> People really want something more reactive like Discord. Discord is very much disliked, but the software is really good and that is why most people won't abandon it.
This probably comes as a surprise to Discord users, but it really is a niche social network.
We're talking fractions of a percent of users compared to existing social networks.
People don't really want something like Discord - the downsides by far outweigh any upside of "a closed-off private network of people", biggest one being lack of visibility and consistency.
Lack of visibility is kind of the point for most of those users. Discord's a replacement for a group chat, not a facebook/myspace page. It was literally designed so those groups of 5-10 friends who play video games together online didn't need to faff about with a private forum, an IRC, and a voice chat server. The primary competition was Skype until Microsoft killed it. The last thing they want is randos butting in.
This probably comes as a surprise to Discord users, but it really is a niche social network.
We're talking fractions of a percent of users compared to existing social networks.
People don't really want something like Discord - the downsides by far outweigh any upside of "a closed-off private network of people", biggest one being lack of visibility and consistency.