Comment by ascar
5 years ago
I don't think it's really about identification. Binding user accounts to SIM-based phone numbers is an effective way of limiting account creation as it's effectively binding it to a physical token.
I can only guess why Discord wants to do this (fighting scam bots?), but for example for Tinder this is a very effective way of preventing abuse on the huge early discovery boost after signup or long inactivity.
I understand why they do it, and I have no problem with that. My problem is their lack of an alternative. Either have an alternative way for me to verify, or a way for an admin to let me into their channel without verification.
what if that alternative was "worse" than the phone number method? Would you then complain that there's no "easier" alternative?
For example, a photo-id as an alternative, which imho is way worse?
The problem with presenting an alternative is that if it is "better/easier" than phone number, then it gets exploited by the spam bots. If it's worse than the existing phone number method, then you'd have the exact same complaints, or worse.
I would be totally fine with a photo ID alternative or any other "harder" alternative. At least there is an alternative.