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.
Guys, while we’re at it… Is there any discord alternative that has some kind of safe guarding against power tripping mods?
I think the only safeguard against that is to do your own moderation. The only tool I can think of that would even come close to detecting “power tripping” would be AI, and we all know that would end terribly. The best you can do is remove incentives (somehow, idk) so mods aren’t rewarded for a bad ban.
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]
selfhosted use Discord
Lol
Discord absolutely failed them They consider starting another Discord server
Double lol
Also I feel like discord has a limited lifespan until it will necessarily turn into worse. They lose money each year so I wonder when their vs money runs dry
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.
I get the point that that’s where the people are, but also kinda feel like the selfhosted community should act as a vanguard to a point. Sure, maybe you have a ‘front door’ on a corporate platform, but kinda feel like in the case of selfhosted sticking to your principles and purposefully rejecting platforms that don’t fit the vision is kind of important especially when you’re currently in the middle of finding out why.
Fitting that r/selfhosted can’t selfhost.
But why a new Discord server? 🤦
“Fool me twice well… Shame on… Shame on…Point being we been fooled once we won’t get fooled again!”
Fool me twice, get a free ticket to fool me thrice.
That’s the punchline brother man
At least they’re admitting their fault.
Edit; Their matrix room if anyone is interested.
It’s kubernetes so I couldn’t even fix it if I wanted to
lol
My hotest selfhosting take is that stuff I use in my day job, docker/k8s/cloud is not worth it and generally worse for long-term self hosting than a Debian box.
Like I have the skills to troubleshoot containerized setups, it’s litterally my dayjob, but I’d rather not deal with it in my freetime unless there is no other way to run it.
Honestly, I’m really happy with the ability to just try out stuff with docker and then nuke the entire compose stack if it does not work. I also know perfectly where any possible leftovers from the attempt are (the bind mounts or volumes) and can be certain I deleted everything I “installed”.
Although I have to admit that I absolutely had some issues with containers in the past, mainly when there are two or more containers with dependencies on one another.
Never used k8s or the cloud so I have nothing to comment on that ;D
Is that a hot take? I see a lot of people saying this, including myself. Kubernetes solves problems at work, but is way overkill even for my moderately elaborate home setup that would cause more troubles than it solves. If people want to use k8s at home go ahead, but I don’t.
k8s is overkill for majority of companies as well
After using Proxmox for a while, I swear by LXC, at least the way it is provided there.
Makes containerization make sense without all the pain.
Disclaimer: not even an IT guy, so can be gravely mistaken, just want to own my stuff.
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.
Users probably wouldn’t be too damaged if an IRC server with a few public channels got hacked. I realize IRC isn’t a true Discord alternative (and I realize that’s what you were picturing when you commented- I’m not debating your point). I just can’t imagine why a self hosting subreddit would need more than text chat + help bot.
Without having gone on that discord, like most discords, it would be my guess that 80% of the purpose of it is for shitposting, custom emojis, and sharing gifs.
Ironically few if any self hosted chat platforms share that focus, so that’s likely part of the gap. It’s either irc (very light on features, no ui for administration/customization for those not wanting to use admin text commands), matrix (very heavy, focus on federation, also has many commands that are only through text, very light support for custom emoji or built in gifs), or the crippleware open source business oriented chat platforms like rocketchat, mattermost, or zulip.
Honestly zulip is probably best but then you get into the wonderful world of mobile push notifications, capped at 10 users or unlimited for “eligible communities” there
XMPP is all the goodies of IRC but modernized for the current age, and it’s not a nu-protocol like Matrix so it’s quite lightweight to host or service.
Fluxer recently added self hosting and it has a mobile app in beta and soon to be released, admin from a web GUI, not difficult to host, and has a good amount of discord features. It is somewhat heavy though.
oh wow lol that’s not just “discord features” that’s o.g. “linux is not unix” built by claude. thanks for the share
You just make a few channels on existing IRC servers don’t need to host anything. I mean if you know what you are doing go for it but unless you actually do, don’t put servers on the internet for trawlers to take over.
A fediverse IRC server network sounds pretty cool tbh. #bringbackirc
E: Oooo a middle ground: https://thelounge.chat/ Self Hosted IRC WebClient
The irony.
Matrix, dudes.
Points furiously
THIS Alanis! This right here!Discord sucks.
Stoat chat has been a good Discord alternative.
Fluxer as well. It has iOS and Android apps in beta too.
last i checked it was very difficult to run your own instance (including voice chats)
It’s worked okay for me so far as well. The mobile apps aren’t super stable yet and notifications don’t work but it works for what it is right now. I do miss the stability of discord but I’m not going back
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.
I literally use matrix voice for my d&d group every week lol, just join a server that has voice
Only thing I dislike is the lack of software based noise cancelling is a bit awkward but very managable
Join different servers then? Not sure what to tell you.
I use element and I am in many different matrix servers with voice rooms. I host my own as well, voice is done via livekit which makes connecting via MatrixRTC very easy, and is easy to setup and host.
Those same voice rooms support webcams / video, as well as screen sharing.
So voice is done via a different software not matrix?
Matrix is a protocol, its all through some other software. Livekit is just a good and easy webrtc server that you can tie in with something like synapse
Why, use Redddit if you are in a self hosting community, I understand the community of curious people are there but are you really going to be selling yourself short like that? Than to be using discord as a self hosting community messanger?
