If all you value is sub-IRC level irreverent discussion, maybe.

I really don't understand the folks fleeing to Discord. A mailing list does 99% of the same thing for most of the communities.

Sure, if you want to chat while gaming, that's the whole point of Discord. Ganbatte.

But, for everything else, Discord is such a horrible misfit that I don't understand why it's the default.

This. Everything important has moved to discord. Which is sad because of how undiscoverable and unsearchable it is.

Discord is terrible. Full of bots, creeps and ai slopped to the gills.

Some communities are better than others but the sheer volume of stinky trash is immense despite discord and the poor volunteer moderators efforts to prevent it. Most mods are neutral on it too.

There are chat communities that are still somewhat safe with zero user verification. But I will not mention them.