, what JBMagination said is a great idea. I would hope that this gets implemented sometime!
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My idea here would be an official API for chat app plug-ins and a documented protocol to allow alternative chat clients.
"Why don't you go just use irc," I hear everyone thinking. Easy: a lot of people left irc for discord, because discord sells itself aa better than irc. If it's better than irc, then it ought to provide at least the basic things irc does: openness and room for customization.
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I really wish Discord added a custom theme feature so they don't just install BetterDiscord and just NOT break the ToS.
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I love this idea!
Of course. The majority would love themes to be free but it would be better to add it as another feature to Nitro Premium/Classic. People say Nitro is too expensive and I would agree with them for the fact that the regular user would just use it for it’s most common purpose, emojis in different servers.
But myself being a premium Nitro user I would find this to be a fantastic add on! As I own a fee servers and would absolutely love to see more themes than just our regular light and dark mode 💖-1 -
I strongly agree with the people that are saying that if they put this behind a paywall then people are just gonna head back to BetterDiscord and unfortunately that's true. Custom themes in my opinion is something that should have been added a long time ago. And for the people that want this to be put behind a paywall, how about plugins be for Nitro users and being able to change your theme will be free?
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Okay so. I don't understand how its a security issue. And on top of that, I've actually been banned from the Bug Hunter discord server just because I suggested that BD be allowed by the TOS and that Discord should be open sourced so users can get what they want without Discord having to do all of the work. They silenced me and began harrassing me on Twitter about it. This comment is probably going to get deleted by a moderator anyway though and soon nobody will care. But really, discord isn't going to add plugin support. They're anti-consumer and they're going to disallow mod support and continue to keep their software as closed-source as possible. It's a shame because if it weren't for this, I'd enjoy discord more.
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Majorsloth13 I don't see the point of themes or plugins being put behind a paywall at all. People are just going to stay or switch to BD. They would obviously stay or switch to BD because themes and plugins are 100% free and aren't behind a paywall. I thought of this, a plugin and theme store that would show plugins and themes Discord themselves made, but also allow users to submit their own plugins and themes. If they would like, they could make their own individual plugin or theme paid when submitting to Discord so they can at least make money off it.
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I have to agree that putting it all behind a paywall, cheap or not, it would just make people go back to BetterDiscord, risking themselves to get banned just because they want Custom themes, plugins, or even both
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I’d love for this to be implemented, though I dont think it should be limited to Classic or Nitro users, it’d be kind of unfar.
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Kur, it's a security issue because the official Discord client has updates, of course, and that could break anything-- or a plugin that could execute malicious code, for example, would also be a security problem. And you were probably banned from Bug Hunters because that's not a bug, it's just a complaint.
And for everyone else, yeah, it probably could go well with Nitro-- but not the themes/plugins store itself. Sure, make a few themes and plugins Nitro-only, that'd work well, but making the store itself behind a paywall would just bring people back to BetterDiscord.
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JBM,
You make a good point about malicious plug-ins. Then again, malware exists everywhere and Microsoft hasn't removed the ability to install custom software on Windows, have they? (I make fun of Windows alot, but this is one thing I can respect)
On top of that, it opens up alot of opportunities for people with coding experience to write their own mods. That being said, malware for Betterdiscord has been spread before. It's really up to the user to be responsible for what they give access to their account.
As for the ban from the bug hunters server, I was actually there to report bugs (for Vanilla discord). Why me talking bad about the TOS is a problem, I can't understand.
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As for server-side security, that's not a problem and I don't see how discord should worry about BD opening up security holes server-side, if that were even possible then they have bigger problems than just client mods. That was mainly my focus when I said "I don't understand how it's a security problem". There is always a risk to running software onto your computer. Discord, itself, could be malware for all we know. It's up to the user to take care of themselves, or if they lack the technical expertise, to look up to someone reliable and trustworthy for advice.
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One more little detail, JBM:
Most if not all of these mods are open-source. Even if they aren't, they're written in an uncompiled, interpreted on-the-fly scripting language (Javascript), this is a hard requirement since this is what Discord is based off of. As such, reverse engineering a plug in or mod to see if it is safe is trivially easy and if someone tries to infect another user, word will quickly go around. It's happened before. Distributing malware in your BD plug in is almost impossible to get away with as trying to grab login tokens will almost immediately give yourself away.
That concludes my reasoning
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adD thIS FuNctIon anD mAKe It fReE!!!
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ba, there's really no reason to monetize this. If we did then it wouldn't really be about the consumer anymore
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Good Idea!
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I guess betterdiscord is illegal.
sadly
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"consumer" - a person who purchases goods and services for personal use.
This was the definition from oxford dictionary, it has been, and always will be, about the "consumers".
Discord is a business, not a charity. Heck, even a charity needs money to run.You guys are basically asking discord to make a new feature, which requires developers, which cost money; and you want to pay with gratitude, sounds familiar?
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ba,
Unfortunately, it NEEDS to be free. BetterDiscord/BeautifulDiscord, and other client modifications, already have these things for free, and not providing it for free will be pointless when there's a free, alternative, and almost undetectable option.
And they already have developers-- the same that make the many bots out there on the service, the same that made Server Discovery, the same that made the core of the service.
Plus, when Discord started, there was no Discord Nitro (I remember when it came out before I switched to a new account)-- it was entirely for free. What about Discord's new stickers platform that they made? That is an entirely paid feature, and they're making money off of that.
There is literally no reason they can't make even just a small few of them available for free. Even if the majority are paid or Nitro exclusive, if there are even a few that are available for ALL Discord users, I'd be fully satisfied.
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Kur, still, the fact that it has happened is enough for Discord to be worried.
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I do have Nitro but I don't think having it exclusively for Nitro would fix anything. I know people who use betterdiscord and they wouldn't ever consider getting nitro. i think having all of this as a free feature similar to betterdiscord is the best course of action. This might even be a win on discord's part, finally getting rid of some risk of the hacked clients, while giving more features to their app.
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I agree that some sort of "Plugin"- and/or "Theme Store" would be a great addition. Authors could just choose if they want to provide their work for free or "Nitro Users only". Discord could use some of the Nitro revenue to pay the "Nitro only" people a small cut based on downloads or whatever. They could also provide some basic free and more advanced plugins/themes for Nitro Users only.
And in addition to that features that are exclusive to a popular theme could just be included in the default one - a great way to do changes based on user popularity.
There are nearly endless possibilities.0 -
While I like betterdiscord for the fact i can make custom themes, I hate that it also violates tos. thats something that BD users hate very very very much and we don't want to do. theres two ways Discord can handle the betterdiscord situation. One, they revise the terms of service and add guidelines for usage of betterdiscord or two, they can implement custom themes into the app or do nothing... that works too. either way, those are Discord's options. It would be extremely horrible for business if discord decided to crackdown. I absolutely agree with the a theme store. that would be cool, custom css would also be pretty cool. anyways, thats all i have to say on it
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Discord needs to not ban third party clients, full stop. If discord ever makes the ads more intrusive, those of us who loathe ads will need a way to be able to ad block, or we'll just leave.
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I just use BetterDiscord for the plugins really. I like being able to quickly pin and delete messages. Along with some other stuff like taking away the window size limit so I can make it as small as I want, being able to copy a raw message so I can copy the symbols that add stuff like underlines and bold text. Also really like being able to see if a channel is being talked in with the typing indication so you can see if people are talking in the channel without clicking on the channel.
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