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Signal AMA on Reddit

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Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#31

Post by nostromo »

> we've structured the project as a non-profit entity, so it can never be bought, has no investors, and isn't "owned" by anyone

Never is a long time. Non-profits can become for-profits. Non-profits can also spin off of their profitable components as for-profits -- just like the Mozilla Corporation is a for-profit owned by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. Non-profits can sell ads and sell your data.

And, of course, non-profits can get money hungry just like any other organization. Look at how ICANN has found ways to vacuum up billions of dollars from the internet.

They also may not technically have any investors, but they have a de facto investor in the form a $100m loan from WhatsApp founder Brian Acton who is also on the board. He could have made it a gift, but did not -- which implies he wants the money back at some point. Signal will need a lot of donations to pay that money back -- or they could decide to sell ads or data.

All that said, I'm happy Signal is doing well, and applaud their efforts. I hope they succeed.

Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#32

Post by [deleted] »

nostromo wrote: post #31

> we've structured the project as a non-profit entity, so it can never be bought, has no investors, and isn't "owned" by anyone Never is a long time. Non-profits can become for-profits. Non-profits can also spin off of their profitable components as for-profits -- just like the Mozilla Corporation is a for-profit owned by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. Non-profits can sell ads and sell your data. And, of course,…

[deleted]

Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#33

Post by skinkestek »

oh_sigh wrote: post #28
searchableguy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it? Spill the beans.

I think OP is implying that there may be more beans in the can to be spilled than there are signal users. Probably signal occupies a far greater mind share than it's userbase actually warrants. If they say they have 10000 DAUs, more people will write it off as worthless rather than he interested in trying it.

My thought as well.

I have 8 contacts on Telegram, one(!) conversation. Meanwhile everyone from family and friends is at Telegram now and used to be on WhatsApp.

I wish Signal all the best: it is totally impressive, they got their incentives aligned totally unlike WhatsApp and to a larger degree than Telegram I think.

Personally I'm rooting for Matrix, but for now, based on my limited understanding Signal seems to hit the sweet spot where "kind of easy to use" overlaps to a large degree with "trustworthy".

Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#34

Post by vengefulduck »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #8
akvadrako wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you doing? That is a self-signed certificate, so your computer shouldn't trust it. Yet the Desktop apps work fine. Maybe your version of Signal is too old?

I just launched the Dekstop app from their Debian apt repository. It says "Something went wrong! Failed to connect to server." and then the Debug Log contains stuff such as: FetchError: request to https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/config failed, reason: unable to verify the first certificate

It’s probably outdated, I know Debian is pretty conservative when it comes to package updates, have you tried getting it from signal directly?

Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#36

Post by hbhstx05q8tf »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #30
Daniel_sk wrote: post #4

Q: "Is there any plans to make user ID system, so that we can add friends without knowing the phone numbers?" A: Yes, we're working on it.

Haven't Signal been saying that for something like three years now?

It's certainly been a while. And I've never heard anything reassuring about what they're planning; I half expect if/when we get anything that it'll be just as useless to me as the existing system. I don't actually trust Signal to deliver the features I need, and the lengthy timelines certainly don't help.

I don't think I know of any messenger at all that does what I want, and that's kinda sad.

Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#37

Post by teekert »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #8
akvadrako wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you doing? That is a self-signed certificate, so your computer shouldn't trust it. Yet the Desktop apps work fine. Maybe your version of Signal is too old?

I just launched the Dekstop app from their Debian apt repository. It says "Something went wrong! Failed to connect to server." and then the Debug Log contains stuff such as: FetchError: request to https://textsecure-service.whispersystems.org/v1/config failed, reason: unable to verify the first certificate

Distro repos are notorious for containing super out of date stuff (especially when it comes to these kinds of apps). It's why we now have flatpack, AppImage and Snaps. Always check the version numbers when using repo stuff.

Re: Signal AMA on Reddit

#38

Post by CarelessExpert »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #30
Daniel_sk wrote: post #4

Q: "Is there any plans to make user ID system, so that we can add friends without knowing the phone numbers?" A: Yes, we're working on it.

Haven't Signal been saying that for something like three years now?

Yes, though if you're paying attention to the protocol changes recently, you'll see it's actually true. There's been the introduction of a UID for user identifiers, a brand new group chat protocol, etc.

So the work is happening. But it's pretty major surgery, so it takes time.

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