Sure, the author could have prevented some of their problems by reading the documentation, but Matrix is trying to become a solution everyone can use. And noone wants to read a manifest only to send some messages.
But as as user, if you're even a little technical, downloading Element, registering and messaging your friends is really not the difficult bit.
Element sent them to matrix.org
MacOS app store only had element X, and also how is a user supposed to know to use the old one? Matrix.org tells me element X supports more stuff! The author says it's in beta but I can't see any indication that clearly tells me that and I'm looking for it.
> just gone to the Element home page
The app doesn't take you there.
But OK let's do that.
element.io
There's a big getting started button.
Now there's a form asking for my work email address and phone number and what challenges I'm looking to overcome.
> Setup a self-hosted or cloud deployment, with powerful enterprise capabilities.
To get started I need to not go to "get started" I need to go to sign in, which I can't do, then register.
The user should fall into the “pit of success” — no matter where/how they first enter the pages of matrix or element … it should be natural that they end up at the correct getting started for them.
It is ok that matrix the protocol and matrix the server software have a different name than element. But the official server instance used by element should not be matrix.org but element.io because that is where you have to sign up and log in if you want to use the default official instance. Otherwise you redirect clueless end users to protocol papers and server administration docs.
Perhaps a technology will not have success if its users need to do basic reading.
Jokes aside, I don't think matrix/element, at this stage, are trying to overthrow telegram or whatsapp.
It seems their main approach is somewhat aimed at the people who use(d) IRC on the general audience side and institutional clients who they work with to create ad hoc solutions for employees, in which case which client to download is slightly less problematic since it's going to be a custom one anyway
It just so happens that right now it's easier to land with folks who are patient with sharp edges and already believe in the value of FOSS, E2EE, and decentralization. Gotta start somewhere, right? :)
IDK if you caught it, but the project lead, Matthew Hodgson, gave a main stage talk at FOSDEM a couple weeks ago and offered an update on the project and, in particular, on how we're taking advantage of the push that regulators are making for interoperability. WhatsApp, in particular, gets mentioned in this context and the writers at WIRED and Tech Crunch seemed to pick up on that!
Do we need to test and simplify our onboarding? No, it's the confused users who are wrong!
There are plenty of problems with Element and Matrix (I say that as someone who has been trying to migrate off Slack for 1+ year) but this comes off as the author just not doing basic reading.