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I host my own matrix, but getting my friends and family to make the switch is proving difficult...

by d3nj4l 6y ago

3np 6y ago
I see it as a long-term project. For now it's mostly me and a few other nerdy friends, and otherwise it's mostly like a "new IRC". Maybe in a year or so it'll be mature to bring people over.
- d3nj4l 6y ago
  I don't know. It's not as easy to set up as Whatsapp, where you just need your phone number and everything else "just works", and doesn't have the added functionality of Discord, with custom emotes, voice and streaming and servers to effortlessly participate in multiple communities with their own separate channels. My family keeps messaging me on whatsapp because that's where all their friends are and they don't want to switch apps just to talk to me, and my friends are far more comfortable with our online hangout space being discord instead. Element is still rough as a client, and for my self-hosted homeserver I had to put in a couple hours to get video and voice calls working. Unless Matrix magically becomes 10x as polished within a couple years I don't see it becoming popular outside privacy enthusiasts.
  - 3np 6y ago
    So maybe it's two years. Or three. But I think we'll get there at some point. A beauty is that while they do have funding, everything's done in the open and it's not a VC-funded company that's gonna drop the ball once they get acquired by someone who ends up killing the product or taking it in the wrong direction. The more we try to use it, the faster that will happen. Meet someone new and if you're going to stay in touch, propose Matrix as your first preference and eventually settle on what both of you feel OK with. Every little bit helps spreading awareness and eventually adoption. I don't see why Discord would be the first of its kind to be that big eternally.
rv-de 6y ago
not just difficult. you're now that paranoid guy who wants to be special.
3np 6y ago
I think it can be beneficial to offer your server, but maybe for onboarding it's a good middleground to point to matrix.org

I host my own matrix, but getting my friends and family to make the switch is proving difficult...

by d3nj4l 6y ago

I host my own matrix, but getting my friends and family to make the switch is proving difficult...

3np 6y ago

I see it as a long-term project. For now it's mostly me and a few other nerdy friends, and otherwise it's mostly like a "new IRC". Maybe in a year or so it'll be mature to bring people over.

d3nj4l 6y ago
I don't know. It's not as easy to set up as Whatsapp, where you just need your phone number and everything else "just works", and doesn't have the added functionality of Discord, with custom emotes, voice and streaming and servers to effortlessly participate in multiple communities with their own separate channels. My family keeps messaging me on whatsapp because that's where all their friends are and they don't want to switch apps just to talk to me, and my friends are far more comfortable with our online hangout space being discord instead. Element is still rough as a client, and for my self-hosted homeserver I had to put in a couple hours to get video and voice calls working. Unless Matrix magically becomes 10x as polished within a couple years I don't see it becoming popular outside privacy enthusiasts.
- 3np 6y ago
  So maybe it's two years. Or three. But I think we'll get there at some point. A beauty is that while they do have funding, everything's done in the open and it's not a VC-funded company that's gonna drop the ball once they get acquired by someone who ends up killing the product or taking it in the wrong direction. The more we try to use it, the faster that will happen. Meet someone new and if you're going to stay in touch, propose Matrix as your first preference and eventually settle on what both of you feel OK with. Every little bit helps spreading awareness and eventually adoption. I don't see why Discord would be the first of its kind to be that big eternally.

rv-de 6y ago

not just difficult. you're now that paranoid guy who wants to be special.

3np 6y ago

I think it can be beneficial to offer your server, but maybe for onboarding it's a good middleground to point to matrix.org