Then go read what the AdNaseum plugin does and we will talk then.

https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/

Its purely out of spite, plus, im not clicking anything.

I run the full ad blocking suite anyway and see more ads watching a sportsball game with the family than I do on my home network over the course of months.

1. I dont see the ads
2. The data they generate is wrong and random, if that is used to train AI it runs the risk of poisioning the model.
3. The site Im on gets paid by the ad vendor, even though the interaction is fraudulent.

I call it a win-win

This isnt really news, this looks like an operations cockup that injured two sailors. Not a "the US Navy is the biggest dick on the seas" or a "The ship with the higher tonnage has the right of way" issue.

Exactly, its data poisioning.

If someone is trying to build an ad profile on you (even if you personally dont see the ads) then it feeds them junk data instead of real date.

Matrix and Teamspeak are the big ones, ive seen people talking about XMPP and other self-hosted solutions. The real issue people are waking up to is that if you dont host your communication tools, you dont own them.

The self-hosting community is buzzing with people spooling up their own services and getting ready to abandon discord. If you or people in your circles need help setting stuff up, just ask. Plenty of helpful nerds and guides are around.

After what happened in Nepal last year, this 100% tracks with the dystopian narrative we are currently living. The powers that be saw a small country use it as a tool to affect change. To me, and tell me if I lm jumping to conclusions here, its obvious as to why this policy change is happening at all, to prevent the site from being used in that manner again.

Teamspeak still requires a license above a small user size, but has multiple clients that can accomodate different target audicences. The TS3 client still looks like it did back in the windows 7 days and the TS5 client is just copying discords homework (Not a clue what happend to 4 and I believe 6 is under development). Both use the same server backend and database structure so both work with one server and different user expirences.

Mumble is still the gold standard for handling large user bases (there is a reason big EvE Online alliances use mumble). It will take longer to set up, the configuration is handled by the server, not through authorized user accounts like TS.

Dito (Synapse server), Element for desktop app and fruitphones, Shildichat for android (its lighter and has an adorable turtle as a mascot).

And seconding the voice coms, the VOIP relay server is a huge pain to set up, same with the registration page. My nerd herd hosts a few services that federated to share services and the admin group just issues people accounts.

TLDR: no... Were not using discord anymore, we have discord at home.

Dont knock matrix for being slow, it updates just as fast as anyone else's network speed is and it is focused on encryption and security. Given [gestures broadly to everything these days] people moving away from major platforms should really take into account their digital footprint and privacy.

Dont you put that evil on us Ricky Bobby!

Do you want to put your foot on the gas for brain drain? Because thats how you do it. Anyone smart enough to get accepted to an out-of-state school will never come back.

You are a good person, and people like to say nice things about you.