The you're free to use it, that's the great thing about choice.
Kushia
The article is wrong, you disrespect your users by forcing them to use a platform that they otherwise wouldn't just to engage with you. Github isn't free either, but the majority of us use it for free software too.
Any non-trivial support enquiries should be directed to log a bug report/formal support request regardless of the community platform you're using. Discord isn't any worse than IRC in this regard and we've been offering support via the latter forever.
Matrix sucks, that's why most people won't use it. I'm already giving my software away for free and providing free support for it, why would I want to take up even more of my free time running and maintaining a Matrix server as well?
Sure, I could use an already available Matrix server but I already have a Discord account, all my friends and contributors do as well and the entire thing is easy to set up and use, plus I'm already running the Discord client too.
On top of this, the argument about searchability is irrelevant. Projects have been giving support via IRC forever which has all the same problems. The best thing to do for any non-trivial support inquiries is to direct the user to lodge a support ticket and always has been.
Matrix just isn't a compelling option, even if it had feature parity with Discord and was easier to use, it doesn't have any real inertia anyway.
How long until this trickles down into the major distros?
They could have just paid the CEO a little less to cover it too. It was just greed so they could sell the data at a pittance, even though the cat is already out of the bag.
This is so sadly America it's not funny.
The sauce can drown out the taste of lizard.
Nobody should own a private (personal) jet.
They want to actually do it and be the one to do so.
I never said it's never going to make it, I said I care about what works for the majority with the least amount of friction.
If you took that as a personal attack that's on you.