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> being extremely hesitant about Matrix and Discord Matrix is an open source protocol run by a community interest company, Discord is proprietary software whi

> being extremely hesitant about Matrix and Discord Matrix is an open source protocol run by a community interest company, Discord is proprietary software which needs to be monetised. There's a big difference between the two. I agree Id be happy with IRC and dont care much for extra features. But I think the Freenode "hostile takeover" of 2021 dealt a heavy blow to the IRC community. At the same time Matrix has seen a lot of growth including Firefox who had a rigorous and public selection process.

frumiousirc 4y ago
> But I think the Freenode "hostile takeover" of 2021 dealt a heavy blow to the IRC community. Perhaps. It was a painful experience for many but I think what came from the ashes (libera.chat) is a yet better FOSS-centric IRC network and now it is on much more solid footing than what Lee burned to the ground. This resurgence was due to the hard work of very dedicated opers and the users all wanting to keep the good parts of freenode and fix the bad. I just checked netsplit.de and libera.chat has around 45k current users. Less than freenode showed before the coup but also I think clear that this number is less inflated by zombie bouncer connections than it naturally was for any long running network. Point being that all the "real" users moved and largely picked up where they left off. In any case, my feeling about the Gnome IRC vs matrix thing is that the game is not zero sum. From my single IRC client (weechat) I connect to multiple IRC networks and a few matrix channels. In some cases I'm in several channels of the same topic across these connections. And, that doesn't really degrade the experience. I don't use Gnome any more so have no skin in this particular game, but I think "officially" moving to matrix (specifically) would not be damaging to the community (the same is not true for the proprietary options). Any Gnome IRC channels continue (assuming Gnome doesn't get pushy on that front!) and Gnome matrix will become yet another way for people to connect. If you see me on IRC, say "hi".
Svip 4y ago
> Matrix is an open source protocol run by a community interest company, Discord is proprietary software which needs to be monetised. There's a big difference between the two. When I lumped Matrix and Discord together, I was thinking of them as "modern instant messaging systems" (not sure whether this is generation 3 or 4). You are correct, there is a huge difference between the two, and given the choice, I would always chose Matrix over Discord. On a user level, my resilience towards Matrix and Discord is generally motivated by the same reasons (powerful protocols compared to IRC), but thinking beyond merely that, Discord's proprietary nature makes it a non-starter for me.
jimmygrapes 4y ago
I always find the term "community" to be a bit of a stretch here. I don't think I've ever seen anybody say "the telephone community" or "the e-mail community" (not to mention the socio-racial variations).
- kadoban 4y ago
  New tech tends to be adopted by something that could quite reasonably be called a community at first. As it's adopted by more and more people it becomes less so. So when email was new, talking about the email community probably would have made some sense, and I'd assume similar for telephones way back when.
usrn 4y ago
It's financed by the same company that does telephone surveillance in the US and last time I checked self hosting was a major pain compared to running, say, a minimal python IRC server.

frumiousirc 4y ago

> But I think the Freenode "hostile takeover" of 2021 dealt a heavy blow to the IRC community. Perhaps. It was a painful experience for many but I think what came from the ashes (libera.chat) is a yet better FOSS-centric IRC network and now it is on much more solid footing than what Lee burned to the ground. This resurgence was due to the hard work of very dedicated opers and the users all wanting to keep the good parts of freenode and fix the bad. I just checked netsplit.de and libera.chat has around 45k current users. Less than freenode showed before the coup but also I think clear that this number is less inflated by zombie bouncer connections than it naturally was for any long running network. Point being that all the "real" users moved and largely picked up where they left off. In any case, my feeling about the Gnome IRC vs matrix thing is that the game is not zero sum. From my single IRC client (weechat) I connect to multiple IRC networks and a few matrix channels. In some cases I'm in several channels of the same topic across these connections. And, that doesn't really degrade the experience. I don't use Gnome any more so have no skin in this particular game, but I think "officially" moving to matrix (specifically) would not be damaging to the community (the same is not true for the proprietary options). Any Gnome IRC channels continue (assuming Gnome doesn't get pushy on that front!) and Gnome matrix will become yet another way for people to connect. If you see me on IRC, say "hi".

Svip 4y ago

> Matrix is an open source protocol run by a community interest company, Discord is proprietary software which needs to be monetised. There's a big difference between the two. When I lumped Matrix and Discord together, I was thinking of them as "modern instant messaging systems" (not sure whether this is generation 3 or 4). You are correct, there is a huge difference between the two, and given the choice, I would always chose Matrix over Discord. On a user level, my resilience towards Matrix and Discord is generally motivated by the same reasons (powerful protocols compared to IRC), but thinking beyond merely that, Discord's proprietary nature makes it a non-starter for me.

jimmygrapes 4y ago

I always find the term "community" to be a bit of a stretch here. I don't think I've ever seen anybody say "the telephone community" or "the e-mail community" (not to mention the socio-racial variations).

kadoban 4y ago
New tech tends to be adopted by something that could quite reasonably be called a community at first. As it's adopted by more and more people it becomes less so. So when email was new, talking about the email community probably would have made some sense, and I'd assume similar for telephones way back when.

usrn 4y ago

It's financed by the same company that does telephone surveillance in the US and last time I checked self hosting was a major pain compared to running, say, a minimal python IRC server.