This looks like a C macro. Basically what it does is replaces the word “true” in the code with (rand() > 10). The rand() function will return a random number from 0 to 32767. So (rand() > 10) will very likely return “true” but not always.
So say you have some code like this: if (someVar == true) { // Do stuff } It would replace “true” with code that usually evaluates to “true” but not always. So every so often your code would just do the wrong thing but it would be hard to debug because it would be rare.
Granted, in that example you probably would just write “if (someVar)” making this moot, but there are more realistic cases where you’d use the constant “true”
rand() generates a number from 0 to a constant defined in stdlib, which usually corresponds to the architechture of your compiler. So, for 32 bit systems (assuming all the software in the line is 32 bit, too) it will be 2^31-1 = 2 147 483 647, as 1 bit in integers is reserved for negative numbers and 1 number is 0.
Though, by design it is guaranteed to be at least 32767, which is a value for 16 bit integers.
Well…Forums need to be maintained. Discord is free and easy and fast to use.
Discord should allow the servers to be browsable. But you can only participate by logging in.
Doesnt Disqus handle it like that as well? Same account on every website utilizing disqus?
part of the problem is that discord as a platform for this, is like using NAT to make ipv4 work in the modern era. It’s just annoying.
Discord even if it allowed public scraping would be a nightmare, because it’s search function is practically helpless. Good luck finding a solution as well, that may or may not exist, and that question/answer has probably been brought up numerous times. There is probably specific context around it that we’re missing unless we decide to role play as a historian.
Not to mention, it’s a third layer of abstraction on top of something that should just be accessible.
I mean sure forums need maintenance, So do discords though, Hardware hosting is barely a problem. Basically anything and any internet connection can host a forum, cloudflare will probably sell it to you for pennies on the dollar even. (though i dont like cloudflare myself)
Honestly, you ever tried to look back through a long thread on Discord? It’s impossible. If you want to read the original message that started the thread, good luck, you’ll be scrolling all day and may never get there. How anyone can claim that’s “easy to use” is beyond me.
Discord works for quick discussions happening right now, and that’s it.
If someone at an IT company put down web admin for a moderate forum of ~500 users of which a 100 are weekly active users, serving a small CDN distributed over America and Europe (because side project not because logical), I’d be impressed a hundred fold over a Discord admin.
At best you’d be very good community manager/admin if you maintained and kept the server clean of a >1000 user server of which 500 are participating daily. At worst the interviewers would ask you why you’d maintain a kids voice channel.
Also putting out a forum on a resumee is more impressive (assuming the topics are something you’d want to share).
Am I the odd one out for actually liking discord? Or is most of this hate specifically for using discord for FOSS projects? As a replacement for MSN Messenger/Skype/Ventrillo Discord is actually pretty great for hanging out with friends
Of course. Open source clients on open source operating systems connecting to self-hosted servers on private infrastructure with open source software.
As soon as open source hardware is practically available I’m never using proprietary processors ever again, I don’t care if they’re “underpowered” by computational power - All backdoored CPU’s are underpowered by my standards to verified non-backdoored CPU’s.
It's a private silo with no public indexing by search. Makes it terrible for technical topics fine for a chat platform.
It's a bad hybrid of chat and forum. None of the advantages of rich forum posts and typically too may participants for it to be easy to follow. Noticeable if you are not in the main timezone as the others.
Discord has threads and topics, but these features are a bolted on afterthought instead of core functionality so it just doesn't work as well
I think the thread(s) aren’t that hard to navigate or search in - assuming everything else has been set by admins properly (rarely the case). YMMV. Third-party ticketing/integration bots with major services are seamless, but or course depends on your use case.
Replacement for TS3, Skype, whatever = Good
1st party quick support channel = Good
Community maintenance = Good
Documentation = Not good
Basically Github issues replacement = Bad
Knowledgebase = Bad
I also need to point out here that anything posted to discord is now their intellectual property by law. That’s quite a deal breaker and honestly should not work with any open source projects
I have a coworker who always forgets TTL is a thing, and never plans ahead. On multiple occasions they’ve moved a database, updated DNS to reflect the change, and are confused why everything is broken for 10-20 minutes.
