from Vaggumon@lemmy.zip to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 09 Feb 15:35
https://lemmy.zip/post/58779720
Pretty much what it says on the tin, but for more context. My friends and I use Discord to play D&D and other TTRPGs. We also use it to send memes and just have conversations. We mostly do the chat, text, images, gifs, etc. But we also use the voice and video chat pretty regularly too. Screen share sometimes as well. So I’d like to try to find something that has all those features if possible.
The new ID or facial recognition requirement they are implementing is a deal breaker for a few of us, and so if I can set up some kind of alternative to make it a non-issue, I’d like to.
I’m running Ubunutu 22.04 LETS, AMD 3700X, 64GBRAM, 10x 6TB HDD, and and 2 4TB NVmE. Have a 2gb up/down internet connection. So I don’t think we should have any issues making it work smoothly for 7 people.
#selfhosted
threaded - newest
Haven’t found one that’s as good yet personally…
Matrix?
TeamSpeek or Mumble.
Both have excellent voice chat.
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.
Check out stoat.chat, it’s the closest self hostable group communications platform to Discord.
Honestly the name choice adds difficulty in getting friends to take it seriously. Why did they pick “stoat”
No clue! It was revolt before. I think they had trademark issues with that name. What’s wrong with stoat?
I was wondering why I want getting any updates, checked thegithub a few months ago and found out they rebranded. Haven’t had a chance to try the latest version out yet
Nowadays everyone accepted the name “Discord” but I think it’s a pretty poor choice of branding too.
A communication app called Discord is pretty weird too.
A stoat is a pretty cool animal.
I think without prior knowledge of any voice chat Discord would probably rate worse in perception than Stoat.
you mean unlike the tools discord has replaced, such as “mumble”, “ventrilo”, “roger wilco” and “trillian”?
Unironically yes
soundn like a problem with your friends then. who doesn’t love a stoat?
I know, it’s picky lol. I’m still considering it as the replacement for my discord groups (also checking out Element/Matrix). The average users aren’t going to be up for swapping around a lot of platforms, so I am hoping to make one big push on the platform of choice. “Revolt” would have gotten less “wtf is that, how do you even spell it?” than “Stoat”
for what it’s worth matrix has worked well for us. it’s apparently a bitch to set up though.
Mumble is a verb like chat but what the fuck has a stoat got anything to do chatting?
now do the other ones
Do them yourself and you want to copy all those failed apps, lmao.
Mumble is great and I still use it. None of those are failed apps.
Not every app seeks to rake in teenagers’ parents’ money with shit like premium emojis.
Discord never replaced mumble. The two are in different circles.
for some, yeah. depends on your use case.
Xfire
What do you meeaaan? Stoats are fucking adorable!
This whole “FOSS names are bad” sounds like a Mccarthyism sysop by this point. Like, really, who is pushing that crap?
Stoats are awesome.
The name doesnt matter
IRC is a stupid name too, unless you know what the letters stand for
Msn messenger was stupid
Icq was stupid
Wtf even is “skype”?
It just has to be unique
And a Stout is kinda cute
seems like they had a decent name ‘revolt’ but got some cease and desist and didn’t resist and decided to switch.
Just a fair warning in reply to this that the self-hosted version of Stoat doesn’t currently have voice chat. It’s an open issue that’s currently paused until they can finish their rework.
If you have the skill for it, it seems like you can patch work the existing voice chat back in, but it’s not part of their initial setup and there’s no instructions on how to do so properly
Link to their voice chat implementatoon.
Looks like you can enable it on self hosted version. Probably worth someone trying it out personally. Before giving up on stoat.
sadly, it’s a little more complex than just enabling it. The supported self host deployment uses docker, and the docker containers that are available don’t contain the interfaces for voice or video calling as they are not up to date.
If I understand it right, to enable it would mean you need to either pull the source yourself and run it off of docker, or make a custom docker image using a version of stoat web that contains the ability to do voice calls.
reading the draft of the linked issue, it looks like the author isn’t doing voice call for the reason that they don’t know the proper way to integrate it into the docker image.
So to answer it: yes it looks like you can use voice servers on the current self hosted model, but you can’t use pre-existing docker images, and it will require you to manually add the new web UI in and patch where needed.
Is there a docker-free build you can either install and mod to re-enable voice, or use to mod the docker blobs in accordance ?
