Maybe for the Discord use-case of joining mass-community servers it simply doesn’t have the network-effect yet. I haven’t used it much myself sadly! But I imagine a lot of users had the same idea you did: “Let’s make a server! Aw nobody’s here.”

But I think adoption would grow if we started using it for what a LOT of people use Discord for currently: The micro-server for get-togethers of smaller social circles.

• Voice chat for videogames
• Small digital meet-ups, like artists, churches, clubs, etc.
• Distance-playing tabletop RPGs.
• College study groups.

That’s where adoption starts and snowballs. Unfortunately, I believe the VC-funded data-mining corpo-apps will always have the advantage in scooping up the “I want to join a crowded mass community room” users.

But that’s okay for a start.

The way I see it, we need to be most concerned with keeping our security and privacy amongst our closest associates, and occasionally we’ll need to venture out into the “commercial-net” with our hoodies up and sunglasses on to interact with the crowd, fully aware there’s surveillance everywhere.