If we're talking about Matrix as a Discord alternative, then that would mean thousands of channels, each with hundreds or thousands of users, many with constant activity.
I'm not sure if anybody actually uses Matrix at the scale of the average Discord user. Sliding sync is supposed to help, but I don't think the Matrix architecture can realistically scale that high.
I set up their accounts
Setup is the hardest part. Syncing multiple devices and device migration are also hard. I'll bet you're going to act as tech support every time they get a new phone. That's fine for your family, but it's hardly going to scale.
The performance issues show up when dealing with large groups syncing between instances. You might just not be using it that way, but that's what needs to work seamlessly for a viable substitute for Discord.
Matrix is notorious for its poor performance with large/numerous groups. They keep claiming to improve it, but it's still bad.
I mean, it's great that it works for you, but be honest: isn't your tolerance for technological friction a bit higher than the average bear's? People complain that Mastodon is too hard, and Matrix is ten times worse to sign up for and use.
I hate to say it, but Matrix is never going to be mainstream. Its UX is bad and it seems like it's too bloated to fix. If I tried to get people to move from Discord to Matrix, they'd never take me seriously again. It was hard enough getting people to move from Facebook Messenger to Signal.
Also interested in this. The ideal solution would stream to a private server for storage in real-time, with access control so you can grant trusted individuals access.
This would allow retention of evidence in a scenario where your phone is seized/destroyed/lost or you are detained, and would give you (and whoever you choose to grant access) the ability to control distribution, unlike a livestream to Twitch or YouTube or whatever.
Same reason they don't today, generally: they are reliant on their jobs for their own personal safety and that of their families. Destroying the system that sustains them (even just barely) might not be in their immediate self-interest. They are disconnected from their peers (and those who would be their peers). Any direct action would be met with immediate hostility by the majority of the militia, and the best they could hope for is a volatile power vacuum.
See: prisoner's dilemma.
This does not rely on the rank-and-file enforcers to be particularly malicious people, only for them to have no clear and safe alternative.
If we're being perfectly honest, most of us are in similar situations today. I am fully aware that my tax dollars fund oppression all over the world, yet I still prefer to pay my taxes than go to prison. Realistically, I'm not going to stop participating in society, because it would hurt me immensely and it would help no one on its own. But I'm not kidding myself either; I am part of a corrupt system.
Real, lasting change requires organization and synchronicity. My choices as an individual are severely limited.
In the leadup to societal collapse (you are here!), land ownership matters more than anything. It is immune to inflation. To a lesser extent, stocks matter. It's not like billionaires are sitting on a mountain of cold hard cash.
In the aftermath of societal collapse, control of ~~law enforcement~~ private militias matters. If you can feed and house a militia, then you can control access to farmlands, roads, all kinds of resources. Control of those resources will allow you to support your militia and provide sufficient coercion for people to "willingly" join that militia. The only tricky part here is the transitional phase, and honestly, there's probably enough cultural inertia that this will not be much of a problem at all.
See: feudalism. It is the wet dream of every ultra-rich piece of shit.
Most of the world is highly dependent on long-distance transport for the necessities of life, including food. Look at any major American city. None of them are anywhere close to self-sustaining. Self-sustainability is something America has not only ignored, but actively avoided and prevented in the design of its cities in favor of the "efficiency" of factory farms.
The best time to eat the rich was yesterday. The second-best time is today. Billionaires are an existential threat to society.
SEO (search engine optimization) has dominated search results for almost as long as search engines have existed. The entire field of SEO is about gaming the system at the expense of users, and often also at the expense of search platforms.
The audience for an author's gripping life story in every goddamn recipe was never humans, either. That was just for Google's algorithm.
Slop is not new. It's just more automated now. There are two new problems for users, though:
Or perhaps you do not understand how Discord is commonly used.
People join dozens of servers. Maybe one for every game they play, every TV show they watch, every podcast they listen to. Everything has a Discord.
Even small Discord servers have many channels. Bigger ones will have dozens or hundreds of channels.
Some servers have millions of users. Most of the servers I'm in have thousands.
Many channels are default for all users in the server.
Not sure what the mathematical average is, but this is certainly common at least, and any alternative that can't handle this is no alternative at all.