Discord is about to require age verification for everyone

I was always too old for discord, it was too confusing for me. I missed the magic of early IRC channels or BBS/Forum stuff. It was seperate, but i liked it that way.
Discord looked like... TEAMS. I am forced to work with teams, and i hate every little bit about it.
As well there are some instances where i could not avoid discord (the dirtywave m8 forums, a great little hardware music tracker), i was very very strict about what info i gave there.
As for screen sharing and streaming, i never have had use for that. My mumbleserver runs flawlessly for years on peanuts, and it does everything i need. Steam chat and irc do the rest.
What i really dislike about the recent developments is the implication for people herding us cats, like Liam does here. He can not say "i don't care, i will use XYZ"... :(

lol Hopefully this will be enough to shake people awake and off to...

Murmer + Mumble
Matrix
XMPP & Jitsi Meet -- the tried and true old fashions
Mattermost? No personal experience here
IRC -- v3 is nice

Quoting: GoEsrI'm left wondering when governments will come for Steam accounts. My account is over 18 years old, so maybe they'll implement the same system Nexus Mods did.

Yeah.. I've been wary about this for a little while now. Before I began using Privacy.com, at some point I gave them my actual debit card. That ought to have been enough for them to figure out I'm over 18. Especially since it's been years since.

Even still, all the more reason to maybe buy Valve's HW and stick to GOG & Itch for buying games. As alluring as those 90% off games are... it doesn't matter once one is locked out of one's account!

Quoting: apocalyptech

Quoting: JarmerOMG I love this so much because it will destroy discord. YESSSSSS I ragehate discord so much so anything that takes measures to destroy it is the best thing ever.

Heh, while I don't hate Discord with the same fervor as you, I am certainly not a fan. Perhaps this'll end up encouraging more people to start adopting open platforms for online discussion, over corporate-controlled walled gardens! Though through the cynical eye of historical observation, I think it's more likely that the majority will just grumble about it and acquiesce anyway. Alas!

if we can make the best platform for once instead of demanding people to use an inferior product...

im not saying that open source is aways worse, but we tend to enter the party when its already in the middle or over, we need to find an way to fund cool projects and make then more competitive with closed solutions before its too late for then to compete...

Goodbye Discord.
Hello next one.

I think they are going about this all wrong, most folk are use to a certain level of age-verification. You go into a shop to by alcohol, or other age-restricted items and you'll be asked to prove yourself.

It's not new, what is new, is the scope of that age-verification. You go to that local shop, and show a driver's license, it between you and the person behind the counter. You go back later and the same person behind the counter will nod your items straight through.

They remember you had a valid license, but they didn't take a picture of it, or have the details memorised.

The scope of your personal details is limited.

I don't think they've got the scope right.

Quoting: ChrisznixI was always too old for discord, it was too confusing for me. I missed the magic of early IRC channels or BBS/Forum stuff.

My thoughts exactly. I wish IRC would come back.

Quoting: Tares

Quoting: ChrisznixI was always too old for discord, it was too confusing for me. I missed the magic of early IRC channels or BBS/Forum stuff.

My thoughts exactly. I wish IRC would come back.

IRC was never gone... it's now libera.chat after the freenode takeover.

Also:
https://xkcd.com/1782/

Quoting: ROllerozxaDiscord is the last bastion of social communication for a lot of people who have nowhere else to go, and it's sad to see it's going downhill quicker than I expected.

Totally agree, I think a lot of people are super hesitant to even consider leaving discord because their social lives are held hostage by the platform. Although, it'd be great if this could be the push to get my friends onto something like stoat or another open source alternative.

The problem here isn't age verification per se. In theory, that's not such a terrible idea for many things that are online. The problem is that we can't trust any of the people who want to administer it.

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: apocalyptech

Quoting: JarmerOMG I love this so much because it will destroy discord. YESSSSSS I ragehate discord so much so anything that takes measures to destroy it is the best thing ever.

Heh, while I don't hate Discord with the same fervor as you, I am certainly not a fan. Perhaps this'll end up encouraging more people to start adopting open platforms for online discussion, over corporate-controlled walled gardens! Though through the cynical eye of historical observation, I think it's more likely that the majority will just grumble about it and acquiesce anyway. Alas!

if we can make the best platform for once instead of demanding people to use an inferior product...

im not saying that open source is aways worse, but we tend to enter the party when its already in the middle or over, we need to find an way to fund cool projects and make then more competitive with closed solutions before its too late for then to compete...

As far as I can tell, open source development also tends to be more kind of steady, a long gradual push, punctuated by bursts of activity when some talented energetic person joins and suddenly adds some stuff.

Closed source development tends to be more front-loaded . . . there's a big push at the beginning, lots of money and hustle to get the product out the door, then nothing much, bugfixes if you're lucky, until it's time for the next version, when there will be a big push to find some new features to bolt on. Eventually the product reaches maturity, and will start to get worse as they either add bells and whistles because, or if it's dominant in its field they will start to enshittify it.

So at the beginning, closed products tend to be better. A couple of versions in, open source software starts overtaking, and then after a while is likely to end up better than the closed product just by virtue of not being a product. But it takes time, quite often too long to get any adoption.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: apocalyptech

Quoting: JarmerOMG I love this so much because it will destroy discord. YESSSSSS I ragehate discord so much so anything that takes measures to destroy it is the best thing ever.

