Thoughts on Matrix Protocol and other chatroom alternatives?

[robotickyuu]

Hi, for a very long time I'm slowly starting to get sick of Discord. I'm no stranger to this bitter sentiment, and I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling the same way about Discord (especially after seeing the Discord discussion board on Melonland forum).

So basically, I don't have much friends IRL and the ones I have aren't always available due to their schedule, and it makes me feel extremely lonely. I used to be active in Discord pretty often, to chat with others and relieve my loneliness, but lately I started to have much more difficulty in doing this on Discord, it just... doesn't feels the same anymore. It may be because I am mostly in topic-related servers that aren't really intended for general chatting, but then it is also hard to find a good chat server that isn't generic and/or dead, and some of the chat servers can be super toxic too! Which is something I have a very strong aversion for.

My main question is; recently, I heard about a thing called Matrix Protocol which is something like a chatroom I guess, but I never used it, for not knowing any other chatroom space outside of Discord. If you have any experience on Matrix Protocol, would you recommend it? If so, how can I join there? And are there any other chatroom alternatives outside of Matrix?

[vance]

Yeah, Matrix seems pretty nice, though I've only used it a little bit. Very solid Discord replacement, very similar technologically speaking.

However, I can't say if there's going to be any difference between the communities on Matrix compared to Discord. And the community is what actually matters, not the technology.

Honestly, it would be really cool if someone made a Matrix server centered on the web revival community. Heck, I would take a crack at making one myself if it weren't for the fact that unlike Discord, you need to own/rent an actual server for Matrix.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I've used Matrix, mainly on an private instance with some friends, but also on the public Matrix.net server.
To start, just register at https://schildi.chat/ (or with any other client) on the said Matrix.net instance - there are many rooms available that you can check out. Other chatroom alternatives would be - among many others - IRC and Mumble.

[robotickyuu]

I've used Matrix, mainly on an private instance with some friends, but also on the public Matrix.net server.
To start, just register at https://schildi.chat/ (or with any other client) on the said Matrix.net instance - there are many rooms available that you can check out. Other chatroom alternatives would be - among many others - IRC and Mumble.

THANKS A LOT!!!!! So far, I really liked the place and the user experience, I will try to download the desktop version of it sometime (I am using the web version rn). Though, I am kinda confused on where I can find chatrooms suited for my own interests, or just chatrooms in general... Do you know where can I find them 

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Though, I am kinda confused on where I can find chatrooms suited for my own interests, or just chatrooms in general... Do you know where can I find them 

You can use the search bar in the top left corner to search for rooms using keywords. I've entered a few public rooms 'bout video games, but I've never been much active.

[nobo]

I haven't tried it since 2017 or so, and the impression that I got was that it's almost impossible to get anyone to be active in a public space. You'll get left on read every day until you just give up.

What does work is if you're involved in a community already, like you're working on an open source project and matrix is the official way to get involved, or something like that.

You should definitely try it if you're curious but yeah... finding a space is not always straight forward and sometimes you're limited to specific open source related subject matters.

[Cobra!]

A club I frequent uses Matrix regularly for members to chat.
I also try to keep Matrix chats I have bridged to Discord servers I run so people won’t need Discord to keep chatting in my spaces, giving them a privilege I can’t have.

Apart from the speed, I think Matrix is great! It’s a shame many chatrooms I was active in are now abandoned and infested by scam bots…

However, I can't say if there's going to be any difference between the communities on Matrix compared to Discord. And the community is what actually matters, not the technology.

Counter argument: Discord is ran by a company who has been sued for data privacy violations in the past, and Discord itself is almost as bad as the main social medias when it comes to personal data collection. I don’t think it’s currently doing anything with that data, but the fact it’s even gathering it is concerning.

I would much rather be in a community on something decentralised like Matrix rather than a centralised for-profit platform like Discord.

[DiffydaDude]

Counter argument: Discord is ran by a company who has been sued for data privacy violations in the past, and Discord itself is almost as bad as the main social medias when it comes to personal data collection. I don’t think it’s currently doing anything with that data, but the fact it’s even gathering it is concerning.

I would much rather be in a community on something decentralised like Matrix rather than a centralised for-profit platform like Discord.

I have another anecdote. I saw something where a guy posted a link and discord thought it was a virus because apparently everything not in the walled garden is a virus. so it replaced the message with "instead of cooking up trouble, try cooking up this barbeque roast!" or something like that, and then a link to a food network page on how to make said food. Super weird. Ive never seen anything like that before.

I wonder how we can actually make people start using matrix, xmpp, irc again. It'd be kinda hard, but it could be possible in the near future

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I wonder how we can actually make people start using matrix, xmpp, irc again. It'd be kinda hard, but it could be possible in the near future

These were never such a mass movement, you know? Back in my youth, it were mostly nerdy people who used IRC, BurningBoards, or TeamSpeak; the vast majority was on ICQ, MSN, or - locally - on a platform named "Kwick".
And while usability was a part of the reason for this, another part was just plain old marketing - and projects that can afford this will have to generate some sort of revenue - and the most efficient (and thus basically only feasible way) to get money is to show ads and sell data. Until we manage to overthrow capitalism, I think the best thing we can do is to strife for a good public education, and to impart media competence.

[vance]

Well, now with the news that Discord is in talks about "going public" or whatever (I don't really understand all the financial lingo at all lol), seems like people are starting to get restless about looking for alternatives... I guess we'll see if this ends up finally driving enough people over to Matrix for it to become practical.