Turns out they also don’t support federation or e2ee. If those are things you care about.
Well that seems like a fairly big deal.
I’ve been using it since it was called Revolt and quite like it, albeit I’ve never used the voice feature. My group doesn’t really have the need for it, but I can see it being a deal breaker for the self-hosted version.
Where is the documentation for self-hosting it?
Check their GitHub. Although it looks like GitHub is having issues right now.
Is there a significant benefit over matrix?
From what I can tell, the only benefit is that the platform is close to the Discord experience. So people migrating to Stoat would feel right at home.
But there’s no federation, no e2ee, apparently it’s difficult to get voice setup if you self host…
Matrix has it’s issues too. Goup chat e2ee is not good. No one uses it. But at least they’ve got federation.
continuwuity.org seems like a decent server to run if you want to run a matrix server.
has anyone tried their iOS client? from their description it seems like it’s less mature than the android version, kinda concerning as my friend group has some iphone users.
There another thread about discord requiring a face scan next month,so I think alternatives might start getting pushed.
Such as https://stoat.chat/
Edit: Not sure you can self-host it, but it does have a back end server listed in it’s source code with a docker, however it might just be for code testing.
Right RTFM… https://github.com/stoatchat/self-hosted yes you can self-hosted it.
Wait, requiring a face scan of everyone?? I know they started doing that as an age verification thing for some people, but everyone?
Your correction is accurate. I should have been more specific.
That doesn’t sound like it is necessary for private chat, the only thing I really use it for. Would be nice to have an alternative all the same
Less a correction, more a question. I’d heard about them doing it in some countries, I didn’t see the post where it was going to be international.
Yeah. Solid chance I’m dropping the few discord-related things I do use here soon.
sigh
To create an invite you:
# drop into mongo shell docker compose exec database mongosh # create the invite use revolt db.invites.insertOne({ _id: "enter_an_invite_code_here" })That’s pretty jank.
Also - I’m getting pretty fed-up with self-hosting documentation that assumes very specific environments and goes into detailed configuration for that environment. Don’t tell me how to setup a server and how to enable/configure SSH and setup UFW as part of setting up your software. Just tell me how to setup your software and what ports it uses.
True on the invite, but you know I bet it wouldn’t take much to fix that code wise.
Having built a bit of software in multiple enviorns, I feel you on the very specific requirements… But it is a bitch to write something that works for all of them. It should be a damn site easier to install it though, especially if it’s docker.
Bummer that it doesn’t have voice chat yet in the self hosted version. Hopefully soon - I would probably switch if they had that.
The main issue is you’ll never get the cretins that use it off it. Communities… they’re just sitting there burning the library of alexandria… all the esoteric knowledge they’re “putting on discord” is just gonna vanish.
over a billion in vc funding and discord is as shit as it is.
As an archivist and data hoarder I hate discord with a burning, visceral passion.
Is it worth preserving though?
I would take a look at TeamSpeak or Matrix.
Of the two Matrix is probably the closest to Discord.
TeamSpeak 6 maybe. Don’t know where they’re up to on it at the moment kinda lost the thread a while ago.
IRC, RocketChat, Slack. Technically Matrix, but for your usecase I wouldn’t recommend it, as it’s a bit heavy, and if you’re just planning on using it with other people on the same server there’s not a point.
EDIT: Just noticed the voice chat thing. I’ve used Jitsi for that, and it works well. Also self-hostable
Jitsi is great as a Skype/Zoom replacement. It’s not a ‘room’ on a server, but voice and video chats are stable and fast.
Yeah, depending on what it’s used for it can do well. If it’s for scheduled calls, like with a weekly tabletop game, it can definitely work well. If it’s for the more casual pop in/out that happens on a lot of Discords it’s worse. I just don’t know of a replacement for that aside Matrix
Not a bad recommendation, but I disagree.
Rocket chat is just as heavy (in fact, it federates to Matrix), uses MongoDB, and has steadily pulled features behind a paywall for years. To me, if I’m hosting the service on my own machines and I’m not using their live support, the idea of paying for the privilege of using it is absurd.
Matrix has come a long way, including integrated voice and video chats.
Fair, yeah. I didn’t realize Rocket had gotten heavy. I hadn’t used it in years, just remembered it being okay when I had. I’ve switched to XMPP for the same things I was using RC for, admittedly, it’s just… More like a traditional texting app than emulating Discord’s IRC-like experience
Matrix is pretty lightweight if you use something like Conduit or its spinoffs for a homeserver instead of Synapse, which is very heavy.
