Serge from Babka4d ago

I'm going to launch a new Free Culture project soonish and I am curious about where to have real time chat for it.

Looking at my options, none of them make me thrilled.

- Matrix

Matrix is nice, but I've had so many problems with it, it's clunky UI, it's clients not working right, encryption being funky, losing credentials, losing state. Running my own server turned out to be near impossible.

- Discord

Discord is the easiest to use, but it's entirely non-Free. And recently there's the age verification scandal. On the other hand, there's a huge community, it's very normalized, extremely easy to use.

- Libera Chat (IRC)

IRC seems like a good place to do this, but one of the folks on Babka has told me he's been kicked out of Libera for being a "genocider" because he speaks Hebrew and they banned "Zionist channels"

I'm at a bit off a loss. Anyone have thoughts?

#FreeSoftware #Communication #FreeCulture #Discord #Matrix #IRC #Libera #OpenSource

Show threadbenni
@serge what about Signal?
Feb 28 at 1:18pmWeb
Show threadSerge from Babka4d ago

@benni

Signal isn't really means for this:

- Signal doesn't have public directory or easy self-invite
- Requires phone numbers (no pseudonymous participation)
- Groups are called at ~1,000 members
- Signal doesn't have persistent, searchable, public message history
- Signal doesn't have threading
- Signal doesn't have channels or topic-based topics
- Signal doesn't have/allow bots, webhooks, or integrations
- Signal doesn't have good moderation and role/permission tooling
- Signal doesn't have a web client, so it's high friction
- Signal doesn't have linkable message URLs for referencing past discussions

Signal is meant for private communication, which isn't what I'm looking for here.

Show threadDebacle4d ago

@serge @benni

My issues with Signal are, apart from phone number requirement:

It's inextricably integrated into AWS and Google services. Which I don't like enough to give it a chance.

There is no first class client for my OS. I don't run Android or iOS, but classical Linux, i.e. I'm out.

But I would love to work for Signal. They pay *extremely* well, it's incredible.

Show threadbenni4d ago

@serge Pseudonymity is possible now (but it still requires a phone number at registration). But you made many more points, so i figured you maybe right.

Have you thought about Lemmy?

Show threadSerge from Babka4d ago

@benni

Real time chat, not forum. Also... I low key hate the Fediverse.

Show threadbenni4d ago
@serge Mattermost maybe? There are already some FOSS projects which use this.