this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
331 points (99.7% liked)

Technology

70415 readers
3038 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
331
Discord will switch to temporary file links to block malware delivery (www.bleepingcomputer.com)
submitted 2 years ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
51 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Discord will switch to temporary file links to block malware delivery::Discord will switch to temporary file links for all users by the end of the year to block attackers from using its CDN (content delivery network) for hosting and pushing malware.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] gridleaf@lemmy.world 192 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (14 children)

Can we please stop building everything around Discord? It has its place as a chat app, but it's become like a web parallel to our own, except owned and operated by a single company. It's an information black hole, completely closed off from the rest of the web, unscrapeable, uncrawlable, unarchiveable, and borderline unsearchable. It has everything that is wrong with the web today. When the company dies, all information in the app dies with it. There's no Internet Archive for Discord.

[–] ashok36@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago

I agree. It's a handy chat app but it's not a replacement for actual forums and, God forbid, an actual support page for a project.

[–] HKayn@dormi.zone 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is not easy when everyone you know is already on Discord.

The network effect is active in full force here.

[–] spark947@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Its a good point. Eventually discord will find some way to enshittify, I am sure.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They already have

[–] spark947@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I guess that is what they are doing, but this particular change seems pretty reasonable to me. Discord can't simultaneously be a chat application and a repository for all memes for all time.

Just goes to show that VC funded services are not sustainable infrastructure for anyone.

[–] Salzkrebs@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My university forces its students to use Discord for computer science. They even forced me to use my real name (otherwise they would've kicked me from the channel). It's a privacy nightmare so I hope they will switch now since they were using it to host weekly exams.

[–] markon@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's so hard to delete anything on Discord it's in the permanent record. It's upsetting. I use it too, but it is a nightmare privacy wise and it has all sorts of consequences.

[–] Salzkrebs@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Since I live in the EU, it shouldn't even be legal to force students into Discord. I really hate being that guy but if they do this shit again I will refuse.

[–] italien@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Admittedly I really like Discord's user interface. Love the servers that can be organized by channel and channel type, have permissions sets for different roles, etc. All that good shit. What I don't like is the total control of one entity and lack of privacy. I've been looking at Matrix but it still has a ways to go before I could ever think of completely dropping Discord.

[–] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 2 points 2 years ago

I think at a minimum someone would need to create a semi automated client for Matrix that would have a better interface and then handle the technical changes and configuration automatically. Spaces can use used a "servers" but it involves creating rooms and then adding them and the process is complicated.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

Slack was basically the same when I used it

[–] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Technically someone could just make a headless browser and then scrape everything that way, Advancements in AI will make headless browsing easier and companies like Facebook won't be able to block automation by changing the HTML multiple times per day.

[–] ericflo@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, instead they will discontinue their websites and make you use their app.

[–] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 2 points 2 years ago

I discontinue any websites that push apps. The reason they make apps is to spy on you.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Zarxrax@lemmy.world 160 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah... In sure malware is the reason. It's not that they don't want people using discord for file hosting.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 96 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Still, it’s not a file hosting platform. 🤷‍♂️ it should have been temporary to begin with.

[–] echo64@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago (13 children)

It literally is, it's part of their paid plans.

[–] worsedoughnut@lemdro.id 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It literally isn't, what the hell are you smoking?

[–] echo64@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

you think a service you pay for that lets you upload files to them, to share the files with an unlimited amount of other people, is not a file hosting platform? even though it hosts files for you? and you pay for the service?

what do you think it is?

[–] worsedoughnut@lemdro.id 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Don't move the goal posts. It's 100% not an advertised feature to use Discord uploads as cloud storage or an off-platform CDN.

The unintended side effect that you've so clearly described is the exact reason they're implementing the protections in question.

[–] echo64@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

So if I sell a paid package that let's you upload files, then I store them and make them available to unlimited other people and put the files on my global cdn to achieve that. But I specifically don't use the magic words in my advertisement. It's not that product it's some magical other nameless thing

Listen, I would be right there with you if this wasn't a paid for feature, but it is. People pay Discord specifically for this. And now discord are neutering that feature because people are actually using it and now discord is mad. Just pay, don't use.

So now people who want to distribute files will end up using mega or whatever and going off app, and for what. So discord saves some money. Fuckin great

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

What ? Pretty sure their paid plans only allow uploading larger files. It says nothing about the longevity of said files on their servers

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 22 points 2 years ago

They wouldnt have been as popular if they had been temporary from the beginning.

Shoulda woulda coulda, this is now a thing their community has come to expect and rely on their platform being capable of. And the change of such will break a number of channels.

[–] lea@feddit.de 40 points 2 years ago

Files are still stored permanently and links inside the client stay permanent as well, only links accessed externally are affected. I don't like Discord either but anyone relying on it as their personal free CDN had it coming for them.

[–] Asudox@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

Dam gotta download all the memes before they get deleted.

[–] blackfire@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

This is good. At my place we actually already block any discord cdn links on proxy and emails as they were getting a pretty bad threat vector.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 11 points 2 years ago

"To block malware delivery" haha good 1

[–] A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ughhh, now I have to go back to using shit like Google Drive. Discord was so much more convenient

[–] Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

https://catbox.moe/ is pretty good

[–] Skipcast@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

Catbox shits itself pretty often causing for example 5 mb videos to take 3 minutes to fully buffer

[–] spudwart@spudwart.com 6 points 2 years ago

I'm sure there are some selfhosted options for file sharing.

load more comments
view more: next ›