> What makes discord is the community around it, and the fact that 3rd party sites have decided to support it.
For FOSS projects, that really isn't a factor. The main thing is that Discord is a freely available channel that supports modern things like link previews, image uploads, voice chat, and persistent history. Slack does all these things but makes it a royal pain to join a new Slack.
Why does it matter if gamers come or go? They're a totally different audience. This isn't about building the next social platform, it's about escaping control of the existing ones.
Gaming is an interesting bellwether, having birthed both Slack and Discord. I used a variety of tools for gaming communities over the years: dial-in BBS, AOL chatrooms, IRC, ICQ, AIM, forums, XMPP, and Skype. Ultimately it had to be easy to get in and coordinate effectively and often.
For FOSS projects, that really isn't a factor. The main thing is that Discord is a freely available channel that supports modern things like link previews, image uploads, voice chat, and persistent history. Slack does all these things but makes it a royal pain to join a new Slack.
Why does it matter if gamers come or go? They're a totally different audience. This isn't about building the next social platform, it's about escaping control of the existing ones.