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Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

matrix.org

101–110 of 167 posts

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#102
post #99
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The centralized mess of Discord is neither stable, nor reliable, nor lightweight to access, and it's going to bite a lot of communities in the rear end, very hard, at some point down the road. The history of "convenient, free to use tech" like Discord is "Someone buys it and tries to turn a profit, and squeezes the life out of it." IRC is a "fully mature technology" at this point in the internet. It just works. I bel…

I don't care about tech philosophy. The software needs to work well. Show me an IRC network operated with the same ease of use and security as discord and I will use it provided others are on it as well. You people like your lemmy, mastodon, peertube,etc... and it's not like I disagree with the idea but ideals are only good for academic discussions. They need to work well IRL, there is no replacement for that, period…

Talking about this in a nuanced way on HN these days is useless. Threads about IRC, Mastodon, Lemmy, etc don't attract pragmatists. They attract zealots that really want to pretend like their chosen ethical technology is the best and won all the wars and changed everything, and shhh you sheeple for suggesting otherwise let me downvote you.

I will say while Element (the flagship Matrix client) isn't as polished as I'd like it to be, it's good enough that Discord users can use it without thinking twice on any of the non-huge rooms and spaces out there. It's quite close and worth running in parallel to Discord and I'm hopeful that the teams at Element and Matrix will close the gap to get sufficiently close.

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#103
I'm so incredibly conflicted about whether to keep investing time and energy and hope around Matrix. I normally have good tech intuition and matrix is in this weird spot. I think the vision and direction and attitudes are amazing but they keep fking up badly.

I'm embarrassed at the thought that I would "soon" soft nudge my friends and family to matrix, years ago. With the state of synapse, matrix.org, and the project in general, I wouldn't consider trying that for another 12-18 months. Or more.

This current news just gives me more pause about leadership and vision. This is a huge "oopsie" to put it nicely. It feels like a massive loss for matrix (bad first impressions, negative impact on network effects, etc) and will undoubtedly be something that matrix detractors will point to for years.

I normally keep quiet about this and just huff more copium because I WANT matrix to succeed, but I wish using Element and matrix as it exists didn't make me feel so ... Idk. Normally by now a tech project with this transcripts hits a steady state but man, the protocol is lacking, element web is just passable at the most generous. Element on Android, I won't even speak about, refer to where I want element to succeed.

To balance this out - Element x has been pleasantly satisfying lately. I'm curious if the team is deliberately taking a different strategy. New Element is working on basically the intersection of what I think are going to be foundational future "stuff" but seem almost to eager. Meanwhile element x is missing for feature but is, still after months of using it, "blazingly fast".

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#104
post #56
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IRC is the best place to go to find developers of a whole host of open source projects. If you work with open source software, not using IRC really limits what you can do and who you can reach.

This is entirely dependent on what OSS you're working with, and not in any way representative of OSS as a whole.

That might be why I said “a whole host of open source projects” and not “all open source projects”.

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#105
post #95
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IRC is the best place to go to find developers of a whole host of open source projects. If you work with open source software, not using IRC really limits what you can do and who you can reach.

Not really, just use Matrix and a bridge like Heisenbridge. The experience to me feels native as if the IRC users are using Matrix.

That’s just a fancy IRC client.

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#106
post #79
post #15

The explanation seems a bit vague. What were the concrete issues at hand?

Just a theory: Libera.Chat staff that used to work at Element departed the company due to budget cuts. In combination with the budget cuts' wider effects on the matrix ecosystem, this meant there was little if any hope the issues with the bridge would get fixed.

There were Libera.Chat staff working at EMS???

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#107
post #74

One thing that Libera and its predecessors have that is impossible with element and discord and slack is: multiple overlapping communities on the same platform. Maybe matrix/element has that, but I’m not very adept at finding it I guess. Old time original freenode had so many communities.

Isn’t that how it works with discord? I don’t understand what you mean by overlapping communities.

What they mean is you join an irc server with tons of communities all in one place. Discord requires you to join different "servers" where each switch between communities feels like you're at a totally different irc server (even though technically it's not). On irc you just have one name and that's what everybody knows you by. On discord you have one name per "server". There's not really a lot of cross pollination there.

Personally I would like to see a discord interface where there's not a jarring difference between each server. Something more like this hexchat screenshot (although hexchat itself isn't pretty) https://hexchat.github.io/screenshots.html but note the server and channel list on the left. I want something more like that.

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#108
post #106
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a theory: Libera.Chat staff that used to work at Element departed the company due to budget cuts. In combination with the budget cuts' wider effects on the matrix ecosystem, this meant there was little if any hope the issues with the bridge would get fixed.

There were Libera.Chat staff working at EMS???

Element employed quite a few IRC folk until the recent budget cuts. My experience as IRC client dev was actually what got me hired. (though I also departed Element during the latest round of budget cuts)

Re: Shutting down the Matrix bridge to Libera chat

#109
post #79
post #15

The explanation seems a bit vague. What were the concrete issues at hand?

Just a theory: Libera.Chat staff that used to work at Element departed the company due to budget cuts. In combination with the budget cuts' wider effects on the matrix ecosystem, this meant there was little if any hope the issues with the bridge would get fixed.

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