Ah good, just about time Discord went to complete shit and alienated their entire user base in order to maximize profits before going public. arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025... - ThreadSky

james.loadingreadyrun.com • 20 days ago

Ah good, just about time Discord went to complete shit and alienated their entire user base in order to maximize profits before going public. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/discord-heightens-ad-focus-by-introducing-video-ads-to-mobile-apps-in-june/

Comments

theinnsanity.bsky.social•20 days ago

I can't imagine being a company that increases revenue by like 20% in a year, and has a growing consumer base, and deciding to make a decision you know will anger end users.

kevvypoo21.bsky.social•20 days ago

I got a brief video ad yesterday when i went to the home screen on my Roku. I don't /think/ I clicked anything. Pretty gross!

ceejsteak.bsky.social•20 days ago

I don't love it but the video ad is opt-in, as in you have to actively choose to watch it. I'm not sure what else they can do, Nitro is not really worth it

mrverbal.bsky.social•20 days ago

The enshittification will continue until morale improves.

bicyclehater.bsky.social•20 days ago

good thing discord sucked ass from the start and deserves to die in the dumpster.

tarallol.bsky.social•20 days ago

It's all just so fucking boring now.

Same cycle as always. Entirely unsurprising to see the "need money" to "no new ideas" to "we know ads will push away 12% of users, but whatever" process be followed again

ecokady.bsky.social•20 days ago

The article says they're not profitable. It's mind blowing that they've been able to operate this long without a viable business model.

Reddit just wanted money. Discord is a failing/failed platform.

rvleshrac.bsky.social•20 days ago

bsky is also not profitable. It's impossible to run any of these services and be profitable without being actively detrimental to the user experience.

trident042.bsky.social•20 days ago

I don't think "impossible" is true. The real answer is that every service like this needs to be pay to use, and no one wants to pull that trigger. Bsky and Discord both could institute a single dollar per month fee and float easily, and it really wouldn't hit them that hard.

rvleshrac.bsky.social•20 days ago

You remember what happened when Twitter suggested a $1/month fee?

trident042.bsky.social•20 days ago

Oh, for sure. Outrage, and rightly so. A free thing, somehow making money, suddenly needing money? A double dip would be egregious.
But if the platform isn't actively selling me as a product, how IS it making money? What alternative is there to enshittification?

ecokady.bsky.social•20 days ago

I think the difference may be lie between "making money" and "making ALL the money" with exponential profit growth.

A platform that just wants to do what it does well and grow organically may find sustainability, but no one is going to value that at $1 billion making it a hard sell to an investor.

rvleshrac.bsky.social•20 days ago

None of these things are making money.

owenpaterline.bsky.social•20 days ago

Guess it’s back to ventrilo?

amytheamazonian.bsky.social•20 days ago

We all knew it was coming.

munsulight.bsky.social•20 days ago

The enshitification of every "good" products is so late stage capitalism. Let's hope a new competitor arise, so we can just leave to another platform

grimshade.bsky.social•20 days ago

Ewwww this is awful.

fionnafromtheinter.net•20 days ago

not in defense of it, but i will say that the ads are optional and just to unlock profile cosmetics

as such, i've never encountered one on desktop

dixonij.bsky.social•20 days ago

Still something that wasn't there before and, while loathe to use the Slippery Slope Argument, going public never bodes well for a company willing to do this while still privately held before the IPO.

rvleshrac.bsky.social•20 days ago

I don't really understand why people have such a bias against slippery-slope. Has anything ever actually disproven it?

dixonij.bsky.social•20 days ago

Mainly I've seen people be wary of using it for the most mundane kind of "well yeah that's how progression works" things.

The best use case is when it's applied to regression or erosion of norms/standards

adeptuspetricus.bsky.social•20 days ago

I think it’s mainly bc the worst types of people have used the slippery slope argument to impede stuff like gay rights and racial equality historically so some folks are hesitant to use it

mrbevers.bsky.social•20 days ago

grath.org•20 days ago

My understanding is that it's a mobile rollout of the same video ads the desktop client already has: opt-in ads that you have to go looking to even see as an option, which come with perks in Discord and/or the game being advertised if you choose to watch them.

shadow298.bsky.social•20 days ago

The enshitification if all that we like continues unabated.

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