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Signal is having technical difficulties

status.signal.org

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Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#631

Post by mschuetz »

lucb1e wrote: post #416
mschuetz wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm already having mild trouble to convince everyone to use signal, there is no chance I could get them to use and keep using Element. Element is terrible.

Well now, I wouldn't call it terrible, especially considering it's free and how much better it has gotten in the past years and how many volunteers have worked on it. It's quite decent really, even if not super smooth and polished.

It opens three messages - 2 of them modal and one annoyingly large - whenever I login, and I have to login every time I open it. I'd call that a quite terrible experience. Using the web app.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#632

Post by Pamar »

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/

Just did the same, thanks for mentioning this.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#633

Post by Ansil849 »

I'm a fan and daily user of Signal, but here is the harsh reality that this outage (going on for more than half a day now) exposes: Signal is not, today, suitable as a primary secure communication channel. Maybe one day when it scales, but not today. Countless critical conversations were disrupted today.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#634

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

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.

> Element is less polished than Signal app

Exactly, which means that it lost.

There are opportunities that are rare or unique, and it doesn't matter that you're "catching up" - either you're good enough when the opportunity arises, or you've missed that window.

You might get a second chance later, but this opportunity is lost, and the options aren't "Signal or Matrix", the options are "Signal or frustrate people, get them to go back to Whatsapp, and be even more reluctant to switch later".

And even if through some magic Element was polished right now: Signal has been polished for years now, and as a result, has built up a brand and user base.

I'm not going to be able to switch all my already switch-reluctant friends to something they haven't heard about and that nobody uses; I am going to be able to switch them to Signal, because they've already been pestered about it by several people, have heard about it in the news, and (except for today, which is a huge problem for adoption/switching people over), it works.

At least on Android, Element is simply not suitable for end users. I'm not talking about some poorly formatted UI, I'm talking about confusing/broken UX and features that don't properly work.

So I put my tech elitism away and do what works, because otherwise we'll be stuck with Facebook.

Edit: Forgot the biggest problem: Matrix has no chance because it doesn't use phone numbers as a forced default. With Signal, if your friends have already installed it, you can just start using it with them. With Matrix, you can't. This is one of the hard choices that Moxie made that is a bit of a dick move but was absolutely necessary.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#635

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

Groxx wrote: post #561
chopin24 wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tapped this link on my iPhone. There’s nothing that says create account. It says I have to download an app called Element. But you said it was called Matrix. This is the level of technical ability that you need to be targeting.

If you install the Element app, its first-launch is quite simple and newbie-friendly. There are a couple more "options" than e.g. WhatsApp, but they're presented very clearly: "Join millions free on the largest public server" or "Premium hosting for organizations" or "Custom & advanced settings" -> tap the first + free one -> Sign up / Sign in with a totally-normal experience after that. Re "you said it was called Ma…

Does the default setup flow enable encryption, or is this something that has to be done manually?

Also, search still doesn't work in encrypted rooms.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#637

Post by mshroyer »

01acheru wrote: post #276
tonymet wrote: post #120

Anyone know what their backend is? Is it an erlang stack like Whatsapp?

It's written in Java using the Dropwizard framework. I've skimmed through the code and found references to Protobuf, GCM and Redis It's open source so you can check the code here: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server

It looks like mostly blocking code... I wonder if that's hampering their ability to scale.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#638

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

Ansil849 wrote: post #633

I'm a fan and daily user of Signal, but here is the harsh reality that this outage (going on for more than half a day now) exposes: Signal is not, today, suitable as a primary secure communication channel. Maybe one day when it scales, but not today. Countless critical conversations were disrupted today.

Signal has critically failed two times in the past year: now, and almost a year ago when they were forcing everyone to create a PIN (and subject their data to their weird SGX-based cloud storage thing) despite users yelling at them how bad of an idea this is. If you didn't want to do it, you were locked out.

That one pissed me off a lot more than today's outage, which is understandable, hopefully short, and unlikely to be repeated once they get scaling under control. It's also the reason why I'm not donating today.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#639

Post by eecc »

tortasaur wrote: post #563
arendtio wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not so sure that we disagree. I would consider instant messaging services 'critical infrastructure'. The difference seems to be, that you want to support projects that are large already, while I would certainly put more focus on smaller projects as those are the ones which can initiate change. I find it heartbreaking, that we still depend on WhatsApp and Zoom. Neither service owner is particular trustworthy. Com…

In terms of software, Signal and Jitsi are great alternatives to WhatsApp and Zoom. People don't use them because of network effects, not because the incumbents are inherently superior.

Yeah,and they crumble to bits like Signal is doing right now, breaking the wave of mass adoption.

Cynical, profit driven and well funded operations have enough capital to weather these downpours, indeed they’re actually planning for them.

I hope Signal sorts their capacity quickly, I’m terrified that my circles switch back to WhatsApp. And then I’m fucked, I either surrender myself to Facebook or cut off from society

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#640

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

chopin24 wrote: post #265

For all of you saying we should switch to Matrix, please outline the user sign up flow in your comment. Be detailed. Your audience is your 50 something aunt who calls her iPad her Facebook.

This is the second opportunity Matrix has to win over users (the first one was when Signal decided to lock everyone out until they agree to their SGX-based cloud storage scheme), and I predict that they'll miss this one just like they missed their last one due to not being ready yet.
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