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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Good idea.
6 -
I like this idea, though I don't see a need to have to filter themes. I do agree that there should be a store, and that could be filtered, but if you're uploading a theme that will be there only for you to say I don't see why it being NSFW would be a problem.
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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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I really hope Discord adds custom themes that are free and not a premium feature.
29 -
Why not just make it a setting that we can change the chat backgrounds to whatever color/image/gradient/themes. We want I can understand moderating plugins but is making changing the image elements of discord to a random image gonna compromise it's security?
-10 -
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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EDIT: Making this easier to read, and expanding on the idea.
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This Idea Seems Amazing
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How does BetterDiscord break TOS?
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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.
7 -
Great idea
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@Discord should implement it.
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try pasting this onto custom CSS:
body:after{content:"
";}
-20 -
`body::after{content:"";}`
I forgot a colon
-21 -
Oh wait ot got filtered out
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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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I agree with most of the people here, make CSS edits free for all users (ergo having free themes). For instance I really don't like having these circle-like PFPs. That'd just expand the look of Discord and just make it beautiful and for everyone to have it custom tailored to their taste.
And have custom plugins be a paid feature, hell even if it was full-nitro that's be okay (I'm a classic nitro user just for instance).2 -
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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The problem currently is that there is no way of getting plugins or themes officially, not whether they're free or not.
If themes were free and plugins not, you'd still be able to have a choice of having plugins by simply supporting Discord.
I live in a 3rd world country and if I can pay for nitro, anyone with internet can as well.
If you were using BD simply because you don't want to pay for a feature which is implemented to the original, well, that's on you.
-5 -
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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Yeah all of the above
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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'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 -
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.13 -
discord should take off betterdiscord >:v
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Discord should totally add a theme feature for users!
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This is a great idea!
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