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Could you please recommend a guide for how to set up something like a Slack/Discord replacement with Matrix? Do I understand correctly that this will be self-ho

Could you please recommend a guide for how to set up something like a Slack/Discord replacement with Matrix? Do I understand correctly that this will be self-hosted? I find it very difficult to get good solid information on actually using Matrix in the ways I use Discord.

maelito 2y ago
No, just create a space on the web version of element.io. Unless your data should be on your server, in this case yes you have to launch your own instance. Once you're logged in, there is a "+" sign on the left. Create a public or private space and then add channels to it.
- 1oooqooq 2y ago
  I'm with you. but matrix is failing adoption for the same-ish reason as PGP. You create an account from scratch, means using two (three) centralized services. matrix.org. vertex.org. (and the third is possible your email provider which would be either gmail.com or icloud.com) Then you get a password, recovery keys, recovery passphrase, session keys. And have to know what to do with them all. Not sure how it improved on v2, but recently i had friends doing literal PhD on cryptography code having to create a new account because they forgot to save one of those keys when replacing phones.
  - Arathorn 2y ago
    The reality is that worst case, it should feel like a laptop (username, password (unless using SSO) + recovery key) or a cryptocurrency wallet. With the v2 crypto, you typically don't have to remember anything - you just scan a QR code to log in. If you've logged out all of your devices then yes, you need username + password (unless using SSO), and then if you want to recover your encrypted history you need the recovery key. It's true that the UX historically was awful, but on Element X i believe we've got it right (and Element Web/Desktop will shortly follow).
jeroenhd 2y ago
Self-hosting is possible but optional. You can create rooms/spaces on matrix.org or any other matrix server of your choice. If you want control over your data, you may want to self-host, but if you consider Slack or Discord to be acceptable for your use cases, you can probably use a standard Matrix server without any issues. You can create a "space" that's pretty close to a Discord server. Spaces include rooms ("channels") or even other spaces. This means you could set up a "Friends of pixelpoet" space with a bunch of channels like on Discord, but also a "pixelpoet Corp" server with in it spaces for "General", "Project Jabberwocky", "HR", and "Janitorial staff", each with their own rooms and ACLs inside of it. How I would approach your setup: I would create a new space, then create a few rooms in that space (your #general, #games, #offtopic, etc). I'd also maybe add a "video room", which works a bit like Discord's audio/video channels, though not many clients support those yet (I think they're in beta?). Then, go to the "space home" (as Element calls it), and make sure to check every channel, and set the "mark as recommended" flag, so that people joining the space will be guided to join all of the channels as well. It's possible to join a space but not join all channels, which can be useful for some but is probably pretty awkward for most. People that don't join all channels still can join after the fact, but you probably want everyone in every room by default. For larger servers, you want need to configure ACLs before letting people in. Do note that unlike on Discord, settings change for a Space do not apply to rooms that are included in it automatically; you may need to manually alter ACLs for every room or find a bot to do it for you. If it's just a space friends or coworkers, you hopefully don't need to bother, though. Then, to get other people into your "server", invite them to the space, or share a generated link. Just right click the space and pick "invite". If you like the Discord UX, you might want to try Cinny, a Matrix web client that's pretty much a Discord clone in terms of design. It doesn't support everything Element supports, but it's good enough that I'd be willing to recommend it to others if they're not the ones setting up the server. For data safety, you can leverage Matrix's encryption feature to end-to-end-encrypt everything even if you're storing your space on another server. This can have some annoying side effects (like people losing access to their old messages when they forget their recovery password, because, well, they're encrypted) and using the feature securely requires a) verifying other people and b) verifying every device you log into with another device or by entering a backup key. This is harder than in other messengers but it's also a more secure design. Could be useful if you don't entirely trust Matrix.org, could also be useful for setting up channels for sharing sensitive documents, but it's probably best for general usability to disable encryption at first. I enable encryption everywhere, but I don't think encryption/decryption is trouble-free enough that I'd be able to convince my friends to fully enable it in chat rooms as well.

maelito 2y ago

No, just create a space on the web version of element.io. Unless your data should be on your server, in this case yes you have to launch your own instance. Once you're logged in, there is a "+" sign on the left. Create a public or private space and then add channels to it.

1oooqooq 2y ago
I'm with you. but matrix is failing adoption for the same-ish reason as PGP. You create an account from scratch, means using two (three) centralized services. matrix.org. vertex.org. (and the third is possible your email provider which would be either gmail.com or icloud.com) Then you get a password, recovery keys, recovery passphrase, session keys. And have to know what to do with them all. Not sure how it improved on v2, but recently i had friends doing literal PhD on cryptography code having to create a new account because they forgot to save one of those keys when replacing phones.
- Arathorn 2y ago
  The reality is that worst case, it should feel like a laptop (username, password (unless using SSO) + recovery key) or a cryptocurrency wallet. With the v2 crypto, you typically don't have to remember anything - you just scan a QR code to log in. If you've logged out all of your devices then yes, you need username + password (unless using SSO), and then if you want to recover your encrypted history you need the recovery key. It's true that the UX historically was awful, but on Element X i believe we've got it right (and Element Web/Desktop will shortly follow).

jeroenhd 2y ago

Self-hosting is possible but optional. You can create rooms/spaces on matrix.org or any other matrix server of your choice. If you want control over your data, you may want to self-host, but if you consider Slack or Discord to be acceptable for your use cases, you can probably use a standard Matrix server without any issues. You can create a "space" that's pretty close to a Discord server. Spaces include rooms ("channels") or even other spaces. This means you could set up a "Friends of pixelpoet" space with a bunch of channels like on Discord, but also a "pixelpoet Corp" server with in it spaces for "General", "Project Jabberwocky", "HR", and "Janitorial staff", each with their own rooms and ACLs inside of it. How I would approach your setup: I would create a new space, then create a few rooms in that space (your #general, #games, #offtopic, etc). I'd also maybe add a "video room", which works a bit like Discord's audio/video channels, though not many clients support those yet (I think they're in beta?). Then, go to the "space home" (as Element calls it), and make sure to check every channel, and set the "mark as recommended" flag, so that people joining the space will be guided to join all of the channels as well. It's possible to join a space but not join all channels, which can be useful for some but is probably pretty awkward for most. People that don't join all channels still can join after the fact, but you probably want everyone in every room by default. For larger servers, you want need to configure ACLs before letting people in. Do note that unlike on Discord, settings change for a Space do not apply to rooms that are included in it automatically; you may need to manually alter ACLs for every room or find a bot to do it for you. If it's just a space friends or coworkers, you hopefully don't need to bother, though. Then, to get other people into your "server", invite them to the space, or share a generated link. Just right click the space and pick "invite". If you like the Discord UX, you might want to try Cinny, a Matrix web client that's pretty much a Discord clone in terms of design. It doesn't support everything Element supports, but it's good enough that I'd be willing to recommend it to others if they're not the ones setting up the server. For data safety, you can leverage Matrix's encryption feature to end-to-end-encrypt everything even if you're storing your space on another server. This can have some annoying side effects (like people losing access to their old messages when they forget their recovery password, because, well, they're encrypted) and using the feature securely requires a) verifying other people and b) verifying every device you log into with another device or by entering a backup key. This is harder than in other messengers but it's also a more secure design. Could be useful if you don't entirely trust Matrix.org, could also be useful for setting up channels for sharing sensitive documents, but it's probably best for general usability to disable encryption at first. I enable encryption everywhere, but I don't think encryption/decryption is trouble-free enough that I'd be able to convince my friends to fully enable it in chat rooms as well.