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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betterdiscord is so good extension for discord, but it violates ToS for security issues, if betterdiscord has security issues, add better discord features to original discord launcher, and make it free to use
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I think discord should just add custom themes like Better Discord, even if its for only Nitro users the users that cant get nitro wont be happy that its only for nitro users and would probably use betterdiscord themes since they are free. there should also be community made themes which is the same as custom themes but the community can open their own themes and for free if people dont want a betterdiscord problem, i do have nitro but its gonna expire this month and i have to get gifted again or just buy it. but yeah there should be community-made themes and also implement the other betterdiscord themes :)
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if there is background customization officially made by Discord then it should be free and not a paid access feature
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If the bug issues ETC. have been resolved on BD's side does that mean that BD is no longer a worry for Discord? because that was the MAIN reason Discord had a freakout to begin with. And if BD is working to fix that, doesn't it mean that they are now abiding by your TOS? Since I read through all these comments and not many of them had talked about anything else except Malicious code and bugs which as I have said. Were resolved.
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I think this is a great idea and would be a good new update for discord...
If they wanted, they could just maybe add like 7 different themes to chose from and then the problem is fixed.
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@Matty B I think that would be a step in the right direction but I don't think it would fix the issue bc people will still want custom themes and people will continue to break ToS to get them.
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It's a great idea, I will highly support this. *Discord can(maybe??????) partner up with BetterDiscord to make it safe for everyone*
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Im surprised there's only 400+ upvotes for this, there should be more....
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I think the main problem with BD is Plugins. Its good, but dangerous.
Discord users was already hacked with JS scripts (fortunately without BD tho).
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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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I'm fully on board with this
As intriguing as BetterDiscord looks, I don't use it because of the Terms of Service 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 the Terms of Service 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.0 -
Tbh, as far as security goes and the TOS, as long as you're not telling everyone that you're using BetterDiscord, you're fine. However I do agree that this should be integrated into discord itself instead of stupid things locked behind a paywall. This is purely a greed move to have to use themes and custom emojis with nitro.
Oh and it also feels more at home if there were no limits on video streaming nor uploading 8MB of pictures the equivalency of a PS2 memory Card's capacity. Since Discord Team themselves think that it's okay to put a cap on video streaming by making it only 720p (btw were in the 4k era! Hellooooo) and 8MB of pictures upload is laughable. Other clients were able to allow you to upload pictures way past that limit or without any of it to begin with. Just saying.
If the Discord Team won't bother to listen nor respect anyone's wishes, then I won't ever pay a single penny to them for Nitro. That's just how it's gonna be and will always use Better Discord to do things and have all the features my way.
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betterdiscord is more of a "we won't help you if you get your account stolen by a plugin" than it is a "haha you enjoy customization get banned L" so as long as you arent selfbotting with plugins you should be good
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Which of course is why the plugins and themes on the betterdiscord discord server are moderated. As long as you are only downloading from those, you should be safe. There is even a repository plugin for themes and plugins that they offer. To be included in the list, they have to follow certain rules.
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I agree that they have to allow BetterDiscord not goosemod or other stuff.
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also idk if lightcord against TOS but if it is they need to allow it they need to allow Betterdiscord and Lightcord if lightcord break TOS
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they also need to allow every app modification of discord like powercord better discord and lightcord
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The only thing I'm worried about is that if Discord dev team does integrate this function into Discord itself, it might be locked behind the Nitro monthly subscription benefits.
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That's a really good idea, It would be Awesome
but, it would be better if Discord could make that option available for all users (if they plan on doin' it)2 -
I believe BetterDiscord should remove the malicious programs/plugins completely. Then they could appeal to discord for a request to team up with them. Most plugins are extremely useful, like the read all button, translate, and the Spotify menu, just to name a few.
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I believe BetterDiscord should remove the malicious programs/plugins completely. Then they could appeal to discord for a request to team up with them. Most plugins are extremely useful, like the read all button, translate, and the Spotify menu, just to name a few.
They don't post just any plugins or themes on their own discord. It's a curated list of plugins and themes on the discord server and in the library plugins but they can't really police plugins from other sources. There are rules plugin developers need to follow to have their plugin/theme published. Do not download plugins from unsafe sources.