Good to know! Might try that at some point, just to see. I don’t care for most of the matrix UIs, but maybe self hosting one of them will make me xD
element.io uses Matrix. It’s not bad.
Can confirm, I host Matrix (homeserver synapse) and Element. Voice is a pain to get set up but I hear there are other matrix services which will do this for you easier. It’s a process though. You can get text chat up in a day, voice is going to be a bit after that, a lot of tinkering.
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.
I understood that reference!
I’ve heard positive things about Dito, if I was doing it over again I think I’d start there
Back in my day, (shakes cane), Teamspeak and Ventrillo were the big voice chat platforms/tools. Both have text chat and channels/rooms; but their focus is voice chat for gaming.
Ventrillo.
Dammit, son, makin’ me feel old now
Roger Wilco
<img alt="" src="https://lazysoci.al/pictrs/image/51648dbd-73bd-407c-b066-30524215f266.jpeg">
What’s that you say? IRC?
XMPP aka Jabber.
Yeah, we’re using Conversations and it’s fine for most things.
Will be self hosting prosidy “sooon”… and it’ll all be in-house.
Good luck! Report results.
The Mastodon founder, Eugen Rochko, has just announced that “We’ve moved our internal communications from Discord to Zulip at Mastodon”.
mastodon.social/@Gargron/116041405748460511
Zulip is probably more focused toward work than TTRPGs, but it can’t hurt to try it. (I haven’t tried it personally, yet.) It is self-hostable.
zulip.com
Zulip is great… on a PC. On mobile is a totally different thing, and not in a good way. 😕
It’s a shame, zulip doesn’t have e2ee. not even DMs. but they seem to be working towards federation of some sort? there are no good/perfect solutions out there.
Matrix is an option but it’s slow and breaks all the time. I’m a big fan of XMPP myself but good luck convincing anyone else to make an account 😔
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.
could you recommend a good xmpp setup? i heard good things about snikket, maybe something else too?
Matrix hoster here.
I would recommend Matrix as it has pretty much everything, including cross platform clients, threads, voice/video calls, screensharing, spaces (aka servers), federation and E2EE. Matrix also has bridges for Discord and pretty much every other service so this could ease transition…
But self hosting requires reading the docs and having some in depth knowledge and understanding as it can be quite complex.
I would recommend just creating a Matrix account on one of the common global servers and testing it.
If you want to self-host there are some pre-defined setups available (example) but I would still recommend to bring at least 5-10 hours.
Regarding operations: It’s really resilient and barely ever breaks and also doesn’t need a lot of resources. A 1-2vCPU server with under 1GB RAM server is enough for less than 10 people.
may i ask which homeserver and client you use? it seems like synapse and element is not the best choice especially for small number of people.
You se knowledgeable on this, so I hope you’ll allow me to ask this.
I don’t know anything about Discord, but I selfhost the Mattermost chat system for my family. They, too, are narrowing the free tier.
Can Matrix replace Mattermost for a family? Several separate “rooms” for various topics, plus 1-to-1 chats.
E2EE group chats on matrix seems to be a huge problem still. I look forward to their MLS implementation. Hopefully that fixes a lot of these UX issues.
Good old Teamspeak 3 or 6
teamspeak6 is in beta right now but it is my replacement for discord. Check it out, supports most anything people have used disc for
Any Matrix clients support screensharing?
Element and Element Call, although no streaming audio support on the horizon anytime soon.
matrix is unreasonably hard to set-up, why doesnt the docker container or the compose include voice chat? i cant even sign up for stoat to try it out… is this the best we have against discord in the big 26 😭
matrix-construct.github.io/tuwunel/…/docker.html?…
tuwunel seems to have some docker guides for how to set up voice & docker.
Setting up Element Call on my instance was difficult on its own, I understand why Synapse doesn’t come with it out of the box, essentially you spin up Matrix’s JWT service for authenticating clients and it if approved forwards the connection to the Livekit ports which must be opened on your firewall (ie port forwarded), otherwise people will not be able to connect to calls.
Big PIA and in my experience, on my home network, can conflict with games with VOIP chats.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
[Thread #79 for this comm, first seen 9th Feb 2026, 22:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]