API v6 decommission extension

[typpo]

Hello everyone,

Another update on decommission plans for deprecated API versions. We’ve spent some more time considering how we intend to perform API decommissions and have decided to extend the API v6 decommission to 2023 to match the v7 timeline.

Our decision is based on several reasons:

1. Giving ample notice to developers who do not monitor the Discord Developers server or Discord API docs
2. The population of existing bots on v6
3. Consistency in how we apply our decommission policy across HTTP and Gateway API versions

Ultimately, this will give the broader developer community plenty of time to prepare, and will let us reach out to developers who are running bots on Discord but may not have received advanced notice of the decommission plans 🙂

See #4510 for information on what to expect in future API versions and #4657 for a description of the eventual decommission process.

[SuperchupuDev]

Will the decommission affect Gateway v6 and v7 too?

[typpo]

Yes

[afkvido]

hi

[z3ro0k]

@typpo And which endpoints will be affected? 🤔

[IAmTomahawkx]

All endpoints on v6

[z3ro0k]

oh thx!

[mjkzy]

• Giving ample notice to developers who do not monitor the Discord Developers server or Discord API docs
• The population of existing bots on v6

i don't mean to be that guy but isn't this the developers responsibility? if they notice their discord applications that are using v6 api aren't working, then i'm sure they will look into it, right? plus, isn't v6 the version that is keeping self botting alive and well?

and for the record, updating from one api to another isn't entirely hard. sure, maybe if your program directly uses the api but most libraries (atleast the ones I use for discord) are just wrappers for the API and they handle all the hard stuff, and tell you how to update your code and show the newest changes.

[MinnDevelopment]

When you use a library that uses v6, that might be a version of the library which released over 5 years ago. In that time frame, a lot can change, and the library will most likely have received breaking changes or entire rewrites. It is not as simple as updating a number in a config somewhere, often it involves a far bigger change and potentially rewrite of large sections of bot code. You are grossly underestimating the cost of updating a library.

plus, isn't v6 the version that is keeping self botting alive and well?

No, the client and self bots can use any API version. This is completely irrelevant for self bots.

[mjkzy]

edit: my argument here is pretty invalid, i thought v6 api was the only reason stuff like self bots existed. my discussion is kinda useless now but I guess check the edits if you care about what I said

[advaith1]

selfbot checks are the same on all api versions, there would not be a point in disabling checks on old API versions

[mjkzy]

oh, interesting. people have told me it's only ever been on v6 and looking through github, even recent self bots use v6 so that's why i was confused

[SinisterRectus]

That may just be a result of v6 being introduced before or around the same time that Discord started to explicitly forbid self/userbots. API v6 was introduced in July 2017 (#293). The developer ToS was introduced in August 2017 (#344). And, according to the earliest archive, the "automated user accounts" help page appeared November 2017. Prior to being explicitly forbidden, self/userbots were tolerated and legacy code typically supports them.

[advaith1]

Will the default version be changed to v10?

[gamer0mega]

I'm pretty sure no as it'd break many apps using no version even when v6 and v7 are still active

[splatterxl]

#4510

API v10 will become the Default version, and the default version for API requests

[ckohen]

That would've been at the same time as the deprecation which is now being moved, hence this question

[MaskDuck]

will api v10 become the default at early 2023 or 30/04?