Awesome! I truly, truly hope that the self-hosted version will not require a phone number for each user. That is basically the only reason why I don't use web.fluxer.app, even if date of birth requirement is alarming (due to age verification that have bloomed "everywhere").
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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Genuenly once they release federation I'm deeply considering moving the 196 chat there (I'll probably keep the matrix chat but also have a federation bridge)
Just tried the app, looking great!
Everything is AGPL and no ACL whatsoever, way to go Fluxer !
Once federation makes the cut, it will take the indie web by storm.
shameless clone except it's foss. seems interesting.
Discord cloned Slack. Fluxxer clones Discord. It's clones all the way down.
Seems we've converged on the perfect design. Now we just have to find one that doesn't enshittify.
And they all cloned the humble corner pub.
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.
ive seen at least 5 alternatives being parrotted after the discord data leaks a few months ago. everyone sweared they gonna change, nothing happened.
Because Discord gave up on age verification when they saw the backlash.
But it's only a matter of time before they try again, or before the enshittification becomes unbearable. And in any case, it's always good to have a more diverse ecosystem with active alternatives to any one product.
They didn't give up, they pushed it back 6 months to wait out the shitstorm.
Yeah, I know. "Backpedal" is the word I was looking for and couldn't find then 😅
They never answered my question about the requirement for a date of birth on registration, closing it down because of v2 and expecting the same issue to be reopened.
I'm not super up to date on Fluxer and how it works but I do know that they're still working on getting full self hosting available. Without any other context, my assumption is that's a requirement for their hosted instance for whatever reasons they have.
Besides, if it's just asking for date of birth, is it really that much of an invasion of privacy? I mean the internet has been like that since the 90s and it's been fine. You just lie if you want and the liability theoretically then moves to you instead of them.
Full self hosting is now available with this v2 release https://docs.fluxer.app/operator/get-started/
14 containers for a setup, out of which you will run 11-12 just for fluxer? and they say matrix is complicated to setup..
Never got into discord, what is so great about it? Is it just a game chat room pretty much?
I use it but honestly it's very overrated.
On one hand it's useful for clans/communities (especially if you have community game servers) but at a certain point all meaningful discussion goes right out the window when there are too many people in one place. It works best with a small group of friends as a kind of meeting place.
Rooms, Chats, and most importantly voice chat with very good noise suppresion AND push to talk. It always works, and is overall polished. Minimum volume level for sending voice, Noise suppression, and support for push to talk, is all very important if you game with others. Some prefer PTT, i don't. I like the minimum volume ans noise suppression. Works great. If Element or another Matrix app had these features me and my friends would instantly switch
If you want voice, why not go Jabber (XMPP) with Prosody or Snikket or something? e2ee too! Works decently well!
The big thing about discord is they are persistent voice channels so anyone in the server can pop in and out of the channel at will instead of it being a call that has to be initiated.
does matrix support that? I remember there was something similar with video channels in the element experimental settings..
That is a feature added to the XMPP web client Movim recently. https://mov.im/community/pubsub.movim.eu/Movim
It's AIM and Yahoo messenger in a group message format with work spaces and gif support. You can organize stuff in there as well and use it like a pseudo Teams. Its good for keeping in contact with a friend group.
It got popular because someone in your game could just send a link and you could temporarily voice chat without ever needing to make an account.
One of my professional organizations uses it over slack. My RP groups use it to organize, save stuff, and plan sessions. It's impossible to get away from now, so now is the time for it to enshittify.
Since everything has moved off forums into discord, so much information can no longer be found through search results. This hurts for niche hobby stuff that would usually be in open forums, but are now hidden behind discord's non-indexed wall.
If it enshittifies and servers shut down, then all that information is lost. There's no easy way to export all that information.
It's nice cause in a big chat server with a bunch of channels and voice channels. It's always on and persistent
Something that I don’t think has been mentioned is that even the free tier has screen sharing with audio at 720p30 or better resolution at like 1 fps for text legibility.
This makes Discord great for things like watching a friend play a game that you may enjoy watching them play but not enjoy yourself. Better coordination in team games when your friends are bad at game comms. Troubleshooting PC issues, collaboration on projects etc
I wonder if this means their selfhosted server is finally production ready?
Federation yet?
Still being worked on
No disregard for the work they do. But still not worth considering if a platform is centralized. Not in today's day and age
Agree. People are putting a lot of hope on Fluxer and sleeping on Movim https://movim.eu/
.eu
Africans not allowed
what do you mean? why wouldn't they be?
Colonizers wouldn't understand.
Movim is based on XMPP, not sure if E2EE but, XMPP, and thus Movim, is decentralized, I don't see a reason not to host an instance for that region
Good to know
Sadly true. Remember bluesky
I don't know that I agree that something has to be federated, if I can self-host I'm happy with that.
Is revolt still around?
Yes, it got rebranded to Stoat due legal issues