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Mallory's Musings & Mischief's posts Post Back to profile
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postmodern

@malcircuit could you recommend us some free forum/chat-server hosting solutions? The main appeal of Discord is that

1. it's easy to setup
2. it's free (for the time being...)
3. it's not Slack

Not everyone has the money to pay for and host their own forum or IRC server. Also, not everyone seems to like Matrix. Discord is an acceptable evil for the time being.

2 January at 3:12 | Wall-to-wall | Open on ruby.social
6 comments
Miah Johnson

@postmodern @malcircuit libera.chat is already free and set up. No need to run your own IRC server really. Channels can be made to invite only or key required, and there are services to automate ops etc. There is a team that runs it and they will deal with abusers.

2 January at 3:22 | Open on hachyderm.io
postmodern

@miah @malcircuit idk about IRC in the year 2024. Feels less accessible and clunky now, compared to the web-based chat options. Also, I like how you can create your own Discord "server" and populate it with as many channels as you wish.

2 January at 3:30 | Open on ruby.social
njsg

@postmodern
The text-based open protocol has to be much more accessible than web-based chat options, unless we're using different meanings for "accessible". It also lets you use a web-based chat client or something like that for it if you want (and if there is one, I think there is), unlike some other services that won't even allow third-party clients.

My usual example for this flexibility in IRC is Microsoft Comic Chat (after disabling the noise it generates).

@postmodern
The text-based open protocol has to be much more accessible than web-based chat options, unless we're using different meanings for "accessible". It also lets you use a web-based chat client or something like that for it if you want (and if there is one, I think there is), unlike some other services that won't even allow third-party clients.

2 January at 8:55 | Open on social.sdf.org
oxtyped

@postmodern @malcircuit

You could try phpbb, discourse, vanilla forum. Its been a while since I last set them up, but they should still be well maintained.

2 January at 7:45 | Open on mastodon.hackerdrinks.social
postmodern

@oxtyped @malcircuit discourse isn't actually free for everyone. You need X number of users and to be an Open Source project to get the free hosted version. I have an Open Source project, Ronin (ronin-rb.dev), but lack the required number of users to get a free discourse server. :(

Also, what if I also want real-time chat, not just a forum?

phpbb/other forums still require you to find a free hosting provider.

2 January at 7:49 | Open on ruby.social
oxtyped

@postmodern @malcircuit my bad! I did not realize that discourse has a tier to it.

I think if resources allows for it, there are hosting providers that you might get away with for < $2/month. There's nearlyfreespeech.net/ for example which you could consider.

disclaimer: I have not used them before, I've just seen them around since the early 2000s and always found them interesting.

if resources are really tight, maybe you can hit me up a DM, I might be able to hook you up.

2 January at 8:14 | Open on mastodon.hackerdrinks.social
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