why are there two irc briges?
To two different IRC servers. There used to be a third, but Libera asked them to shut it down.
Ah I tough the bridge can send to all irc servers.
Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
91–100 of 163 posts
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#92Another way of saying this is, "Riot.im/Element.io corporation has taken over the reference protocol development from the matrix foundation (now defunct in that aspect, *1) . Now that matrix is controlled by Element.io corporation the remaining Matrix foundation does not have the resources to continue bridges. And Element.io decided that early bridges to bootstrap/steal users from other messenging networks are no lon…
This couldn't be further from the truth. The Matrix.org Foundation is expanding open governance, with a Governing Board that has representatives from all across the ecosystem: https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/election-results/
And the protocol remains under the auspices of the Foundation, maintained by the volunteer Spec Core Team.
Element may be where Matrix was incubated, but it spun up the Foundation as a nonprofit and assigned the copyrights and governance of the protocol to that nonprofit. People can fearmonger all they want, but to Element's credit they've done a whole helluva lot more to preserve the integrity of open source – unlike Elastic, Redis, MongoDB, and dozens of other companies.
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems that neither user interest nor commercial interests are enough to keep protocol development going. It’s kind of sad.
I've found Matrix (clients, I guess) really hard to use... but I'm in IRC channels where lots of people are using Matrix. What are people using?
Might be worth revisiting, we've seen great improvement in the last year :) I use Element X as my mobile daily driver, and use Element Web on my laptops. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions!
(meta: I need to create a new account here... but engaging here with this one since it'd be suspicious to have a new account with zero karma weighing in.)
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
XMPP isn't dead, but think what you like. More and more people have been adopting it. "experimental, broken", that's not really how I describe software that's been in use since 2004 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajim / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin_(software) ), 2014 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversations_(software) ) etc. If you want to describe something as experimental or broken just take a look a…
As I said - every single of my chat-app-militant contacts has migrated from XMPP (which they pushed early and aggressively) to Matrix, which includes groups like hacker spaces etc. (at least the ones that didn't just give up and migrate to closed solutions). I literally have no single person to talk to on XMPP. The software names you mention all trigger flashbacks of horrible experiences, with my last experience even…
OMEMO is the only E2EE standard to use now (I mean, barring occasional outliers, but OMEMO is the norm). That's cool, I'm talking to people on XMPP every day with people who have zero intention of moving unless something better (by their definition) comes along. XMPP seems to be gaining popularity as one of the last possible options for a genuinely decentralized encrypted chat protocol that isn't beholden to a singular closed org/corp. I just personally onboarded like five people and they're all like "this is awesome" and.... wait, did you just say "at least I can run this in a browser tab where it can't pwn my system"? Please search "browser exploit rce" on your favorite search engine. Here's one from two weeks ago: https://windowsforum.com/threads/cve-2025-21279-remote-code-...
I used to have a couple 1:1 Matrix chats with friends where I was trying to bridge the whole "different OS" issue for E2EE chat. Neither of them use Matrix anymore, and we were all having issues with Signal (my account is still b0rked). It was just too much hassle. So I mean, the anecdotes go both ways here.
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
See my other reply, watch the linked video it's not as black and white as you make it sound like and public non-encrypted rooms hosting tons of CSAM being replicated to any matrix server where any user joined them is a problem.
> public non-encrypted rooms hosting tons of CSAM That's the opposite of a problem, isn't it? Have cops request the IPs and arrest those sharing the material - you've just caught a lot of criminals for almost zero effort. Unless the "problem" isn't catching criminals, and you don't really care about CSAM, just maintaining matrix's reputation from mercenary journalists willing to conflate a protocol with its users for…
You could watch the video to actually understand the issue instead of making wild assumptions about me.
Until very recently and still to a degree today, you couldn't host a matrix server that has public registration without someone registering, joining a CSAM room and having all that material replicate to your server.
This would be LESS of a problem if the content was actually encrypted and you as an Admin couldn't access it. But sure, it's not an issue just some bad journalism that's why Matrix just recently actually addressed it (thanks Arathorn for replying): https://matrix.org/blog/2025/02/building-a-safer-matrix/
But if you don't think it's a problem, i'm sure you are willing to link to your publicly open server and let people register, i'll write an e-mail to your local law enforcement to let them know you are knowingly hosting childporn on your server, i'm sure the courts will agree with your opionion
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
making progress actually: https://matrix.org/blog/2025/02/building-a-safer-matrix/
I'm happy to see that! To be fair > 14.02.2025 That's pretty recently
Yeah the post is new but we've been steadily ramping up investment in Trust & Safety the whole time I've been leading the Foundation :) Having added a couple moderators to the team late last year, our T&S team now has a little breathing room to do more proactive, strategic work to improve the situation. Previously, they were almost constantly on their back foot trying to keep up incident management.
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Concur. Element is embarrassingly buggy.
the old Element apps were; have you tried Element X?
Yes ... my matrix.org account is still many times slower than my other chat apps and there's spam everywhere. It's not a great experience. I'm really hoping to see Matrix go big but it feels like there's still a long way to go.
That said, ElementX's video and audio calls work really well. If you added the ability to ring people's phones, so I don't have to first negotiate people into the chat using text messages or a phone call, I could see using it instead of FaceTime.
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#98I have had only bad experience with its federation and chat clients over many years, I don't think it can improve, if it could, they probably would have fixed it a long time ago. Maybe not a popular opinion, but they should let the Matrix die altogether so something better can replace it.
Matrix works fine for many people. If there's something similar but better, it's free to compete.
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#99I do hope they get what they need. If nothing else, I think they've chosen a solid and well-founded strategy to manage the situation - the focus areas they mentioned are more important than bridging. Maintaining bridges has always struck me as something hugely resource intensive. I applaud their stewardship. My story with moving to Matrix is similar to many others. I was enthusiastic about it, managed to persuade my…
Thank you! I am optimistic that we'll pull through.
And yes, I think you're right to be a bit worried about how frequently we need to ask people if they've tried Matrix recently. First impressions matter a lot, and a lot of early adopters had bad first impressions. At some point we need a more concerted communication and outreach strategy to address that issue.
Re: Matrix Foundation to shut down bridges if it doesn't raise $100K
#100> Without advocacy, conferences, documentation and tutorials, Matrix would become a niche protocol used by a few enthusiasts for side projects, whilst big proprietary and siloed networks continue to hold the world’s communications. Advocacy and conferences aren't going to move the needle on mainstream adoption; those methods almost by definition are targeting the enthusiast crowd. In my view, the only factor that mat…
I mean, I've tried to use Matrix many times overy many years. I do care about more than JUST the UX but it has been SO consistently bad that I just can't. Something has gotta change, preferably before Discord completely implodes.
the thing that changed is that Element rewrote the mobile apps and made them not suck. Web will follow shortly: https://element.io/blog/we-have-lift-off-element-x-call-and-... etc