I really wish the first time they learned, but every once and a while they come to me to troubleshoot the same issue.
While planning your change (or project requiring such change), check the relevant(* see edit) DNS TTL. Figure out the point in the future you want to do the actual change (time T), and set the TTL to 60 seconds at T-(TTL*2) or earlier. Then when it comes to the point where you need to make your DNS change, the TTL is reasonable and you can verify your change in some small amounts of minutes instead of wondering for hours.
Edit: literally check all host names involved. They are all suspect
This. For example, if you have a DNS entry for your DB and the TTL is set to 1 hour, an hour before you intend to make the changes, just lower the TTL of the record to a minute. This allows all clients to be told to only cache for a minute and to do lookups every minute. Then after an hour, make the necessary changes to the record. Within a minute of the changes, the clients should all be using the new record. Once you’ve confirmed that everything is good, you can then raise TTL to 1 hour again.
This approach does require some more planning and two or three updates to DNS, but minimizes downtime. The reason you may need to keep TTL high is if you have thousands of clients and you know the DNS won’t be updated often. Since most providers charge per thousand or million lookups, that adds up quickly when you have thousands of clients who would be doing unnecessary lookups often. Also a larger TTL would minimize the impact of a loss of DNS servers.
Honestly I think the burden of context rests with the user. This is unfriendly, of course, but this is one of the times you are reminded the world doesn’t care. Nothing is “nice”. Security/privacy/ad intrusion is the individual’s burden.
I’d even argue that most platforms are directly adversarial to a users individual privacy. User data is such a hot commodity these days that it’s even beyond planning your own privacy, but you’re essentially farming out your data for free.
Disclosure: I use Discord and plenty of similar apps, but it’s important to protect yourself.
I don’t know of any either and I’m on like 40+ servers probably. I’ve run our weekly dnd on it for years without issue after trying the other options. Get that it’s not good for tracking and documentation in any official capacity but it’s pretty damn good for active niche interest communities.
The music production servers I’m on are a perfect use of the platform IMO. There’s a server run by a guy who manufactures an open source tracker device, and there’s channels where people post works in progress, get help from others, there’s streaming events where people can submit songs they’ve made using the device, etc. There’s a bunch of people popular in the music scene who regularly help noobs. Always ongoing active discussions, everyone is polite, there’s a lot of knowledge shared in real time.
So when people are like “Discord sucks use my favorite platform instead,” I’m just like I don’t even care about the platform I just wanna be where some cool shit is happening and your platforms are fucking boring. Show me the cool servers on your platform then so I actually want to use it. It’s the idea of these platforms people like, and I like it too, my close social group uses a privately hosted Matrix service which I use every day, but I’ve never found a comparable community on these services outside of this use case.
The one I referenced there was the Dirtywave discord, highly recommend checking it out, and I think they have a channel for partner servers. The lines forum is also a great community if you’re in that musical space. I couldn’t name a good music discord for lets say traditional genres or general production, the thing I like about what I’ve found is it’s niche. Like once I posted a work in progress and someone active in a scene for the genre I was going for messaged me and we chatted about our approaches and traded some instrument and project files we’d built on the device, all though discord.
So to me I want that type of community, what platform it’s on isn’t really something I care about all that much.
Enforcing two factor because of suspicious indicators isn’t bad on it’s own though, it’s privacy concerns about Discord preceding this which makes it a bad thing in this context.
Using phone numbers as second factor authentication is neither secure, nor is it in good faith. Force the customer to use something more anonymous and secure - like Fido keys or even TOTPs. Sneaking in ways to force the customer to reveal their personal details, in the name of security is a sinister dark pattern.
Phone number is the weakest form of 2FA but it’s still an improvement. I’ve never had to use my phone in Discord though, I don’t how Discord would even verify someone’s phone number as legitimate. But like I said I have a couple Discord accounts with different emails, probably on 30-40 servers, and have never run in to this. So if they’re collecting personal details in this really granular and specific manner, it seems like they’re not doing a very good job at it.
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