So Discord finally responded to my email. I asked them specifically what I did wrong, and they gave me yet another list of possible things I could've done. They said it was either spam or platform abuse.

This makes me more sure that I was banned because I was closing my old DMs too quickly using the official client.

They said they'd lift my ban once *generously* (/s). I hate these fucking centralised services.

@ascclemens you ought to ditch Discord like the two-bit garbage it is

Use open chat platforms

@sir I already use Matrix and IRC, and I used XMPP before that. Unfortunately, much like Windows, Discord has the market share and it's very hard to get even close friends to switch, let alone entire communities.

@ascclemens your close friends would come with you. If not, how close are they really? And fun fact: there are new people who want to be your friend on other platforms, too. FOMO no matter what you do.

@sir I'm not interested in making new friends on new platforms. My close friends might begrudgingly come with me and then forget to open the app because they use it only to talk to one person.

I've already been through this with XMPP and Matrix, twice for each.

Also, there are a large number of communities that are primarily on Discord. I write plugins for a game, and their primary chat and news source is a Discord server. That's not even FOMO; that's just a major hindrance to my ability to maintain and create plugins.

I don't like Discord, but it has become the easy, default option for most people. The same people who don't realise or don't care that Google is actively harvesting all their information, which is a lot of people.

It's not realistic for me to just turn off Discord.

@ascclemens so how the fuck do you expect this to change if you're being part of the "my friends are there" problem

@sir I tried to move and it didn't work. I'm not going to estrange myself from my friends in the name of open chat platforms. Maybe the entire onus shouldn't be on people moving.

@ascclemens you haven't answered the question

@sir > Maybe the entire onus shouldn't be on people moving.

In the end, it's not my job to change it.

I did my part and attempted to get people to move; it just doesn't stick because it has to be more than one person doing it, I think.

@ascclemens @sir if you don't want to make the effort to change it that's fine. Complaining about using proprietary software while using proprietary software voluntarily is less fine.