Stoat.chat: alternative to Discord

General
41

Just note that we gave stoat a try and the setup looks extremely flaky. Zulip maybe better but we haven’t tried it yet.

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42

I hear a lot about Fluxer.app, which could also be an alternative, but if you’ve tried it and found it unstable, it’s good to know. The idea is to have a robust app that is easy to get used to.

43

Interesting, I might bump it on the todo:

Tech stack looks much better. In particular they didn’t roll-their-own video calls.

Zulip has “high-level” jitsi integration.

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44

But does Zulip hosting have all the features they offer in their paid option? The idea is to have complete control.

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45

The bridgeability of Matrix is an awesome feature!

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46

This aligns with my experience completely.

47

I’ve seen Matrix work very well in other communities, and really enjoyed that experience. As an added bonus, Matrix clients have much broader device support than Discord (e.g. those of us on DeGoogled phones or arcane Linux distributions)

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48

I think this is a healthy discussion to have, especially in a community like Zcash.

A few thoughts from a practical angle:

  1. Ideologically, it makes sense.
    If we talk about privacy at the protocol level but rely entirely on centralized platforms for coordination, there’s an obvious mismatch. Education + tooling + behavior should align.

  2. Realistically, migration is hard.
    It’s not about features alone. Discord wins because of network effects, stability, moderation tooling, and just sheer inertia. Most users won’t move unless:

  • The alternative is clearly usable (not just “promising”)

  • There’s strong core-community buy-in

  • The switch feels low-friction

  1. Rust + FOSS is a good signal.
    If Stoat is written in Rust and open source, that’s already aligned with security and auditability values. But long-term viability depends on:

  • Active development

  • Transparent governance

  • Clear funding model

  • Good UX (this matters more than we like to admit)

  1. “Necessary evil” vs. parallel infrastructure.
    I don’t think it has to be an all-or-nothing move. A more realistic path would be:

  • Run Stoat in parallel

  • Gradually move specific working groups

  • Stress-test moderation, bots, voice reliability

  • See if it can actually handle real-world community load

If it survives real usage and not just ideology, migration becomes organic rather than forced.

The real question isn’t “can we replace Discord?”
It’s: can we build tools that are good enough that people want to use them not just because they’re private, but because they work?

If Stoat reaches that level, then yes, I think a migration becomes feasible. Until then, it’s experimentation phase which is still valuable.

Curious to hear if anyone has actually run a medium-sized community on Stoat yet and what broke first.

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49

As @nullcopy mentioned Matrix is good-enough for some communities.

What I like about matrix is that it bridges to discord… so there’d be a low-bar to exit, if the Zcash community invested in running matrix-servers, and bridges (from-to) discord.

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50

This month, I will see if I can migrate a community that is using Stoat to a self-hosted one to see how far it can be broken down, so I can continue to help those who want to self-host their own or look for better alternatives. However, it is good to provide feedback on these discussions as we learn and prepare for the future.

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