I was actually opted out by default. I opted in, I think it’s a good feature and it seems well implemented as well - your username will not show, only your message. Also only select channels opted in by server admins will show up in searches, which is probably the best way to go about it. I don’t exactly care for everyone’s “general” chats to become indexable, but I’d like not to open Discord just to look up some techy stuff.
When I got Discord in 2020, everything about the UI made me think this was a private place with the people on the server. Boy oh boy was I wrong. I use Matrix now for actual gaming and hanging out with friends.
I only maintain my Discord to get updates in big organizations, like union organizing. But even those organizations should think about migrating to Matrix or something similar as soon as possible.I’m sure every app and mod that insists on keeping all their setup and support information on Discord will immediately opt out of this.
To opt out:
Discoverable server admins can opt out their servers or even individual channels by going to Server Settings, then Web Presence and choosing which channels you want to be visible. But, if you don’t change anything, public channels will have the setting enabled by default.
If you’re just a user in one of these huge servers, and you don’t want your messages to be viewable from Google, you can also opt your own messages out. Simply go to User Settings, then Data and Privacy and disable ‘Show my message content from Discoverable channels on web pages.’
I don’t have that option.
Probably need to wait for an update or use desktop
This was probably one of the top three criticisms I heard against Discord, so this seems like a positive move to me.
The actual message content will probably still be hidden behind a login wall.
No need to speculate, there’s an article with valuable information on this very topic linked in the OP.
In a blog post, Discord laid out its plans to publish ‘Server Web Pages’ for every discoverable server on Discord by default. These are bespoke web pages that give a preview of a server’s contents before forcing users to hit the join button. There are already several of these pages live, typically for huge online games like Rust or Dead by Daylight. These pages will be discoverable on Google, and will display a summary of the discussions going on in the server.
But while these Server Web Pages will be going live next month, another update is coming in December that’ll allow answers to questions to appear in Google search. According to the blog post, “Answers to questions your members sent in public channels can be found in a web search, in their own words. Server admins decide which channels take part, and server members can choose whether their own messages appear. Usernames and avatars will not be shown alongside these messages.”
