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This may be helpful to other people, as I myself was a bit confused in the beginning. Vector.im is a client to the protocol called "matrix.org". This is equiv

This may be helpful to other people, as I myself was a bit confused in the beginning. Vector.im is a client to the protocol called "matrix.org". This is equivalent to using XChat(client) on the IRC protocol. In this case, matrix.org also runs their own servers (but you can host your own), so it is like IRC protocol (matrix protocol) + Freenode (matrix server).

amandine 10y ago
good summary :)
unicornporn 10y ago
One big difference though is that the users on one server could communicate with users on another server. In the world of IRC that would mean that users from Freenode and EFnet could communicate with each other in the same channel. Pretty awesome.
- anewhnaccount 10y ago
  IRC has federation.
  - amandine 10y ago
    So does Matrix :)
    - Bromskloss 10y ago
      That's what unicornporn implied.
  - Arathorn 10y ago
    IRC's federation is closed - you can't just spin up a new server and join Freenode unless you work for them. Matrix's federation is open (like email, or XMPP) - anyone can spin up a server and own their own conversations :)
- BHSPitMonkey 10y ago
  But wouldn't clients have to decide which federated servers it wanted to participate in? E.g., if I join #python on Freenode... - Do I necessarily want my chat to be intermingled with #python on EFNnet, OFTC, etc.? - How would you prevent new users from auto-subscribing to a spam server? Do you just ban the spammy server? Would every server operator need to manage such a ban individually?
  - Arathorn 10y ago
    Bridged rooms are namespaced by whoever runs the bridge - e.g. #freenode_#python:matrix.org is the alias for the bridge to #python on Freenode that's run by matrix.org. Similarly #efnet_#python:matrix.org would be the alias for the EFnet room, if we ran an #efnet bridge. It's possible for a malicious user to try to bridge unrelated rooms together, but this is an abuse problem no different to someone floodjoining or otherwise trying to harm a room. Handling spam and abuse in general is a huge issue for Matrix which we're putting massive focus on at the moment (in fact, it's why we're in SF at the Decentralized Web Summit currently). The whole decentralized web movement has a crisis on the horizon if there isn't a decentralized identity/reputation/abuse system of some kind to track miscreants and help admins and users mitigate spam. Edit: in other words, right now a server admin would have to manually blacklist bad servers. In future there'd be a decentralised data structure of some kind (stellar ledger, blockchain, matrix DAG, IPFS DAG or whatever) tracking the greylist of servers/users/gateways to help decide who you want to talk to.
- phire 10y ago
  But that's how IRC was originally designed, and it didn't work out in the long term. There was only one network and any server could join it. But you could set up malicious servers can cause havoc on the network. Eventually all the Hubs but one closed their doors so only authenticated servers could be added. The remaining holdout was eris.berkeley.edu And so the network split into the Eris-Free network (or EFnet) with the remaining servers connected to eris forming the Anarchy network (or Anet). Anet died out reasonably quickly. There have been a few more splits over the years, until you reach the current situation, with around 6 major networks and hundreds of smaller networks.

amandine 10y ago

good summary :)

unicornporn 10y ago

One big difference though is that the users on one server could communicate with users on another server. In the world of IRC that would mean that users from Freenode and EFnet could communicate with each other in the same channel. Pretty awesome.

anewhnaccount 10y ago
IRC has federation.
- amandine 10y ago
  So does Matrix :)
  - Bromskloss 10y ago
    That's what unicornporn implied.
- Arathorn 10y ago
  IRC's federation is closed - you can't just spin up a new server and join Freenode unless you work for them. Matrix's federation is open (like email, or XMPP) - anyone can spin up a server and own their own conversations :)
BHSPitMonkey 10y ago
But wouldn't clients have to decide which federated servers it wanted to participate in? E.g., if I join #python on Freenode... - Do I necessarily want my chat to be intermingled with #python on EFNnet, OFTC, etc.? - How would you prevent new users from auto-subscribing to a spam server? Do you just ban the spammy server? Would every server operator need to manage such a ban individually?
- Arathorn 10y ago
  Bridged rooms are namespaced by whoever runs the bridge - e.g. #freenode_#python:matrix.org is the alias for the bridge to #python on Freenode that's run by matrix.org. Similarly #efnet_#python:matrix.org would be the alias for the EFnet room, if we ran an #efnet bridge. It's possible for a malicious user to try to bridge unrelated rooms together, but this is an abuse problem no different to someone floodjoining or otherwise trying to harm a room. Handling spam and abuse in general is a huge issue for Matrix which we're putting massive focus on at the moment (in fact, it's why we're in SF at the Decentralized Web Summit currently). The whole decentralized web movement has a crisis on the horizon if there isn't a decentralized identity/reputation/abuse system of some kind to track miscreants and help admins and users mitigate spam. Edit: in other words, right now a server admin would have to manually blacklist bad servers. In future there'd be a decentralised data structure of some kind (stellar ledger, blockchain, matrix DAG, IPFS DAG or whatever) tracking the greylist of servers/users/gateways to help decide who you want to talk to.
phire 10y ago
But that's how IRC was originally designed, and it didn't work out in the long term. There was only one network and any server could join it. But you could set up malicious servers can cause havoc on the network. Eventually all the Hubs but one closed their doors so only authenticated servers could be added. The remaining holdout was eris.berkeley.edu And so the network split into the Eris-Free network (or EFnet) with the remaining servers connected to eris forming the Anarchy network (or Anet). Anet died out reasonably quickly. There have been a few more splits over the years, until you reach the current situation, with around 6 major networks and hundreds of smaller networks.