Hi, Ralph. I will communicate with you in the way you prefer and is most comfortable for you. You are the professional and the one who has the right to choose your means and tools for your work. However, I think that Discord is oriented, mainly, to video games and is a proprietary service. Perhaps Telegram would be preferable because it is free software, more private and solves some of the cons that you point out. Email, on the other hand, can be encripted. There is an "acknowledgment of receipt" option, but it doesn't usually seem respectful to the recipient.

Regards.

Questions:
- is Telegram available in the browser, or only as an app?
- does Telegram allow users to sort DMs into folders?

I don't care about privacy in the "someone could steal the data" sense. What I meant is many people have their real names in email addresses, and not everyone might be comfortable sharing that stuff. Also I hate seeing people's real names on the internet, to the point of skipping that part of every Paypal notification I get.

I agree that a "read confirmation" seems a little disrespectful. Also I don't even have an option to request it to begin with (I'd still use Gmail).

1) Both. It is available for all platforms. I use the native client for Linux, but anyone can access from the web if you give permission to your device.

2) You can create folders to separate your contacts. In groups, you can also create sections according to the topic of conversation. In both cases, Telegram always automatically classifies content into images, videos, files, and links. This allows you to easily find and search for any previously submitted items. Plus, everything you see and open is automatically saved local to a folder of your choice.

In telegram you can use multiple accounts, an alias and define the degree of privacy with third parties (similar to Facebook). I don't know if this answers your questions.

Thank you for the detailed answers!

1) What I meant, is it possible to use Telegram without installing or running a separate application? For example, Discord is available as a standalone app but also has a browser version with no dependencies.

2) Is it possible to disable saving data locally in Telegram?

1) In theory, yes, like WhatsApp. You just need to link it to a phone number:
https://web.telegram.org/k/

2) You can reduce local storage and cache usage to zero. I imagine if you do this then it doesn't save anything local. For my part, I am not ashamed of keeping anything with proper security. If you share your computer or are concerned for some reason, you can always encrypt your hard drive or encrypt individual folders (this can be easily done in KDE Plasma).

Regards.

Thank you for explaining this. I checked it out. The phone number is a significant downside, especially as it's the only way to access one's account. Unfortunately Discord wins here, as it requires only an email address.

I don't care about encryption, anyone determined enough to browse the contents of my laptop should be prepared for all the indecent imagery stored there. I just don't like apps keeping data on my devices without my permission.

Telegram is my go to. I heavily dislike discord

In your opinion, why is Telegram better than Discord?

For one, telegram doesn’t have a file limit. I get really annoyed I can’t send people basic pictures without the “your file is too big” error message.

I also don’t like the multiple chat rooms. I like the simplicity of just one chat

So a Telegram group is just one chat room?

Each group is its own thing, yes. So you won’t have several different chat rooms in one group

I see, thanks for clarification.

Telegram is good! FA notes are terrible for me as well for keeping track of anything

Yeah, the notes are pretty much unmanageable.

My recent commission was my first to get through discord. It went as follows.

1- Get invite to main art room. Link was sent through email. Everyone who got a commission at that time also gets the same invite. The main room had a link to the artists TOS and other relevant information.
2- After joining that room each person is assigned their own private room for artist and commissioner only.
3- Room is used to discuss details and show sketches/progress.
4- There was never any direct communication. It was all confined to that single room.
5- If a message was left for me I would get a notice and check and I assume vice versa.
6- Artist remained cloaked. I only noticed them there once when they answered a question just after I left it.
7- Final art was even delivered through that room.

It all seemed very organized and controlled. I have no idea if thats what your looking for but it sure as hell beats FA notes.

Oh my. Thank you for the detailed description! I was initially concerned with private channels because Discord allows only 250 roles on a server, but apparently now it also allows members to be added individually.

What you described seems super clean and organized. I'll consider a similar solution.

As an additional note. Ammylin also opens for commissions by having applicants send in their ideas for art and will choose those she wants to do. So, say, if they get 20 people applying for a slot she can pick out 5 she wants and thats it. This application process is done with google forms. The form only being open for a limited time. It makes it a bit harder for us freaks to get a slot, BUT, I imagine its a lot more mentally healthy for the artist. As they control not only how many projects they take at a time but also to be able to pick out the stuff they think will be the most fun.

Telegram has a 'message seen' option, but does not allow you to group DMs into folders (to my knowledge) and getting it set up for me was a bit complex... you need a phone number associated with it, and i've heard some people say that it may alerts other people in your contacts if you get an account and they have one.

Personally, discord is my most favored one, but I can certainly see why others might not enjoy using it.

The lack of grouping DMs into folders is the sole reason I didn't jump to Discord immediately.

The problem with Telegram is that for my purposes it's unsafe, as a phone number is the way to access the account. From what I've read about it, the proximity-based alert is only used if you're viewing a specific option... Still not a fan of it.

Telegram is my main and preferred method, but I too don't like the phone number requirement. Google allows you one free phone number (if you have a Google account), which is what I used. You don't have to use the number itself to log in after setting it up, and can link an email instead as your login info.

Thanks, I'll look into it!

I do not enjoy polluting my chat applications with yet another discord server/telegram group. I like any way of personal contact - be it via email, a discord private chat or a telegram conversation.

I understand, however I aim to cut down FA-related Discord DMs to a minimum. For my purposes, a server is far more convenient.