What discord could do however would be to vet plugins and themes before they can be used.
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Instead of limiting themes to nitro users, why not make some limited to nitro users and some for free, examples are animated themes, can only be used by nitro users while the non animated ones can be accessed for free. Or make the owners that created that theme choose if its either be paid or free.
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+1
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It's insane that Discord hasn't yet supported native and custom theming, and it's even crazier that Discord makes things like BetterDiscord against ToS when they haven't even provided the same capabilities natively.
I understand that users installing malicious plugins and such is a massive security risk. but that liability is on the user, that's their choice. If a user account is taken over by a malicious plugin, and they get banned as a result - that is their own fault, and I think rather than it being against ToS, it should just be made extremely clear what the risks and consequences are and can be.
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Recently, Discord added more themes and locked them behind Nitro. Still not custom themes, and still doesn't solve BetterDiscord / other client mods since they offer custom themes for free anyway. BetterDiscord even made a PR Tweet about it (which is, admittedly, pretty worrying...)
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People can 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.
So basically the same thing BetterDiscord already does. Let people upload things and at the same time verify that they do not contain malicious code.
reporting plugins and themes should also be possible, as a way to tell Discord that certain plugins and themes violate the rules.
If people have to report a plugin then it's already too late.
Why is BetterDiscord/BeautifulDiscord/Powercord/etc. a security issue/against the ToS? Client modifications aren't monitored by Discord, and Discord is trying to keep the platform safe for everyone.
Discord is close-sourced and BetterDiscord and their plugins aren't. Discord itself could be considered a bigger security risk than BetterDiscord if you think about it.
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.
Discord doesn't need to monitor BetterDiscord for it to be safe. You are assuming that BetterDiscord should not be trusted and that Discord should be just because.
Recently, Discord added more themes and locked them behind Nitro. Still not custom themes, and still doesn't solve BetterDiscord / other client mods since they offer custom themes for free anyway.
That is entirely Discord's fault. They keep locking client-side features like HD streaming and now themes behind nitro because of pure greed.
BetterDiscord even made a PR Tweet about it (which is, admittedly, pretty worrying...)
Not sure why it's "pretty worrying", again you seem to be assuming that BetterDiscord is not safe just because. Hopefully the tweet will make Discord reconsider their decision of making the themes a nitro-only feature (but I doubt it).
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Z, to make things clear since I'm sure you're not the only one who thinks I'm trying to say "Discord good, BetterDiscord bad":
- I wrote this with the title "A proposal to solve BetterDiscord" because it is undisputedly the most popular Discord client mod out there, although what I said applies to pretty much all Discord client mods. BetterDiscord is not the only client mod out there (of course)!
- I personally think client mods on other websites are really useful, and I use them often! (I use FrankerFaceZ on Twitch, Truffle on YouTube, Reddit Enhancement Suite on Reddit...) I am absolutely not saying BetterDiscord sucks "just because" - I don't think any Discord client mod sucks "just because". However, I also know that most users will inherently trust Discord, the company, more than BetterDiscord, the random community project that someone told them about, even if it logically would make more sense to trust the community project.
- I know Discord doesn't have to monitor BetterDiscord for it to be safe - I would be stupid to assume that. However, they also don't have to monitor it for it to be unsafe, which is why I point it out. However, I think that question (among others) can be worded better, so I'm going to archive it as-is and change it. Thank you for pointing it out.
- I say that the PR Tweet is "pretty worrying" because it blew up, and I fear that it may make Discord start to more strongly enforce the ToS against all client mods (including BetterDiscord!) I don't say it's worrying because of any client mod's safety.
- As for my personal take on Discord client mods, I remember that my experience many years ago was not great with BetterDiscord, but it does look like they're working on it; they replied under that PR Tweet and mentioned that they were working on making it faster and overall more snappy, which is great! (When I did use them, a Discord staff member had stated on Reddit that they wouldn't take action. As soon as I learned that they said they'd start treating it more seriously, I stopped. I don't use any client mods today - I feel like I have a good enough experience with the regular unmodified Discord client.)
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