Heh, while I don't hate Discord with the same fervor as you, I am certainly not a fan. Perhaps this'll end up encouraging more people to start adopting open platforms for online discussion, over corporate-controlled walled gardens! Though through the cynical eye of historical observation, I think it's more likely that the majority will just grumble about it and acquiesce anyway. Alas!

if we can make the best platform for once instead of demanding people to use an inferior product...

im not saying that open source is aways worse, but we tend to enter the party when its already in the middle or over, we need to find an way to fund cool projects and make then more competitive with closed solutions before its too late for then to compete...

As far as I can tell, open source development also tends to be more kind of steady, a long gradual push, punctuated by bursts of activity when some talented energetic person joins and suddenly adds some stuff.

Closed source development tends to be more front-loaded . . . there's a big push at the beginning, lots of money and hustle to get the product out the door, then nothing much, bugfixes if you're lucky, until it's time for the next version, when there will be a big push to find some new features to bolt on. Eventually the product reaches maturity, and will start to get worse as they either add bells and whistles because, or if it's dominant in its field they will start to enshittify it.

So at the beginning, closed products tend to be better. A couple of versions in, open source software starts overtaking, and then after a while is likely to end up better than the closed product just by virtue of not being a product. But it takes time, quite often too long to get any adoption.

Also, most commercial, closed projects have the advantage of better and broader marketing, which gives the closed project the advantage in exposure and adoption by potential users. Whether or not the open source project is superior.

a gentle reminder for everyone who cares about protecting themselves from identity theft (gov's certainly don't - they are counting on it being rampant to gain widespread support for international digital ids) to minimize the external services you use on your internet/phone as - this is just getting started. get a phone that can run lineage or graphene os, what services do you use that aren't self hosted? anything social media related consider it a matter of time til the same requirements will apply. i would be particularly concerned about things you may be subscribed to and pay, to then be potentially be locked out after an unannounced update occurs requiring id, so you can disable alter your paid subscription (eg spotify). the other one would be perhaps another service with your data or photos on it.

Quoting: CorbenIRC was never gone... it's now libera.chat after the freenode takeover

Yeah, I still use IRC actively on a very regular basis, and I've still got a not-quite-disingenuous opinion that no other internet chat system has managed to eclipse it. Though with less rose-tinted glasses I'd have to acknowledge that IRC still has many problems of its own compared to the kind of administrative capabilities available in its newer competitors (not to mention its essential non-"richness" of the text it shuttles around the system). Still, the fundamental service remains, IMO, one of the best.

That Freenode -> Libera thing is actually a wonderful example. Freenode got shitty with a sort-of hostile takeover thing, and within a week or so it was Business As Usual at Libera. Folks had to re-register nicks, some channels got renamed a bit, some channels jumped ship to places like OFTC, and not everything was perfect, but the sysops still all had their familiar tools they'd been using for years, and mostly all users had to do was update a hostname. In the end, everyone's day-to-day experience remained virtually unchanged, just on a different network.

Anyway, I also feel compelled to point out that Libera is hardly the only bastion keeping IRC alive, though it's one that Linuxfolk are likely to be familiar with.

Last edited by apocalyptech on 11 Feb 2026 at 12:32 am UTC

I've gone and set up a Matrix account and am ready to move there when this takes effect. With how many breaches Discord has had, I just can't trust them with info this sensitive.

I will definitely not hold my face up to the camera or show my ID. The moment Discord asks me to do so, I will delete my account, lol.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: apocalyptech

Quoting: JarmerOMG I love this so much because it will destroy discord. YESSSSSS I ragehate discord so much so anything that takes measures to destroy it is the best thing ever.

Heh, while I don't hate Discord with the same fervor as you, I am certainly not a fan. Perhaps this'll end up encouraging more people to start adopting open platforms for online discussion, over corporate-controlled walled gardens! Though through the cynical eye of historical observation, I think it's more likely that the majority will just grumble about it and acquiesce anyway. Alas!

if we can make the best platform for once instead of demanding people to use an inferior product...

im not saying that open source is aways worse, but we tend to enter the party when its already in the middle or over, we need to find an way to fund cool projects and make then more competitive with closed solutions before its too late for then to compete...

As far as I can tell, open source development also tends to be more kind of steady, a long gradual push, punctuated by bursts of activity when some talented energetic person joins and suddenly adds some stuff.

Closed source development tends to be more front-loaded . . . there's a big push at the beginning, lots of money and hustle to get the product out the door, then nothing much, bugfixes if you're lucky, until it's time for the next version, when there will be a big push to find some new features to bolt on. Eventually the product reaches maturity, and will start to get worse as they either add bells and whistles because, or if it's dominant in its field they will start to enshittify it.

So at the beginning, closed products tend to be better. A couple of versions in, open source software starts overtaking, and then after a while is likely to end up better than the closed product just by virtue of not being a product. But it takes time, quite often too long to get any adoption.

Yes, I've seen this time and time again! Commercial software goes from good to great to almost perfect, and then...what's left? In the best case scenario, they work on extra features that few people will use. Tweaks here and there, and prices stay reasonable. In the worst case scenario (and most common one it seems like), they change their business practices to earn more money from the same or worsening product. "Numbers must go up!"

And in the meantime, open source projects slowly creep towards the "almost perfect" that the commercial software once was. Blender, KiCAD, Krita, OBS, JellyFin, HandBrake: already did this. FreeCAD, LibreOffice, Audacity (4.0), Nextcloud: all on their way there while the alternatives get worse. It's looking good for the future, just requires patience (and more of these companies to F up to inspire devs to work on the open source alternatives).