cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10799766
(Edit: Cross-posted OP (link above) was mod removed by the Discord forum ‘admin’ on 2024-01-19 as being “False claim, false interpreted”, so the above link will no longer work.)
Recently read this on a Steam game’s reviews section …
User Comment…
The game’s Discord REQUIRES your personal phone number to get access at all. This is a very intrusive, and 100% unnecessary requirement, in order to just be able to interact with others about the game, it’s content, player experiences, and many other things. It’s also intrusive in regards to being able to contribute any input to help other players in any way at all.
Dev Response…
It’s Discord that’s asking you for verification of the account. We’re not getting your phone number. This is standard practice on bigger servers that allows for a better user experience, filtering bots/ spam accounts, trolls, etc.
Could companies please STOP lying about it being Discord’s choice, its not, is the Discord server’s choice to ask for it.
Its a “Verification Levels” setting that the server op sets, and they have multiple options that they can choose from, its not an on/off switch. They can dial it back one notch and still have spam/bot protections.
The only difference between “High” and “Highest” verification levels is the addition of asking for a phone number, all other features of “High” is in “Highest”, and “Highest” has no other extra features besides asking for the phone number.
Makes it really hard to have an pseudonym account on the Internet, for gaming purposes, and then be asked for your real phone number. I don’t need to be tracked 24/7.
deleted
Interesting. I assumed Discord itself aggressively demands your phone number regardless of the “server” you join… At least, that’s been my experience.
That’s the impression that is being given, but its not true.
I’ve been successful in a very few cases of getting a Discord server admin to dial back the verification level from ‘highest’ to ‘high’ on their server, so that I was not prompted for a phone number. They agreed that the highest setting was overkill.
Most times though server admins refuse to do so.
Gotta wonder at this point if they actually see the phone numbers or not.Other server admins say they can’t see the number, so will assume that’s correct.When I ran a Naruto RP server we ran without verification for a while. Then trolls came in and they just kept coming back. They would target the feminine-identifying members of the server every time. Situations like this are probably why. To my knowledge I could not access the phone numbers.
Then trolls came in and they just kept coming back. They would target the feminine-identifying members of the server every time. Situations like this are probably why.
Is the email verification/validation, being registered on Discord for more than five minutes, and being present in the server for longer than ten minutes, not sufficient?
No, they would just sign up with a new alias, wait, then join the server, wait, and then do it again. Most servers should not do this. But for situations like ours, a small RP server being harassed, it was useful for the year it was up. The users would not have been okay with that if the entire server wasn’t a close community of about 20 people. Its just another example of a thing that can protect extremely small teams conveniently being abused by bigger entities to get something they want (your data).
AFAIK you can have roles which have access to different parts of your server. Thus you can have that all newly joined accounts have a role where they only can see and interact with a channel for those waiting for acceptance. You can even make it “fill out a form in a thread” for why they want to join, and only after they’ve been accepted will they be given access to the rest of the server (or just some of it)
I did that. When you get trolls in your server targeting your players, you can throw all the forms and wait times you want. It accomplishes two things: 1) it kills the real people trying to play, every barrier of entry just to type silly Naruto RP stories on a discord channel turns people off incrementally. 2) the trolls don’t care, they make multiple accounts using gmail aliases and wait out the restrictions, when those are up a tidal wave of troll/bot combinations fucks your server.
In the end, I had to lock the server down for 3 months, I implemented a tool that exposed your MAC address, if it matched one on my blacklist you were automatically banned. This killed new players too. But it completely stopped the troll once I reported the MAC address to discord with screenshots. It ended up being a nurse at the hospital one of my players went to. They ended up losing their job. Crazy story tbh. I wouldn’t handle it again like that but this was before I had worked IT.
on quite a number of servers that are 18+, higher verification usually sounds a little bit more safe. But then on most of the servers I run or moderate, we tend to have our own in-house verification methods instead of the built levels for discord.
the idea of the verification levels is attractive, however. anything to keep the kids out. though I’m not sure I’d go as far as requiring a phone number, I might consider it for future.
it depends on how the server is going to be used. why a gaming server should be highest level, I don’t know. I would think “high” is enough.
I would think “high” is enough.
Only difference between high and highest is the asking of the phone number, all other security checks are the same. So if the other existing forms of validation are not already enough, then the bad guys have already won.
what “bad guys”? Whatever the server owner feels is appropriate for levels of validation is up to them. ya know?
what “bad guys”? Whatever the server owner feels is appropriate for levels of validation is up to them. ya know?
