Discord Acquisition

There are rumors flying around that Discord could be exploring a sale to one of the major tech companies. I'm sure the opinion of one user is hardly important in the face of $10 billion, but as someone who has used the platform every single day since 2015 I strongly beg you not to sell. Despite its large growing user base, Discord has always felt like a very grassroots operation. Your patch notes are fun, you involve your community in many decisions, you push back against the status quo seen around the industry... you run a company that users genuinely love and want to support. That all goes away if you become just another division within a tech giant. I've seen too many interesting startups promise that "we're still the same service that you know and love" only to slowly lose their souls after a big sell off.

The fact of the matter is that I don't trust any of the large corporations to put the same love and care into Discord as the current team does. Microsoft injected ads into Skype. Google frequently kills off its own products on a whim. Amazon doesn't pay living wages despite being run by the richest man on earth. Facebook has major privacy concerns. Apple gouges its customers and kills open source. None of these megacorps are suitable keepers of such an amazing platform like Discord and if you go down the typical route of selling to them, it's only a matter of time before all the goodwill is gone and people are forced to move onto the next cool underground chat app.

I know it seems foolish to walk away from this kind of money. But PLEASE don't let your wonderful creation turn into just another soulless piece of spyware sitting in the pocket of some billionaire. I love Discord. It has seriously changed my life and it is the primary way that I keep in touch with people. I would seriously be lost without it and I don't want to live in a world where it crumbles away under the almighty dollar.

Thank you for 6 amazing years and I very much hope for many more years to come.

yukitsukihana

March 23, 2021 03:22

You said everything I was thinking of, but far more eloquently. Most major corporations wind up killing off their own products if they don't make a profit. I fear that most of Discord's charm will be stripped away and replaced by ads until whichever Big Tech company that bought it kills it because there's not enough interest. Currently, you devs actually care about the userbase. Big Tech does not. Discord is the most functional chat platform available. I don't want to lose it.

Icey

March 23, 2021 04:35

I have used Discord for years, and have been a Nitro subscriber for almost as long primarily to ensure it sticks around, and I am extremely disappointed at the idea that it will go the way of Skype. They can make all the promises they want, but experience says otherwise. I, for one, am disappointed at the thought of yet another community platform putting money ahead of its userbase.

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