this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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I just want one of these Discord alternatives to code up a "migrate-from-Discord" script that admins can use to scrape all of their messages and media, save out their channel structure and access rules, and pull their user list for later mapping, and box it all up into some sort of standards-compliant package.
The closest modern communications standard would be Matrix (which is why I can take what I have in Commet (client) and move it to Sable or FluffyChat (other clients) for instance, because they follow the same standard).
Centralized platforms do not deal with open standards because it literally goes against their premise - User retention via vendor lock-in. You can scrape to an extent, it won't ever be perfect, and if everyone did it, it would get patched in some way to be limited.
This was always the Discord trap though - Discord is a treasure-trove of knowledge that's now behind a walled garden thanks to "community leaders" who thought they understood the importance of community longevity. Many are scraping whatever they can moving from one walled-garden just to move to another - Make it make sense.
I know why Discord isn't offering that, but there are at least three FOSS options (Element, Stoat, and Spacebar) that could really use a good way to get content off of Discord and into an open format (sure, Matrix is a solid option). Any data that can be accessed publicly can be scraped, even if it'd take a while. I think one of those teams should be considering this.
(FYI, Element is also a Matrix client, though it's business/enterprise focused)
There are 2 things to consider.
First, demand. Us being vocal about it is one thing, but the real demand may be low. We moved our community from Discord to Matrix - While a direct migration wasn't possible, we setup a Discord bridge for 6 months during a transition period which was invaluable. The bridge kept all our chat history which we can still see today even though the bridge is down and the discord server got nuked.
Second, priorities. Unless a PR is submitted by a voluntary, the 3 platforms you mention have limited resources and higher-priority items that need to be worked on.
Easier onboarding should be a priority once they feel like they can handle a solid influx, especially for the ones that are backed by a company dev team with money.
Don't forget XMPP
Where is the Movim guy?
Sure, XMPP is a fine option, too. I don't really care what the open format is, because converting between them is going to be frankly trivial once it's extracted from the walled garden.