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> this only makes people to move away from Telegram to, say, Discord or alternatives I simply do not understand why people are even thinking of moving to anoth

> this only makes people to move away from Telegram to, say, Discord or alternatives I simply do not understand why people are even thinking of moving to another closed platform like Discord. We already have an alternative and I think it's time to embrace it: Matrix

hLsvZHKd 5y ago
Matrix is good in theory but its UI is still confusing. I'm also bitter that my old account that was closed a long time ago cannot be retrieved or reset, which means that I cannot use my phone number again (it's stuck forever to the closed account).
- quaintdev 5y ago
  What are you talking about? You do not need phone number. I self host matrix instance and all I did was create username and passwords for people I know and shared with them. They then logged in and changed their passwords. At no point the sign up workflow asked for phone number. Also, the UI has improved a lot recently. There are number of matrix clients that have appeared on app stores but I still prefer Element which gets regular updates and features.
  - pferde 5y ago
    You don't even need to create usernames/passwords in advance - you can just send your friends custom one-time URLs, which will allow them to enter their own desired usernames and passwords. https://zeratax.github.io/matrix-registration/ https://zeratax.github.io/matrix-registration/
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- gefhfff 5y ago
  Matrix itself has as much as an UI as Email (even less)
- johnisgood 5y ago
  What phone number? I use Element, and I never had to enter my phone number at any point.
  - _flux 5y ago
    You can provide it for the benefit of your friends (or possibly enemies or attackers) to use it to find your Matrix ID from their pre-existing contact phone number.
    - johnisgood 5y ago
      I see. Seems like an useful feature for many people.
- _flux 5y ago
  I'm sure you can contact the admins of matrix.org and ask for the phone number to be released. (I'm assuming you used that instance, as you mentioned nothing else.) I believe they are reachable at support@matrix.org . Rather seems like a bug.
Eikon 5y ago
Because all Matrix clients are so terrible that they feel like beginners projects, even the official one is so slow and bloated that it's almost a bad joke. Comparing Matrix to polished apps like telegram or discord is... misplaced to say the least.
- unionpivo 5y ago
  Sure, apps with lots of paid developers have better gui, and flows than open source. I still prefer open source. Managed to convince a portion of friends as well.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  I have wanted to like matrix for so many years now but every time I use it, it's unbearably slow and things like gestures seem incredibly clunky compared to telegram.
- quaintdev 5y ago
  I least expected such a response here on HN. I can understand if this appeared on other communities but here we are. We all know how open source Software moves forward. It's us who can put up with little inconveniences of an open source app and maybe even improve it by identifying, reporting and implementing fixes. Those polished apps are polished because they have dedicated teams that get paid hefty $$$ to ensure they do not loose existing user base. In matrix case the user base is very little but I think they have achieved something remarkable: a thriving community that is developing client and server Software required for matrix to work. I wonder if we had this kind of attitude in starting days of Internet, we probably would not have Internet today. By the way, when did you last use any matrix client?
  - scrollaway 5y ago
    The parent comment isn't complaining about matrix, but rather telling the plain reality of WHY people use discord instead of matrix. By not acknowledging the importance of polish, you only push to keep the status quo ... and the status quo is that the masses are not using matrix.
charcircuit 5y ago
Matrix is terrible for hosting communities compared to Matrix. Matrix is only good if you are okay having a single group chat for everyone to put everything into. A single group chat does not scale, so it's better to use a platform like Discord.
- arm 5y ago
  Matrix recently added a feature called 'Spaces', which is analogous to a Discord 'server': https://element.io/blog/spaces-blast-out-of-beta/ https://element.io/blog/spaces-blast-out-of-beta/
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    Spaces is just a directory of text rooms. Users don't just join every single room and rooms are independent from each other instead of having a single roles system shared between the whole server. In this model having an announcements channel wouldn't work since there will be people who didn't join the channel. Similarly people might not want to join a rules channel.
    - kitkat_new 5y ago
      ATM people will see suggested rooms, auto joining is in the works. However, don't see a problem. Why does it matter if they join each channel? you don't need to read a channel in Discord as well despite you are auto joined
      - charcircuit 5y ago
        >Why does it matter if they join each channel? Higher friction to visit other channels means that it will mean less people will visit other channels. I've been in a Nix / NixOS room for a while and I had no clue I was in a space and that space had other rooms until you commented that it existed. I never had this issue with discord. It was obvious there were other channels the first time I used it.
xboxnolifes 5y ago
Matrix is hardly an alternative to the features of discord unless you only use it for having a few grouped text channels.

