I use discord extensively. I've been on lemmy for over a year. Heck, I'm on a server that got pulled together in lemmy. I've seen a lot of complaints about discord, but nobody's actually ever condemned me for using it.

sporting and social clubs? Ew.

Like, WTF? Is there something wrong with social and hobby clubs?

It's not like there's any actual alternative with decent UI that doesn't require self hosting or a subscription.

Let me be the first one. It has nothing to do with FOSS or decentralization, I just think it's a shit software.

It reminds me of MIRC but if MIRC was soulless and made you pay to do the "fun" stuff like change colors and script things.

element? it has its fair share of criticisms tho

Afaict, it doesn't really have any major competitors. No, if I have to self host, it's not a competitor

I agree. I just think the reason it doesn't is because it doesn't need to exist. Seriously, 100% of its usecases are better served by something else.

Um. As a simple place for a group to chat and communicate via text?

Giving Up on Element & Matrix.org

Yeah, I looked into it at some point but it does not look suitable for big groups that include non techies.

Discord's great for that. But so many games and software are using it instead of forums or proper issue trackers now. It's a pretty serious downgrade.

Yeah I get the downside of those. But I find it weird how so many people blast discord when it's just about the only option for simple modern text based chat groups

Eh, it's not that different from the way humans have always been. Maybe you didn't like drinking in the 19th century, but if the local pub is where all your mates meet up to hang out, then the pub is where you go.