The Read Message History permission problem and solution.
Hi there,
there is an important issue with the Read Message History permision, it has been heavily notified and for some reason ignored:
https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360046946331-Change-read-message-history-permission?input_string=message%20history%20permission
https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360047951952-New-Option-for-Read-Message-History-Permission-?input_string=Trimodal%20message%20history%20permission
Its functionality, being able to read all previous messages if enabled or only those messages if you are present in the channel if disabled, does not make sense as a permission, it should be a new kind of text channel, real-time text channel or text-on-the-fly channel, something like that, because it works just like the voice channel (no record of the content) but using text. It is not a permission but a channel type, this way it fits better from a categorical point of view. By offering it as a permission, it has generated a lot of confusion as seen in the links above and hinders the trimodality it needs (read all history/read contemporary history/do not read history).
I would solve this problem in the following way:
- Add new real time text channel, where you can only receive messages if you have the focus on the channel and these are deleted when you leave. It's like a more private or safe or intimate or carpe diem or hyperactive kind of chat.
- Keep "Read Message History" permission to avoid breakages. Or (better) delete it and migrate automatically all channels with this permission disabled to the new real-time text channel. New channels allow you to read the message history but,
- Add new "Read Contemporary Message History" permission where if disabled, it works as now displaying all message history. If enabled, the user will only see the messages generated from and until permission has been given.
My reason why you should prioritise this is that you don't give temporary control over exclusive content, such as Patreon rewards or any monthly subscription needs. If you want to share content with a role while they are sponsoring you and at the same time, not give them access to previous exclusive content, the current Discord forces you to resolve this by manually adding and removing exclusive content to synchronise rewards with sponsors, which is terrible to do from many points of view. It's a problem for content creators which makes it difficult to monetise their work.
I love Discord, please fix this.
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