It turns out a lot of people use Discord as a file host. Probably because:

• It’s quick
• It’s easy
• It’s free*

*Unless it’s too large, in which case, pay up for Nitro! …Oh who am I kidding, you already are for the emotes.

I’ve grown to despise anyone who does this now, locking away files that might have an important use to some server you need to join not just a platform, but someone’s “server” for.

I’m taken back to the days of invite-only forums, in the seedier parts of the internet. When you wanted something very specific, there was a forum for it. And sometimes, these forums would require registration to view external links.

That’s fine, I have no problem with that.

Simply because, it’s a forum, on the internet. You’re welcome to join and go as you please and you interrupt nobody except the administrators of that forum who might not even notice you coming and going. Registration and message requirements is something else I won’t touch on.

When you host a file on a Discord server on Discord, you’re trusting Discord with that file. Anyone who wants to download that file has to not only join your server, but sign up with Discord, which may simply be too much for some privacy minded individuals.

Consider this. When you go to download Firefox or Google Chrome, you do so from a publicly accessible website. Sure, you’re being tracked, but AdBlock exists. They can’t berate you for using AdBlock.

Surprise surprise, Discord will track you too, by default. You can opt out, but they’ve already got what they needed anyway. You can use a modded client, but that’s against the Terms of Service! Oh no! What a crime.

And if you get banned from these Discord servers as well? Well, kiss that file you needed goodbye, you aren’t getting it. Guess that thing you needed the file for is a paperweight now.

I want to work on something like noCDN.rip as a countermeasure against this. I don’t know how scummy it is to enter these servers, take the file links, put them on that webstie and leave, though. Feel free to email if you have an opinion, or are one of these server owners who wants to tell me how much of a tinfoil hat conspiracist I am. I only care about one of these two. Edited much, much later: No, this isn’t my job.

tl;dr: Stop putting your files exclusively on Discord, you’re just desperate for people to join. Put it elsewhere, like on a public forum or Google Drive, just somewhere else.

But who am I kidding. I’ll probably be getting a nice DMCA from some salty person upset that someone copied and pasted a link. How sad.

This post is part 2 of my Discord rant series. Part 1 is here.