Man there's plenty of amazing examples of caste systems on the internet, but Discord Nitro ain't it.
Discord is a free app without ads. Nitro is a reasonable monetization strategy for a chat app that works incredibly well and fosters probably millions of communities.
TFA's point isn't that Discord shouldn't be monetized - it's that the monetization model is based on creating visible class differences.
A different monetization model is easily conceivable that gives paid users better functionality instead of (what the author calls) "aesthetic perks" that only serve to evoke class envy, as if like jewelry.
I don't have a strong position on the author's point. Just making sure the right thing is being discussed.
This is really interesting if you consider a different vertical, like competitive gaming.
The whole concept around that is that, monetizing "functionality" would be unfair (breaks balance), so the healthy strategy is actually monetize "aesthetics" (skins, effects etc.)
I also don't have a clear framework to judge this, but at least in my subjective opinion, I would much rather a platform be monetized via the creation of powerless "figurehead elites" through aesthetics, than to tax the commoner when actually doing something productive. If economic realities imply there must exist different castes of users, won't it be better if the difference is purely a social rather than practical construct?
What's the difference between functionality and aesthetic perks? Isn't the fact that one good is held by a group that is not you what evokes the envy? It doesn't matter if it's themes or if it's the ability to send larger messages. I find the distinction useless.
As noted in the post, Nitro users do get enhanced functionality for things like file upload sizes and streaming quality; I imagine that more intrusive better functionality than that would cause a much higher uproar than avatars or emoji, and given that this is a chat/voicechat/streaming app any functionality is necessarily going to be quite visible to other users.
> A different monetization model is easily conceivable that gives paid users better functionality instead of (what the author calls) "aesthetic perks" that only serve to evoke class envy, as if like jewelry.
With a group of friends we subscribed to Nitro to boost our private server's capabilities, which we use almost every day so the "better functionality" is definitely there.
Quite tired of this particular author/blog on HN and their edgy take on everything.
This seems like a dramatic way to say you don’t want to pay to support Discord. I think individuals who actually live in a modern day caste system would be extremely offended by this comparison.
If not having access to "super reactions" or special avatars on Discord make you feel a genuine and affecting sense of envy and self-consciousness I uh... don't know what to tell you. It's some gifs, you just can't post some gifs.
This feels monumentally overblown to me. I don't pay for nitro but I clearly benefit from all the people who do and if they get some fun, silly little perks that's fine.
My first kid had some struggles with understanding why it was absolutely ridiculous to spend hundreds of real dollars to e.g. get a particular Dominus in Roblox. It caused a lot of fights for about a year, but it finally sank in. When my second kid started playing he started down the same path. Caused a few arguments for a little while but, one day my first told him it was pretty stupid to spend real money on fake stuff and that was the end of the problem.
I personally buy into things like that in places I want to continue to exist for a long time e.g. Rocket League, a handful of YT channels through Patreon, and even Roblox. Turns out it's really fun to play it with your kids if they're not constantly browsing the item shop and begging for Robux.
I've never witnessed anyone talking down to the "lower class" except from insignificant trolls no one in the community respects anyway. Maybe it's different on discord but, if it is, I would blame the members of the community first, discord didn't invent the idea of selling cosmetics to keep the servers running and everyone needs to learn how to get over jealousy at some point in the their life.
Nitro, or at least server boosting, gives you some non-status benefits. The obvious ones are upload size and stream + audio quality.
The article doesn't mention server boosting, but that's where the real desperation and social pressure comes in. Nobody I've met cares if you've got nitro, but admins definitely do pressure members into boosting.
Does that pressure go much beyond every YT channel with a Patreon mentioning it in every video? I really don't mind that kind of thing compared to "relevant" ads and all the tracking involved in that industry.
Imagine comparing paying for a free service for a few irrelevant perks to a millennia-old systemic social system of oppression (that’s de facto still around, by the way). How tone deaf can you actually be?
I did not infer a direct comparison, personally. To me it was more of a dictionary use of ''caste'' as opposed to an encyclopedic one. No censorship required in this case, please.
I agree with other commenters. Before Discord, voice over internet was not easy. Skype, Google Meet, Vent, TeamSpeak, and that other one I can't remember the name of that we used for a while.
Discord works. It works well. It might just be the most "desktopy" Internet app that I've ever used (yes more than GDocs).
If you don't want to pay for things, you get ads. And the ad market has been slowly deflating for over a decade. Just look at Twitch's most recent actions for just how well the ad supported Internet is treating users and content creators.
We use Discord as the primary communication channel for our two-man startup and love it. Both me and my co-founder pay for Nitro not because we want to participate in an "internet caste system" (my-founder is basically the only person that would actually see my "Nitro" status and vice versa), but because we want to support a great product that has served us well over the years. Some of the perks are fun but generally go unused by us.
I get the point, and appreciate their input to the discussion.. but I'd rather pay money to matrix / element.io and make their service better. These kinds of problems don't seem to come up so often with FOSS. I don't use discord, but I can def see this kind of thing impacting children who do use discord.
Readit News
Discord is a free app without ads. Nitro is a reasonable monetization strategy for a chat app that works incredibly well and fosters probably millions of communities.
A different monetization model is easily conceivable that gives paid users better functionality instead of (what the author calls) "aesthetic perks" that only serve to evoke class envy, as if like jewelry.
I don't have a strong position on the author's point. Just making sure the right thing is being discussed.
The whole concept around that is that, monetizing "functionality" would be unfair (breaks balance), so the healthy strategy is actually monetize "aesthetics" (skins, effects etc.)
I also don't have a clear framework to judge this, but at least in my subjective opinion, I would much rather a platform be monetized via the creation of powerless "figurehead elites" through aesthetics, than to tax the commoner when actually doing something productive. If economic realities imply there must exist different castes of users, won't it be better if the difference is purely a social rather than practical construct?
With a group of friends we subscribed to Nitro to boost our private server's capabilities, which we use almost every day so the "better functionality" is definitely there.
Quite tired of this particular author/blog on HN and their edgy take on everything.
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This feels monumentally overblown to me. I don't pay for nitro but I clearly benefit from all the people who do and if they get some fun, silly little perks that's fine.
I personally buy into things like that in places I want to continue to exist for a long time e.g. Rocket League, a handful of YT channels through Patreon, and even Roblox. Turns out it's really fun to play it with your kids if they're not constantly browsing the item shop and begging for Robux.
I've never witnessed anyone talking down to the "lower class" except from insignificant trolls no one in the community respects anyway. Maybe it's different on discord but, if it is, I would blame the members of the community first, discord didn't invent the idea of selling cosmetics to keep the servers running and everyone needs to learn how to get over jealousy at some point in the their life.
The article doesn't mention server boosting, but that's where the real desperation and social pressure comes in. Nobody I've met cares if you've got nitro, but admins definitely do pressure members into boosting.
Next up: paying for Twitter Blue is slavery.
Discord works. It works well. It might just be the most "desktopy" Internet app that I've ever used (yes more than GDocs).
If you don't want to pay for things, you get ads. And the ad market has been slowly deflating for over a decade. Just look at Twitch's most recent actions for just how well the ad supported Internet is treating users and content creators.
Pay for shit, or else.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36221942