An organization in town had invited me to volunteer with them in a cohort helping folks with cybersecurity, so on the path to register to volunteer they require
1.) Discord account
2.) Must use and participate in discord in order to be considered.
’All of our volunteer coordination is done via discord, so this is 100% necessary for all volunteers, no exceptions.’
I’ve yet to formulate a response, and may just reply with I’m not able to volunteer.
However, it’s ironic that a cyber security education organization requires participation on and in discord, does not manage their own infrastructure.
I don’t think my ‘no’ will sway the organization to reflect on making changes.
This is tricky. Obviously I’ve run a Discord server, and I’ve done so understanding that it was what the community wanted. But that calculus has changed significantly, and will continue to change as Discord approaches IPO.
I think it’s a reasonable objection to a tool that doesn’t respect privacy. But I also think that everyone needs to choose their battles. This one was worth it for me. It might not be for everyone. A community’s efforts may be worth the risk, if there’s truly no appetite to change.
One of the things the internet makes us forget is that to accomplish anything with others, you must accept some level of disagreement on the small things while working toward the big things.