hLsvZHKd 5y ago

Matrix is good in theory but its UI is still confusing. I'm also bitter that my old account that was closed a long time ago cannot be retrieved or reset, which means that I cannot use my phone number again (it's stuck forever to the closed account).

quaintdev 5y ago
What are you talking about? You do not need phone number. I self host matrix instance and all I did was create username and passwords for people I know and shared with them. They then logged in and changed their passwords. At no point the sign up workflow asked for phone number. Also, the UI has improved a lot recently. There are number of matrix clients that have appeared on app stores but I still prefer Element which gets regular updates and features.
- pferde 5y ago
  You don't even need to create usernames/passwords in advance - you can just send your friends custom one-time URLs, which will allow them to enter their own desired usernames and passwords. https://zeratax.github.io/matrix-registration/ https://zeratax.github.io/matrix-registration/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
gefhfff 5y ago
Matrix itself has as much as an UI as Email (even less)
johnisgood 5y ago
What phone number? I use Element, and I never had to enter my phone number at any point.
- _flux 5y ago
  You can provide it for the benefit of your friends (or possibly enemies or attackers) to use it to find your Matrix ID from their pre-existing contact phone number.
  - johnisgood 5y ago
    I see. Seems like an useful feature for many people.
_flux 5y ago
I'm sure you can contact the admins of matrix.org and ask for the phone number to be released. (I'm assuming you used that instance, as you mentioned nothing else.) I believe they are reachable at support@matrix.org . Rather seems like a bug.

Eikon 5y ago

Because all Matrix clients are so terrible that they feel like beginners projects, even the official one is so slow and bloated that it's almost a bad joke. Comparing Matrix to polished apps like telegram or discord is... misplaced to say the least.

unionpivo 5y ago
Sure, apps with lots of paid developers have better gui, and flows than open source. I still prefer open source. Managed to convince a portion of friends as well.
Gigachad 5y ago
I have wanted to like matrix for so many years now but every time I use it, it's unbearably slow and things like gestures seem incredibly clunky compared to telegram.
quaintdev 5y ago
I least expected such a response here on HN. I can understand if this appeared on other communities but here we are. We all know how open source Software moves forward. It's us who can put up with little inconveniences of an open source app and maybe even improve it by identifying, reporting and implementing fixes. Those polished apps are polished because they have dedicated teams that get paid hefty $$$ to ensure they do not loose existing user base. In matrix case the user base is very little but I think they have achieved something remarkable: a thriving community that is developing client and server Software required for matrix to work. I wonder if we had this kind of attitude in starting days of Internet, we probably would not have Internet today. By the way, when did you last use any matrix client?
- scrollaway 5y ago
  The parent comment isn't complaining about matrix, but rather telling the plain reality of WHY people use discord instead of matrix. By not acknowledging the importance of polish, you only push to keep the status quo ... and the status quo is that the masses are not using matrix.

charcircuit 5y ago

Matrix is terrible for hosting communities compared to Matrix. Matrix is only good if you are okay having a single group chat for everyone to put everything into. A single group chat does not scale, so it's better to use a platform like Discord.

arm 5y ago
Matrix recently added a feature called 'Spaces', which is analogous to a Discord 'server': https://element.io/blog/spaces-blast-out-of-beta/ https://element.io/blog/spaces-blast-out-of-beta/
- charcircuit 5y ago
  Spaces is just a directory of text rooms. Users don't just join every single room and rooms are independent from each other instead of having a single roles system shared between the whole server. In this model having an announcements channel wouldn't work since there will be people who didn't join the channel. Similarly people might not want to join a rules channel.
  - kitkat_new 5y ago
    ATM people will see suggested rooms, auto joining is in the works. However, don't see a problem. Why does it matter if they join each channel? you don't need to read a channel in Discord as well despite you are auto joined
    - charcircuit 5y ago
      >Why does it matter if they join each channel? Higher friction to visit other channels means that it will mean less people will visit other channels. I've been in a Nix / NixOS room for a while and I had no clue I was in a space and that space had other rooms until you commented that it existed. I never had this issue with discord. It was obvious there were other channels the first time I used it.

xboxnolifes 5y ago

Matrix is hardly an alternative to the features of discord unless you only use it for having a few grouped text channels.