Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospective (2023)

Re:Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospect... by grues-dinner on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @11:23AM (#41721577)

All the best of luck. Genuinely, I hope it works out because I despise all the closed chat platforms and view the lack of a compelling FOSS alternative to be strange, frustrating and even embarrassing when someone uses it as an example of why FOSS just doesn't work for consumer software.

As for the wording, it's on the front page of https://matrix.org, just below the fold. Scroll down once and it's centre of the page.

https://imgur.com/a/jonz89P

The fold below that is "A cozy, safe, supercharged place for your community" and the image says "Kayak club".

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Re:Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospect... by Arathorn on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @01:51PM (#41723240)

Oh! Well, yes, Matrix itself would love to be a cosy safe supercharged place for your community (even if i’m not sure a protocol should describe itself like that tbh). Some clients like Cinny or FluffyChat are close to that. Element will also get there eventually.

In terms of why consumer FOSS software often sucks:

* Good UX requires top down product discipline: cathedral model, not bazaar.

* Product folks are less likely to contribute to FOSS, especially in their spare time

* Therefore they need to do it as their dayjob.

* Running a sustainable FOSS company is hard.

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Re:Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospect... by grues-dinner on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @02:41PM (#41723768)

> even if i’m not sure a protocol should describe itself like that tbh

Aren't you the matrix.org project lead though? (if not, maybe your bio needs an update).

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Re:Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospect... by Arathorn on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @02:47PM (#41723817)

yup. the problem on the matrix.org website is a tradeoff between a very dry “this is a protocol”, like w3c.org - versus trying to give some more accessible use cases for people who expect to find an instant messaging network. the current wording oversteers.

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Re:Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospect... by nunobrito on Thursday October 03, 2024 @04:55AM (#41728701)

From the conversation it seems Matrix just grew bloated, when I look at what NOSTR is developing and the speed at which crutial features are delivered then it is quite a world of difference.

Those governments might be paying your bills for now, but you've lost the support from the open source community on the way to get there and soon be forgotten by everyone. I just hope one day we won't have the sad news of discovering that Matrix injected backdoors from the Israeli government to receive funding.

Nevertheless, I wish you all the best.

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Re:Matrix-Libera IRC Bridge Temporary Shutdown, a Retrospect... by Arathorn on Thursday October 03, 2024 @06:17AM (#41729173)

Thanks for the tipoff to look at 0xchat - it does remind me of where Matrix was about 8 years ago (in terms of maturity, speed of growth, features, etc). Good luck to them.

In terms of Matrix having lost the support from the open source community because Element hasn't implemented custom emoji yet... time will tell. In the end I suspect the open source community would be even more upset if Element had run out of money and exploded (although you never know; haters gonna hate :)

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