Discord is a proprietary instant messaging platform by “Discord, Inc.” that released on May 13, 2015.¹⁾ It is run by a private corporation which has currently relied on seed money, but continues to float around the idea of going public²⁾³⁾ and recently announced a new CEO.⁴⁾⁵⁾

In the beginning, Discord was introduced as a 'gamer-oriented' platform to Reddit,⁶⁾⁷⁾ at a time when its users were growing unsatisfied with Skype's direction under Microsoft,⁸⁾ and their momentum seriously picked up once video calls and streaming were rolled out to everyone in 2017.⁹⁾ By 2020, they started dropping the 'app' from their name¹⁰⁾¹¹⁾ and started phasing out the 'gaming' label during the COVID-19 pandemic.¹²⁾

“Nitro is completely optional with features that don't take away from the core of Discord.”
– Discord¹³⁾

The platform has a subscription service, but conveys the differences in tiers in a very haphazard manner,¹⁴⁾¹⁵⁾ which is why I made the chart below, plus they stole a few bucks from me after pulling a fast one.¹⁶⁾ In 2022, the 'Nitro Classic' plan would be phased out¹⁷⁾¹⁸⁾ for a cheaper and inferior 'Nitro Basic' plan, but 'Nitro Classic' subscribers can keep their plan as long as they don't cancel¹⁹⁾ or have the link.

During the Among Us trend in 2020, we saw Discord announce 'social party games'²⁴⁾ very prematurely²⁵⁾²⁶⁾ since it wouldn't be rolled out to the general public until October 18, 2022.²⁷⁾ Once they released what they now called 'activities', the activities could only be initiated by Nitro subscribers at first,²⁸⁾ but this restriction was eventually lifted during the platform's month-long 8th anniversary event around June 15, 2023.²⁹⁾

• Discord might flag your account as 'suspicious' and ask you to verify with your phone number,^30)31)32) which is on top of their use of reCAPTCHA and subtle device fingerprinting.
• In 2018, an arbitration clause was added³³⁾³⁴⁾ that will impede your ability to file a class-action lawsuit against them.³⁵⁾ You can opt-out by emailing arbitration-opt-out@discord.com, but only within the first 30 days of your account's creation or after the terms went into effect.³⁶⁾
• During National Hispanic Heritage Month, the company had used Latinx in 2021³⁷⁾ and 2022.³⁸⁾
• In 2025, Discord added 'game servers' through Shockbyte that can be paid with server boosts.³⁹⁾ It should be warned that the implied price is inflated, ironically costing more than buying the server directly from Shockbyte, and that Shockbyte has a pretty bad reputation among Minecraft hosts.
• For small servers, I would personally disable the 'activity feed' and 'system messages' options.
• You can delete your 'server join' message if you're quick enough, assuming the server does not bog you down with onboarding, though nothing can be done if a bot does this.
• I don't think you need me to tell you that “MEE6 sucks”, but there's a lot of other bots.

• Fixing Discord Embeds

• Discord - The front page of Discord.
  • @discord, @discord_jp, @discord_fr on Twitter - The official accounts.
• Discord Status - It doesn't immediately update when there's an issue.
  • @isdiscorddown on Twitter - Unofficial account. Same issue as above, sometimes.
• /r/discordapp - The official Reddit community, a mix of complaining and support.