Signal is having technical difficulties • Hacker News Board

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#321

Post by Arathorn » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

corndoge wrote: post #124

sean_pedersen wrote: post #94

Time to jump ship! Use element / matrix an open, decentralized, end-to-end encrypted chat protocol with slick clients for Android, iOS, Desktop & Web: https://element.io/ Also easy to self-host a server, if you need full control: $ mkdir -p ~/synapse $ pip3.6 install --user jinja2 matrix-synapse $ cd ~/synapse $ python3.6 -m synapse.app.homeserver \ --server-name my.domain.name \ --config-path homeserver.yaml \ --gen…

Thanks, I'll send this guide to my mom!

send your mom to https://element.io. nobody is asking her to run her own server(!)

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#322

Post by rbjorklin » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

alan5 wrote: post #71

I just donated to Signal after seeing the error banner in the app. I realised I was more than happy to pay WhatsApp's yearly charge back in the pre-Facebook days (think it was 70p or so?). Figured I could give Signal a few quid every now and then, maybe keep a server up for a few seconds :) Donation link should anyone be interested: https://signal.org/donate/

Thanks for sharing that link, you removed enough friction that I now donate monthly :)

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#323

Post by brewdad » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

joshxyz wrote: post #286

breiti wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a few tweet below in that thread: > Telegram is owned by Google if not mistaken!? sigh.

To be fair i grew up thinking bill gates owned skype

Microsoft does own Skype now, so in a way he does.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#324

Post by himujjal » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

chopin24 wrote: post #211

lerax wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should considered Telegram instead.

Telegram is insecure and also being swamped with right wingers. Doesn’t seem promising.

i have so much fun in public websites seeing americans fight over right and left. its good entertainment. keep it up.

anyways. It will be really difficult to convince my friends to remain on signal. At least they are technically sound. Thinking an excuse to come up with though. i donated money today too.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#325

Post by rvz » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

chopin24 wrote: post #267

rvz wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> also being swamped with right wingers So is Signal. 'right wingers' are everywhere.

Right. But one of these is secure and the other isn’t. State action against telegram is eminent.

These users who are coming from these platforms (WhatsApp, Telegram) don't care about that. If Signal is still unable to stay online then the users will leave and they will try the second best option. (Even if it is less secure).

This has now become a usability and reliability issue for Signal.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#326

Post by spurgu » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

lol768 wrote: post #233

lucb1e wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or that you can use that money for a Matrix server instead of supporting centralization. Element is less polished than Signal app but they've been catching up quite fast. If you and your friends aren't locked into the Signal ecosystem yet, might be worth considering, especially if you're techies.

> Element is less polished than Signal app To be fair: I've been pleasantly impressed with Element actually from what I've seen of Mozilla's set-up. I can format my text, I can run it in my browser and it starts up very quickly.

You'll get disappointed once you actually start using it. Unfortunately. There are so many quirks, inconsistencies, poor UI/UX.

I've been using Matrix for maybe a year now with a group of techie friends and I would definitely not recommend it for my family members (who I just onboarded from Whatsapp to Signal the other day).

Just look at this: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix

And compare it to installing the Signal app and verifying your phone number with an SMS code. Frictionless.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#327

Post by z77dj3kl » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

vinay_ys wrote: post #301

lucb1e wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The server code was published. Even if we don't know what services they use, you should be able to find quite easily what language the stuff is written in.

The signal server project in GitHub isn't updated in 9 months. Have they talked about why they don't do server development in the open?

The Signal servers essentially pass around encrypted blobs from one device to another. Most of the development work is on extending the clients to pass around different types of messages, so there's not much work that needs to be done on the server.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#328

Post by afrcnc » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

As with most sudden expansions, this was to be expected, tbh

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#329

Post by tailspin2019 » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

krrrh wrote: post #287

alan5 wrote: post #71

I just donated to Signal after seeing the error banner in the app. I realised I was more than happy to pay WhatsApp's yearly charge back in the pre-Facebook days (think it was 70p or so?). Figured I could give Signal a few quid every now and then, maybe keep a server up for a few seconds :) Donation link should anyone be interested: https://signal.org/donate/

They could easily add an optional badge to avatars showing that you donated $1 that year via an optional in-app purchase. The subtle social pressure in a lot of group chats would be pretty effective, and it would help raise awareness that it is run by a non-profit foundation.

This is a great idea.

One of my friends who just jumped ship to Signal this week said in his first Signal message to me that he wished he’d “bought some shares” in Signal when I first told him about it...

The first challenge is getting people to join the platform.

The second challenge is educating them on how it’s actually funded... (ie NOT by pimping out your personal data for shareholder benefit).

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#330

Post by DyslexicAtheist » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

alan5 wrote: post #71

I just donated to Signal after seeing the error banner in the app. I realised I was more than happy to pay WhatsApp's yearly charge back in the pre-Facebook days (think it was 70p or so?). Figured I could give Signal a few quid every now and then, maybe keep a server up for a few seconds :) Donation link should anyone be interested: https://signal.org/donate/

if you can please consider making a regular recurring payment of a few bucks every month rather than a one-shot lump sum. this is because it's easier for a company to budget and plan with recurring revenue than a one-off donation.