As Signal is a non-profit what are the possible solutions to reduce costs going forward while maintaining availability?
How about a federated solution? I'd be happy to run my own conversations on my own server.
Signal Is Back
61–70 of 158 posts
Re: Signal Is Back
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Move from the cloud to k8s hosted on their own metal. The Signal server is simplistic (a compliment), it’s the bandwidth that you’re going to get raked over the coals for at cloud providers. Burst to the cloud for outlier events.
If I'm not mistaken, signal is specifically hosted on AWS to so that governments can't just blacklist their IPs without blacklisting all of AWS. So moving to bare metal isn't really an option.
Re: Signal Is Back
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I'm not mistaken, signal is specifically hosted on AWS to so that governments can't just blacklist their IPs without blacklisting all of AWS. So moving to bare metal isn't really an option.
Remember that AWS can terminate (as shown recently with Parler) any time they want.
Re: Signal Is Back
#64We rarely get to see an app have to grow suddenly like that. And with Signal being open source, it must be very educational to follow. Has anyone found a publication around what they had to do on the technical side (code)? Edit: Their server's repo hasn't been updated since April 2020. Why? https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server
Re: Signal Is Back
#65Can somebody explain their financial model? How are they paying for the servers and stuff. The claim "No ads. No trackers." and that they are "free for everyone".
I kick in a few dollars a month, and recommend you do the same.
Downvoters, kindly explain what is so wrong about my statement. There are costs to run the operation, having generous benefactors writing big checks (a) do not change this, (b) makes Signal's operation dependent on the source of revenue and (c) hide these externalities long enough to hinder the development of cheaper/more efficient alternatives.
IOW, "depending on donations" is not a solution. Just like Socialism, it works until we run out of other people's money.
Re: Signal Is Back
#66Re: Signal Is Back
#67We rarely get to see an app have to grow suddenly like that. And with Signal being open source, it must be very educational to follow. Has anyone found a publication around what they had to do on the technical side (code)? Edit: Their server's repo hasn't been updated since April 2020. Why? https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server
Honestly, the main lesson I wish developers (and especially Moxie) get to learn is the one that teaches them that centralized services are fragile, bound to fail and simply not worth the cost.
Re: Signal Is Back
#68Can somebody explain their financial model? How are they paying for the servers and stuff. The claim "No ads. No trackers." and that they are "free for everyone".
They are powered by donations [1] Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, who left Facebook post WhatsApp acquisition, infused 50M USD too. [2] I hear he lent another 50M with 0% interest, repayable by 2068. [3] [1] https://signal.org/donate [2] https://www.wired.com/story/signal-foundation-whatsapp-brian... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Foundation
Since the OTF's own spin-off from RFA, it seems to have continued being non-trivially involved in regime change while funding communication initiatives like TOR and Open Whisper Systems etc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Technology_Fund).
Re: Signal Is Back
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, the main lesson I wish developers (and especially Moxie) get to learn is the one that teaches them that centralized services are fragile, bound to fail and simply not worth the cost.
Centralized in architectural or administrative terms?
Re: Signal Is Back
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Move from the cloud to k8s hosted on their own metal. The Signal server is simplistic (a compliment), it’s the bandwidth that you’re going to get raked over the coals for at cloud providers. Burst to the cloud for outlier events.
If I'm not mistaken, signal is specifically hosted on AWS to so that governments can't just blacklist their IPs without blacklisting all of AWS. So moving to bare metal isn't really an option.