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Signal is having technical difficulties

status.signal.org

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Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#601

Post by burrows »

input_sh wrote: post #378
arendtio wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wonder about the process and the results. I mean, it doesn't look to me, as if there is a management behind this, that actually has a goal. It looks more like they are giving funds to projects who apply for them. IMO, they should state 3 clear goals and sponsor specific projects which reach those goals. To give some example how those could look like: - create a decentralized, federated instant messaging platfo…

I disagree. I believe the governments should fund existing open source software that are considered to be "critical" infrastructure (as in lots and lots of people rely on it) instead of chasing some random goals and adding bureaucracy on top that would slow down lead developers. Just give them money and trust them that they'll do whatever it is they've done so far that many people recognised and started relying on th…

> I believe the governments should fund existing open source software

Governments don’t fund things, taxpayers do.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#602

Post by burrows »

amelius wrote: post #511
MrPatan wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you mean well, and I understand the feeling, but how can you say in the same breath that the EU funds useless software and that you wish they funded more software? Why would the newly-funded software be the useful kind instead of the useless kind?

Because if they got more serious about it, they'd install committees to evaluate proposals, et cetera., like they do for scientific research proposals.

Right, what this problem needs is more committees!

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#603

Post by perryizgr8 »

What's the endgame with Signal? It is identical to whatsapp in how it works and what features it has/lacks. Whatsapp has big daddy FB to pay the bills (which would be massive for such an app). I doubt Signal can survive on donations from a few privacy conscious users.

For a free service, intended to survive with very small amounts of donated money, you need a fundamentally different architecture. Whatsapp was not built for this, and since Signal copied them, neither is Signal.

Even if Signal is able to survive on meagre donations, I would think it is a better use of that money to be spent on resilient, distributed architecture than AWS bills. A good architecture ensures sustainability, a large AWS bill just makes Bezos richer.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#604

Post by np_tedious »

efwfwef wrote: post #571
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").

heavy user of whatsapp and I can't recall having any issues with whatsapp ever. I'm a heavy user of signal as well and... it's a bit crap honestly. I actually needed to transfer a file to a client today and was strongly relying on signal for that...

There was a CDN issue for media about a year and a half ago. Can't recall about issues with messaging

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#605

Post by godelski »

xenocratus wrote: post #498
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one of them proclaimed today that Signal is owned by Elon Musk (probably because he tweeted about it) here is another one (with an insane amount of likes/retweets for something so wrong): "Signal is owned by Twitter and monitored. While open source it is not as secure as they say. Use telegram." -- https://twitter.com/RebelOutlaw1990/status/13471653380777000...

First comment that I saw: > Telegram uses custom cryptography. > Signal uses encryption protocols sponsored by Broadcasting Board of Governors, a sister federal agency to the State Department. In plain words, data easily accessible by CIA, NASA and FBI. I wonder what NASA will do with my Signal messages, maybe use them for a giggle in between transmissions from Mars. Also, recent blog post about Telegram and its cryp…

> I wonder what NASA will do with my Signal messages

They batch them up and send them to deep space through SETI. The aliens are the real ones behind surveillance operations which they use to create a reality TV show. And with this NASA prevents the world from being destroyed from said aliens.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#606

Post by aaron_m04 »

colechristensen wrote: post #407
caturopath wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this structured as a loan? It sounds like it's structured in such a way that he isn't interested in getting paid back. Is it so he can exercise control in a weird scenario like a buyout? Is it some weird tax thing?

Something like an unusual sort of ownership. If signal was sold, the buyer would be on the hook for all of the debt. Startup funding that looks more like debt than stockholding isn’t all that weird, and has various implications for exit scenarios. If you wanted to create something similar to a nonprofit, this is a way you could do it while protecting it from vultures.

Interesting! Where can I read more about this technique?

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#607

Post by jessewmc »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #273
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 really wish the EU would put up funds for open source software, like signal, it seems to be something they could get behind for the greater good. My previous job involved creating a graphical programming language for the generation of GPU shaders, which the EU partly funded. I knew it was going nowhere, and it made me slightly sad tax payer money was being used on something I knew, despite my best efforts, would no…

I mean, isn't that sort of the fundamental problem with government funding? They're not very good at picking winners, and when they make winners by picking, sometimes it still turns out to be a mistake (e.g. diesel in Europe).

Still, it does seem something infrastructure/utility-ish like Signal would be a good candidate for at least some support.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#608

Post by robjan »

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…

Try talking with friends / groups on a few different servers (it's decentralised, remember) and you will soon see what scalability issues are. As you add n servers to grow Signal you need n^x for Matrix.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#609

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

merlinscholz wrote: post #588
zionic wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they use any of it at all, Signal needs to get any/all remaining infrastructure off AWS as soon as possible.

Why?

I'm guessing this person is thinking about the risk that their cloud-provider(s) could shut them down due to political pressure, etc.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#610

Post by killingtime74 »

topkeks wrote: post #475
Daniel_sk wrote: post #365

"We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day this week nonstop, but today exceeded even our most optimistic projections. Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters. We appreciate your patience." https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350165610936766464

Does anyone outside Signal Foundation know how's their architecture? There are a lot of references to AWS, GCP, and Azure in the source code hosted in GitHub so they probably use them all in one way or another. It would be super interesting know more details about the infrastructure.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25797686
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