TLDR: The r/selfhosted subreddit has a Discord server. The owner’s account got hacked leaving the server in a precarious state. They submitted a support ticket, but Discord has not taken action in weeks and probably won’t at all, so they are considering starting a new Discord server.
selfhosted use Discord
Lol
Discord absolutely failed them They consider starting another Discord server
Double lol
I definitely agree. Lol. But I also totally understand using Discord. I assume the community isn’t meant exclusively for people who currently self host, but also for people interested in starting to. In that regard, Discord will most likely be what those people have and are willing to use.
Correct. I have received help from that server in the past, and it’s unusable now. Part of what I hope to accomplish is to replace Discord, or at least offer my friends an off-ramp. Getting started with Discord is way easier, and in the year 2026, I wouldn’t know what other client to use to look for a community that gives me quick help via live chat. I no longer know how to use IRC, I’ve found.
Those saying “just self-host Matrix/Stoat/XMPP”, do not understand the power of network effects. If people are too lazy to sign up on your custom server, and you end up with 50% of the users you would have gotten if you used Discord, is that worth it? What if it was only 10%?
I wish there were a solution to this. Interoperability sounds nice until you have multiple competing standards (like Matrix and XMPP)
The solution is for everyone to migrate to Jami, which is obviously the better option!
There’s a certain irony making this comment on Lemmy.
Well I’m not trying to start a community around helping people, I’m just a participator. If I wanted to maximize the number of people I could help, I might move back to reddit
edit: a word
I understand that POV, but if people want help, they’ll go to where it is. Walk the talk of FOSS. That’s how we’ll build better communities.
They won’t go to Lemmy. Anybody getting into self hosting will not just know what Lemmy is. Nor will they per se care for FOSS to the same extent you do. So having people helping around on conventional platforms seems perfectly valid to me.
They could always advertise a Matrix room and bridge conversations if the moderators really wanted to as well, instead of isolating themselves.
Do you know what a hyperlink is? You just click on it and it takes you to Lemmy. You sign up, pretty much the same way you have done for every other service you have ever used. What are we doing here? Are we not trying to build alternatives to the corpo-surveillance hellscape that the internet has become? Give users a little more credit, and a little more incentive. Otherwise, you’re sending mixed messages when you offer a way to get their photos away from google or something, but you force them to use fucking Discord for support.
It’s fine if you disagree with me, but please keep it civil. The reason I’m saying they won’t go to Lemmy is because those hyperlinks will usually lead to the relevant docs, a couple of blogpost, or Reddit. I personally have never seen a Lemmy or Piefed instance in my search results when I looked up a problem.
To give an example: I went to Google and I put in the query “how to start self hosting on a linux server”, which is what I assume someone getting into it would look up. The top site (skipping the AI response and for some reason, Youtube videos?) was Reddit. That’s why it makes sense to me to offer help on a more conventional platform for people getting into self hosting. The people among them who get into federated services will naturally find their place here. They are not forced either way.
If a little light sarcasm is incivility to you, then you’re in for a real struggle. I don’t know how most people end up self-hosting but I suspect it’s more of an organic process. For me, jeez… I can probably trace it back to using StumbleUpon browser extension, hearing about Linux, then installing it as a way to avoid studying for exams. Once I was using Linux on my computer, I suppose self-hosting was inevitable. Where did I get the info? Wherever I could find it.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters LXC Linux Containers XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (‘Jabber’) for open instant messaging k8s Kubernetes container management package
[Thread #54 for this comm, first seen 14th Jul 2026, 15:10] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Fitting that r/selfhosted can’t selfhost.
Hosting costs money, maybe if you disable voice, video, uploads, and only allowed text it would be manageable but discord is free. I run my own chat server but it’s only for like 10 people.
At least voice and video are often done peer to peer. So the strain on the server would be almost zero.
those who can’t do, teach
But why a new Discord server? 🤦
Stoat chat has been a good Discord alternative.
What advantage does it have compared to Matrix?/IRC?
It mimics discord, so functional voice rooms with screen sharing, text channels, and so on…
Matrix has all that these days too
I have not seen a matrix voice channel ever in any of the servers ive seen. Also using element.
They’re a completely unserious owner if they use Discord still as a “selfhoster”, that and getting hacked on top of that shows how careless they are as a moderator.
Self hosting and providing a public service are two very different things.
I’ve never self hosted a discord alternative, but it doesn’t seem like it’d cost anything to just spin it up beside existing self hosted infrastructure.
Here is some advice then: Don’t run a public service until you understand the risks and are capable of protecting yourself and your users. It isn’t as simple as booting up a service for self use. By using Discord they minimised damages to users it would be worse if they lost control of a Discord alternative with RCE exploits.
