Tiktok isn't for everyone. Its was Chinese app that catered for the Asian population, specifically China because of their tight surveillance.

It got lucky. It caught on because the content produced was tightly cherry picked to show the best of best. And from another country. The same would happen if a Japanese app was translated to English and had Japanese content.

However people saw this and jumped on the bandwagon. Younger audiences who were too young for Discord nor that type of person.

There's nothing special to it. It's just as manipulative as any other social app. Pushing all of that aside, still doesn't hook.

Discord's UX is so intense it leaves you dazzled which neglects the focus for older audiences.

They saw the niche of IRC and that it being a fossil pit. The established old-hat gamer Vent/Mumble/TeamSpeak user and the younger generation. Throw some edgy icons and make folk feel that they have power with a "server" of their own, apply "invites" to make you feel special your specially included in the same as every other guild and you have a platform for the younger.

Now with loot boxes, human psyche exploitation as any game company does; Blizzard and Overwatch for example.

Matrix/Signal are all too sterile. Telegram is a muck pit and forums cost money. Prone to rotting and require expertise. IRC is an idle fest most times of the day outside of community channels.

Join EFNet and join a random channel with users outside of LinuxHax0rs and it's a ghost town.

It's me that still feels left out. Im 35, Discord doesn't fit the bill. I don't game anymore so mumble / vent don't work out. IRC as above - and I know how it used to be, I was using IRC at 13. Very exciting seeing klines and network splits, bot wars.
But still very nerdy and dull without creativity and imagination.

MSN Messenger/Y!M were my jam and there's been nothing like it since. Skype had it but sold out. Facebook is just a data hole and Instagram, eh, it has zero interest to me. I have no interest in seeing some family and their kids or someone posing in front of some statue.

And I can't even view YouTube without being forced to watch ads or forking out for a subscription for "premium", when theres nothing premium about that subscription.

And that sums up the state of the internet.

I just want a client where I can play silly games like a TokyBoom or a sketch pad where you can draw as a group. Voice chat without having to configure microphone settings nine times, leave a chatroom and rejoin without having to need an invite nor losing all chat. I'd pay for that.

/vent I guess so I'm here on HN hanging out as an unix engineer with developers and programmers which are just as edgy as each other. Because some cloud isn't as great as that cloud and PHP isn't Python and that we all should be using some new javascript framework weekly.

Reddit has gone to shit, digg is no more and Tumblr was too edgy for it's time. I think its time for real life. Oh wait.. I don't exactly fit in with the 40's folk who are out at dinners or clubbing. The younger crowds are all too kept in their clicks of university. Hobby groups are hobby groups and my generation where the hell are you!? With family and kids on Instagram...