Those who would spam/troll/etc. The ones you’re trying to exclude from the server. To repeat my comment …
So if the other existing forms of validation are not already enough, then the bad guys have already won.
For the record, I was NOT talking at all about the server admins, at all.
I came across this issue on my own discord server, the system kinda encourages you towards those higher security levels without really being especially clear about what it will do to the user experience.
One thing I would clear up though:
I think both sides in the OP are correct here.
Yes, the server admin sets the security level that triggers those requirements.
But it’s also true that the server/admins do not get your phone number, that private information is only kept within discord’s verification system. It is not sent to the server admins.
Discord has 5 levels of user verification.
None.(none)
Verified email. (Low)
Verified email + more than 5 minutes old account. (Medium)
Verified email + >5 mins old account + member of server for more than 10 mins. (High)
Verified email + >5 mins old account + server member >10 mins + verified phone number. (Highest)Server admins can set the level. Some server sizes or types (community severs etc.) have a discord-mandated minimum level to qualify for the server type.
Normally (Medium) or (High) security is more than enough. Servers that experience raiding or high levels of trolling are recommended to choose (Very High) security as it makes it harder to make multiple accounts and evade bans or brigade a server.
Discord store the number. The server never sees those details.
Servers that ask for ID to ensure you are over age, are doing that in their own, and probably illegally handling that data, without adequate security.
The server sets the security level. Discord does the enforcing. It IS discord asking for the phone number. But only because the server asked Discord to. But the server definately doesn’t see your phone number.
I run a game community server, and normally have security set at medium.
If raided, it goes to High.
If persistently trolled by a user or users that are ban evading (has happened only once), I turn it to highest for a bit.But I turn it back down after a bit.
A bigger server might not get that luxury.
If a server has stupid high security settings, chances are they have active troublemakers.What does the “5 minute” rule even do? Any bot can be programmed to wait that long, or have a few accounts lined up to use in sequence.
Discord has 5 levels of user verification.
Just wanted to add that my OP has a link to the Discord page that breaks down each of the verification levels, if you want to read more about it.
it sucks, and it is absolutely necessary for some communities. i work for a small game company and we have one or two people that have gone to extreme lengths to contribute hate and saltiness to everyone there. im talking dozens of alt accounts made over the course of years. discord provides the tools for these verification paths. its a choice on behalf of the discord managers to enforce the different levels of verification, but it is absolutely discord that stores and verifies that data. we’ve tried other methods before, like alt identifier bots, and ive been in communities that do personal ID verification, and neither of those are trustworthy. discord is doing their best, and the kinds of people that complain about these things either are ignorant of the challenges such communities face, or are themselves the problem.
discord is doing their best, and the kinds of people that complain about these things either are ignorant of the challenges such communities face, or are themselves the problem
Did you really have to end a decent comment on a personal attack?
Have you not considered that people just want to keep their anonymity for other reasons?
That asking for such a personal piece of information, that has ramifications if it gets out in the wild, for such a minor thing like a discussion of a video game website, wouldn’t want to give their phone number? (Lots of server hacks these days on the news where people’s personal information gets out on the dark web, etc.)
I can’t prove a negative, that I’m not something, but for what it’s worth, I’m not the kind of person you described. I’m a retired computer programmer who is a decent human being.
Or you could just ban people when they get out of line like we’ve done since the dawn of time, dont act like modding a discord is a high level job
Hopefully, Matrix [Element & al ] and Revolt will catch up to discord
I’d like to see what they say if you tell them you don’t have a phone number.
Probably “get one”. Or “use a friend’s”.
FYI, the cross-posted OP (link above) was mod removed by the Discord forum ‘admin’ on 2024-01-19 as being “False claim, false interpreted”, so the above link in the OP will no longer work.
Use a google voice number or give it bunk data. But it is BS.
Use a google voice number or give it bunk data.
Google voice numbers do not work. Giving bunk data requires a text back, so can’t give a false number.
Worked for me?
Worked for me?
There’s plenty of posts/articles on the Internet that would say otherwise. My own personal experience says so as well, as I had already tried what you suggested previously. /shrug
That sucks. Maybe they changed it recently or something. Darn. Well gl!
When I tried was over a year ago. Don’t know how long before that. /shrug
