planning for a post-discord future

here's my current plan: i'm stuffing you all in a signal chat.

then maybe we'll all be in an xmpp chat or some fancy new thing when something enticing comes out.

there will be no 1:1 recreation of this server, girl city, until i decide the time is right.

girl city is a discord native phenomenon but more importantly it's my own personal (collaborative) art piece.

with girl city (in its current form) being something that could only happen on discord, i'd rather grow acquainted with the idiosyncracies of each new communication tool i use and learn how to play to their strengths to achieve the immaculate vibe that this server has, taking as many of you who are willing to follow along with me

i'm having a hard time phrasing this (and it's mostly in response to someone who isn't even here anymore) but essentially, when it comes to preparing for an eventual post-discord future, i'm not recreating girl city on the first service that lets you create a facsimile of a "discord server" because the artist in me simply refuses to.

i will be on as many platforms as i can so i can stay in touch with as many of you as possible, since being friends with you outside of this server is what made it possible.

there will come a day when we are all on a platform protocol that will intuitively feel like the right medium for the next era of girl city. that time is not now and it might not be for years.

until then, i look forward to talking to you all on whichever app you prefer.

if you made it this far, add me on signal

...

it's painful considering a future where discord disappears (or is damaged in a way that fundamentally alters it) without a viable alternative being ready, and championing an alternative that's subject to the same lock-in and failure modes of discord as a platform is signing my friends up for the same cycle to repeat in a few years time.

but at the same time, i don't even think discord is the hypothetical perfect tool for what i use discord for. like i said, it's a creative medium for me. it's where communal gardening takes place. what roomy.space is promising is really enticing in this regard, but it's still a truly early alpha with only a couple users on it for test purposes and, as far as i'm aware, no plan for voice rooms. its goal is to iterate on what i use discord for, but it's not every piece of the puzzle.

still, maybe it doesn't have to be.