They function differently, but in terms of what gets communities to actually form and stick around, I think they're very similar:

- Making a new space for your community is trivial for anyone; it can be done in seconds with a few clicks and all you have to do is choose a name.

- Many people already have an account, so you don't need to convince everyone to sign up for a new platform. (Which scales with the platform's size, like all network effects.)

- Communities have their own space they can adjust to their liking, rather than being a vague cluster of nodes with a similar interest like in other social networks.

- Owners of those spaces have a lot of leeway to run things as they see fit.

Personally, I don't like the growing trend of every community being a Discord server that is going to collect dust in the corner of my chat window unless I commit to keeping up with it every day, but I understand why it's happening. Discord is an adequate social hub for any project or hobby group with a very low barrier to entry, which is more important than the actual functionality being the best IMO. 

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39787849
They function differently, but in terms of what gets communities to actually for... | Hacker News

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