Signal is having technical difficulties • Hacker News Board

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#451

Post by avhon1 » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:24 PM UTC

LordAtlas wrote: post #10

tomp wrote: post #4

At least they tell you about it - there's a banner on the top of the app. Last time WhatsApp was having issues, it didn't give any indication - messages just weren't being delivered (but as a user, there's no way to distinguish between "no messages" and "messages not being delivered").

I don't see a banner on the top of my app. I only found out when the desktop client kept timing out with 502 errors and after asking on Twitter, found other people were having issues too. It's there on https://status.signal.org/ though.

I didn't see the banner in the Android app until I tried to send a message.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#452

Post by stjohnswarts » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:25 PM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #84

shafyy wrote: post #67

Just a friendly reminder that Signal runs on donations and that if you can go and give them some money: https://signal.org/donate/

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.

why not both?

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#453

Post by godelski » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

Avi0n wrote: post #443

godelski wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matrix comes up a lot but even Signal is often called not polished enough. And for matrix onboarding is hard for techies and I've had zero chance for the general public. Fine to push it towards techies, but my grandma can't figure it out but she can Signal. Push matrix when it's more polished but right now it just feels silly to push it.

Element clients are very close to finishing their SSO implementations which will help immensely with the on boarding process. Here’s the iOS pull request for example: https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/pull/3890

One thing that would really help is basically making the server installs a few clicks. Granted it has been about 6 months since I tried but I remember the instructions not being great and I know that'd be zero hope for less technical people.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#454

Post by Krasnol » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:27 PM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #445

Krasnol wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did not "take years". They haven't seriously considered that for long. I don't think it's even been a year when they announced this switch for the first time. Please don't spread this kind of false information. Signal gets enough of that already.

It has taken years: one of the major GitHub issues requesting alternate identifiers than a phone number for privacy’s sake dates from 2014. [0] The devs last year started to speak publicly about making the change, but they were aware of the privacy concerns among users for much, much longer. [0] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/1085

> The devs last year started to speak publicly about making the change, but they were aware of the privacy concerns among users for much, much longer.

You realise that this is something completely different than what you wanted to imply are you? Up until they introduced the PIN, they've been defending the phone number. Just because someone had a issue on github, doesn't mean they've been working on it...

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#455

Post by stmw » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

markhalonen wrote: post #57

After getting burned by Keybase, I didn't even look at Signal. I am curious to see how Signal works in the long term without a revenue model. I paid for Matrix and got my team on it, working great. The nice thing about paying for something is you know what it costs.

Keybase is now owned by Zoom.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#456

Post by IG_Semmelweiss » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:34 PM UTC

caturopath wrote: post #304

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There could be conflict of interest if it’s a gift considering Acton was involved with WhatsApp before Signal was formed. And a donation would bring him deductions which he probably doesn’t want.. And there is a gift tax but since it’s a non profit, it gets different treatment. But having said that IRS scrutiny increases with such large donations. Chances high for an IRS audit. Etc. So many reasons why the loan aspec…

I don't understand practically any of this very well. > There could be conflict of interest if it’s a gift considering Acton was involved with WhatsApp before Signal was formed. Why is this conflict of interest less significant by structuring as a loan? > And a donation would bring him deductions which he probably doesn’t want.. Why wouldn't he want them? Is he time-shifting them or forgoing them? > And there is a gi…

Ianal.

Generally speaking, noncompete agreements prevent you from taking equity / ownership or active role in competitors

They say nothing about loans. Thats from the many agreements i have come across between businesses and partners/employees

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#457

Post by patriksvensson » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

earth2mars wrote: post #98

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/

me too. just donated. please comment below if you also donated. let's keep this thing running! Its personal interest now, because I moved bunch of groups from whatsapp and its not working now! but at the same I love these guys for what they do.

I donated!

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#458

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:39 PM UTC

Krasnol wrote: post #454

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has taken years: one of the major GitHub issues requesting alternate identifiers than a phone number for privacy’s sake dates from 2014. [0] The devs last year started to speak publicly about making the change, but they were aware of the privacy concerns among users for much, much longer. [0] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/1085

> The devs last year started to speak publicly about making the change, but they were aware of the privacy concerns among users for much, much longer. You realise that this is something completely different than what you wanted to imply are you? Up until they introduced the PIN, they've been defending the phone number. Just because someone had a issue on github, doesn't mean they've been working on it...

Whether they were working on the Github issue or not, is irrelevant. Those Github issues (if not their own intuition already) would have already made them aware that by requiring a phone number, they were compromising user privacy. Of course they had their arguments for requiring a phone number.

You think I’m knocking the app. I’m not, I think it is the best option available. I just feel that as long as the phone number was required, they could have been clearer to ordinary users about the threats that Signal aimed to protect users from: advertisers and ordinary criminals, sure, but not necessarily the state authorities, and so it might not be suitable for dissidents for the time being.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#459

Post by pimeys » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:39 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/

I just set a monthly 10 dollar donation for them.

All my friends are in Signal. One of my favorite group chats is in Signal. My mom is using Signal, I just sent her a message I might need to leave WhatsApp, so she immediately installed Signal all by herself. Now we have video chats that have been working really well.

I mean, this is the first time the mobile app gives trouble. I'd wish the desktop app would be better, like it's been the biggest problem between me and Signal. Otherwise it's an amazing tool and I'm happy to donate for it to be even better.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#460

Post by echelon » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

codethief wrote: post #397

chucky wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy. You "gift" the badge to a user via the Signal homepage when making a connection. There's no required connection between the gift-giver and the receiver. Is the person who gifted the badge the same as the receiver? Could very well be, but there's no way to prove that. All you need to store server-side is "this user has the badge until date X".

> Could very well be, but there's no way to prove that. Sure, but espionage and surveillance are rarely about proving anything, they're about making good educated guesses. Besides, the receiver will very likely be among your friends and acquaintances, so the NSA would only have to look at your social circle to find them.

Database has one column on the user table:

display_badge_until

Store no payment info.