I shared it because I've been messing around with ricochet this weekend. I did look at the sources and couldn't find anything that I hated. Some problems exist in the latest debian package (in sid) related to the AppArmor configuration ... (see my issue I created in their github). So this is how I ended up posting it ... I wasn't aware of this other WhatsApp post. WhatsApp is snakeoil imo.

Though you're probably right about the tendency of people to share related things. Not just when a non FOSS project gets posted on HN but in general people remember similar things and then post it. See the comment here on briar, which is a promising project too. But it serves a different use-case - I want a non mobile solution I can run on FOSS system with FOSS hardware TL;DR: I no longer use phones in the traditional sense - only burner phones for 2FA without apps and not for making calls ... Ricochet delivers that because I can launch it via a Debian, Tails[1], QubesOS whatever ... :)

[1] requires a little fuckery but not too bad: https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/ricochet-tails.html