aine

Hello, Aine here, one of the etke.cc developers.

The stats of the matrixrooms.info instance is what matrixrooms.info instance sees - it is not whole Matrix Federation. Here is the documentation in the MRS repo about that endpoint: https://github.com/etkecc/mrs/blob/main/docs/stats.md

Also, at the moment of writing, there are ~15k *federated* online servers visible by matrixrooms.info, and from them, ~4k servers publish their rooms directories over federation ("indexable").

You can read more about the MRS project (matrixrooms.info is just a demo instance) in the repo: https://github.com/etkecc/mrs/blob/main/README.md

we stopped offering identity server a long time ago because of the privacy concerns the whole concept raised and the fact the only non-Sydent option at that time was basically abandoned (ma1sd). The situation was basically 2 bad decisions: either lock in with Sydent or don't use an identity server at all.

Considering the low interest in the identity server functionality and the amount of concerns around the concept, we took the latter bad decision - that way we don't offer a self-hosted identity server but don't limit customers in using the matrix.org's one (even with their own Matrix server). That seems like an acceptable trade off. After all, even Sydent's README contains the following:

> Do I need to run Sydent to run my own homeserver? > > Short answer: no. > > Medium answer: probably not. Most homeservers and clients use the Sydent instance run by matrix.org, or use no identity server whatsoever.

PS: I'm Aine, one of the etke.cc developers

Matrix.org is the hugest public Matrix server, plus $100k is not just infrastructure costs, but development and maintenance of the bridges as well. As an etke.cc developer, I can assure you that development, maintenance, and operations even a small bridge is no joke.

t2bot's costs look like infrastructure and operation costs, not development and maintenance.

Disclaimer: I'm Aine of etke.cc, we offer managed Matrix servers with numerous different components, including bridges. Some of the components (like Postmoogle - email bridge) are developed and maintained by our team.

at the same time, they (Element) focus on bigger customers, where they can make bigger money and then fund the Foundation.

On the contrary, etke.cc focuses on small, independent Matrix servers that could work as a single-user server, and as a small company/community internal server, and even a public server. Our focus is to be sustainable and to provide a way to own your communications in a hassle-free (or, at least, less painful) way.

So, our goals are just different.

Disclaimer: I'm Aine, one of the etke.cc developers

"plain matrix" sounds a bit wrong - we put great effort into maintaining numerous of components of the playbook, including bridges, so it has a lot to offer. Alternatively, you can just get a managed server on https://etke.cc

Disclaimer: I'm Aine of etke.cc, and MDAD is our project

Alternatively, you can just get your server managed by https://etke.cc - the developers of the MDAD paybook - and not worry about the server part at all

Disclaimer: I'm Aine of etke.cc

at the same time, we are developing MDAD playbook, referenced in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42034100

I'm Aine of etke.cc, and yes, we can ease your pain by managing the server part of the matrix on your behalf, be it on-premises or hosted in the cloud by us.

Another option is https://etke.cc - truly FOSS managed hosting, both on-premises and cloud, huge list of supported components, priced by complexity, not users.

Disclaimer: I'm one of etke.cc developers

emm is quite simple, so yep, you totally could adapt it - just replace matrix part with your own thing

The definitive guide about sending emails that covers everything, from parsing recipient email and finding recipient SMTP server to ‘Email has been sent’ notification.

Apparently, it's not so easy

I do the same thing for the last several years and the only email that was spammed is the mailbox used for Digital Ocean. Seems like they had some leak (or may be sold that data, not sure), but I received spam emails with some sketchy links only on that email.

> If only there were some kind of decentralized linked list of prohibitively-expensive-to-counterfeit ordered records that he could have leveraged to prove to the world that his twelfth statement preceded hers.

Every time I talk with a blockchain enthusiast, they seriously pull similar ideas and every time I tirelessly try to convince them there are better/simplier/more effective/etc. solutions to the same problems they try to apply blockchain.

> The Tweets have timestamps. No blockchain required.

The best "stop your blockchain bs" answer!

Matrix protocol has a lot of features, some of them is not even used by clients (stable versions) yet.

But the point is matrix client app. Let's take element (usually it's a default choice) - it not very user-frindly and sharp on edges. Of course, it changes literally on your eyes (if you use nightly builds), but still cannot compete with Discord client in terms of UI/UX.

Matrix is awesome, but it needs more time to be polished and "slick" enough for average user.

Disclosure: I'm developer of https://etke.cc and have very huge interest in polished matrix clients. As part of my job I use nightly element clients on desktop and mobile platforms to be able to guide customers after features' releases

Who cares? The thread is interesting, so if that's an ad campaign - it's a good one.

Wow, never heard of that website before! Now spending an hour every day, because it's so cool!

> families don't need VPNs

Our observations are very different, but OK. What about small business with 5-10 employees? They definitely need VPN, especially in WFH era. And no, they don't have (money to buy) Cisco.

> In addition, there are a multitude of consumer wifi routers out there with VPN servers built into them.

Of course. When I got a new contract with ISP they installed shiny new router. Do you know what VPN server is builtin into that router? None. And that router installed to all clients of that ISP (one of few biggest ISP in my country)

Sorry, I want to warn you, the following comment text contains rage and rants, please, do not read it if you don't want to see such things.

Every goddamn article I read about wireguard disadvantages contains following buzzwords: "big vendors", "200 clients", " rolling updates"....

Hello, my name is Aine and I want to setup family VPN. I don't have Cisco, I don't have 200 devices, I don't need rolling updates around the world. I need simple, fast VPN that will work. And you know what? Wireguard works OK. It's simple, it's fast, it works!

Why should I care about "big vendors" or "200 clients"? Why EVERY article talks about that bullshit?

I ask you a personal favor: if you ever will write an article about VPN, please, I beg you, explain how it works for small users use cases, like family usage or small business. I tell you why - because " big vendors " and people who need rolling updates of ciphers on 200+ clients all over the world will figure out pros and cons of different solutions without your almost the same article as 100500 Google results for "%vpnname disadvantages" /rant

yes, recipient sees your email address (of PayPal account)

Well, maybe, but it works as "single monolithic versioned protocol" with different server implementations, and it works OK-ish.

I understand that's not perfect and such approach has it's own downsides, but for now it's OK.

PS: I'm not matrix developer, so my opinion maybe wrong, but from user and sysadmin perspective I don't see/feel any problems with it

I agree about bugs, but doubt any intelligence can use fully open source tools to integrate backdoor or at least "ears".

Of course, I'm not employee of any intelligence and can't prove that, but that's just my opinion

Well, nothing. I mean, nothing will happen, because matrix uses strict versioning of protocol and your server "announces" supported protocol versions, so any client will use supported protocol version with your server.

Btw, there are several server implementations of matrix sever, not related to the New Vector/Element.

> That is not true. The link shows that a volunteer on the free software directory labeled it as nonfree at one point and later it was changed.

Oh, don't dig in details. Article clearly shows the intent to claim matrix as very bad thing, without proof checking. Like "who cares?"

/sarcasm

It's open source, so you can check the code.

Funny thing, there are lots of contributors to matrix stack (protocol, sever, etc) and only some part of them are New Vector employees, because it's open source. Again, you can check that yourself in matrix repos