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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That's a good idea. But just the official part of BetterDiscord in Discord.
Just don't be like AminoApps, though, making everything pay. Limit, reserve it to Classic or Nitro users, at least it gives us an extra feature.48 -
Great Idea. It'd be like having Betterdiscord but officially implemented. Like the comment above mine says, please don't make us pay for themes and plugins have it available to all discord users and don't restrict it to certain users like Nitro users because not everyone can get Nitro. And again love the idea for the fix for the Betterdiscord problem.
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If they're able to approve and deny people selling games through discord, why not plugins? Honestly being able to extent the commands built into the client would be cool, so would be opening up themes. Custom themes shouldn't be harmful if they make it right like heck, if someone wants an NSFW theme, they could make it themselves if the client allows it.
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I really hope Discord adds custom themes that are free and not a premium feature.
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UPDATE: We are now a step closer! Public server listing is now built into Server Discovery. All we have left are plugins and themes.
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For the love of God please don't restrict themes it to nitro & classic, perhaps plugins... but not themes. This should be a community gift/update and if you do so people will just flock back to BetterDiscord because after all, they wanted themes for free... and didn't wait years for Discord to add them just to make them pay for something that was already free.
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If Discord just gave us what we want all this time, they surely would make users evade breaking ToS more often, tho, i have never seen someone being actually punished for this, but it can happen any time.
And like everyone says, make ATLEAST the themes free, the plugins wouldn't matter so much if it was behind Nitro, but if themes were, that would be HORRIBLY GREEDY.
Please Discord, if you're gonna accept this proposal, DON'T PUT IT BEHIND A PAYWALL, for once add what users want, if you do that horrible decision, you're only gonna enforce users to break the ToS more than they should.14 -
Custom plugins can't be a paid feature, or we have the exact same problem. BD is still a thing, and still will be there.
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BetterDiscord doesn't just change the image background, though. It's full CSS customization.
Either way? No. It's why it gets reviewed first.
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By modifying Discord's code, allowing for malicious programs to be executed in the context of the discord app, etc etc your account gets stolen, and there's nothing discord can do because you're the one who hacked yourself.
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So is this getting implemented at all? Has been months old and doesn't seem like any of the discord staff have acknowledged this
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I would love if this was a thing, I really want to use betterdiscord but i also really don't want my account terminated
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Discord should totally add a theme feature for users!
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Good idea.
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I'm fully on board with this!
As intriguing as BetterDiscord looks, I don't use it because of the ToS and security issues.
But a lot of us just want the freedom to customize our themes. Jump even further passed your competition and let us have more customizable interfaces.
If you want to lower the rate of ToS violations, you would satisfy the consumers by giving us what we want. I don't see why this is still a protest, because the biggest reason people use BetterDiscord is because of some harmless theme configurations.
Discord's our place to talk and it would feel more like home if we can customize our themes.6 -
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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EDIT: Making this easier to read, and expanding on the idea.
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This Idea Seems Amazing
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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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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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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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man I just want a nice theme on discord and not have to get banned for it I don't care about plugins or any of that I legit just want a nice background and colors
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I agree, I really want to change up the background to something different but I'm not about to risk my account and years of stuff and connections to do it. This is a simple addition that TONS of people are asking for. You say you don't want people to use better discord, fine, that's understandable. But look at the reason people are using it, why not just implement themes and custom themes into discord. Worried about NSFW? No one is except the user is going to see it so it doesn't even matter, or just add a filter. Honestly, this is another way for you guys to make money if there was an official themes store. You could also have in-depth customization that individuals could save as presets/themes after they've made lots of changes. The possibilities are endless. The point is that people are asking for this and have been for a long time, and you ignore them. I understand you guys need to make money and are running a business, but I pointed out you could have a theme store. I personally don't understand given the circumstances why this hasn't been done yet. You guys also say that you don't want us downloading BD because of potential malware, which is understandable. But if you wanted to protect us so badly then why not just implement the themes into discord so people stop using BD and getting viruses and data stolen. I'm not downloading BD because I don't want to get my information stolen or violate ToS, but I know a lot of people don't care about that stuff and take those risks. You want them to stop taking that risk? Add themes. What do you lose by adding themes? Nothing. The vast majority of people ask for this and give us other features that are basically useless. Discord has come a long way I'll admit but this has been being requested for over three years, there's no excuse. Either tell us that it isn't ever going to happen, AND GIVE US REASONS, or make it happen. People are tired of waiting and frankly, you turn away users by ignoring the people who use your platform. Programs like this are built on the community, if you disregard it you lose the community you lose the platform. No one wants that to happen, we love discord, but by ignoring such an easy request you begin to run this risk. And if there are other requests like it then the problem grows and you end up losing support. All we are asking for are some theme changes to change up the mood of the platform we spend so much time in. We want to feel cozy and nice and sometimes that requires a different look that isn't provided. Hear our request please or tell us why you won't.
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I'd like to say the concepts and discussion points of this post are new, but it's not. Several of us came at this in the forum a couple of years ago (for my part, I laid out a pathway in another thread to generating a mutually beneficial revenue model and a marketplace that would legitimize and ensure audits of code prior to integration; a semi-walled garden approach like the Apple App Store). I'd even offered to consult at no-fee to help them mapout the framework and economics. There was a little bit of traction with the ideas, but in the end, we've still seen no movement. It culminated in this consolidated thread (basically three-four of our threads got unified into one umbrella): https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360033632831-Official-Discord-plugin-support
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Holy crap.
So, I just found a Discord employee who has actually helped with client mods in the past, making them more secure. The most important thing they did here was updating the main Discord client to make all client mods more secure by enforcing certain security rules for Electron (the client framework).
This gives all the more reason for Discord to implement this themselves.
Discord as a company, I'm sure, will never allow client mods under the ToS, because of the anti-spam team, and analytics/tracking. But the original "security reasons" I said in this post are now totally invalid as Discord has secured it all by themselves.
If employees are allowed to do this, then I imagine most of the team probably doesn't care either. Especially after you see that the one I've mentioned has created client mods for other platforms before.
Please, Discord 🙏 Let us respect your ToS
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How does BetterDiscord break TOS?
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This seems like a very good idea.
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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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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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