PS. With all the Discord stuff, in case you wonder why you never see me promoting Matrix, it’s not because it’s a usability nightmare (which it is) but because it’s made by the kind of people who’d be happy to call ICE a customer.

Misuse Case

@aral @precariousmind @element Hahaha. So next time I see someone putting down Signal and boosting Matrix, I can say “signal isn’t run by fascist bootlickers.”

mpsi

Imagine regaining effective, broadly inclusive democratic control where it was lost (or winning it where it was absent). Then the problem of slave-patrol mentality will be easy to solve. Otherwise, you will end up recreating the same thing under a new name. It's not the name that is the issue, it's the shape of the institution within societies that don't adhere to democratic standards.

Misuse Case

@mpsi @aral @element >> Your position implies that the police is an enemy and that states shouldn't have any kind of law enforcement called "police".

Where have you been, bruh?

mpsi

@MisuseCase @aral @element Do you know that there are many different countries on this planet and some of them function much better than the US?

David Gerard

@Tamtam @zzt @aral @element nobody wants to run a box (cos it sucks arse), everybody just wants to use a service

this leads directly to discord

and less directly to Matrix sponsored by ICE

David Gerard

@Tamtam @zzt @aral @element and you can't educate people to want to run a box actually, i run one cos i'm a control addict and it still fucking sucks to have to do

David Gerard

@mlen @zzt @aral @element if Signal had groups of group chats, that's Discord right there

[object Object]

@davidgerard @mlen @aral @element I fucking should

Marta Threadbare

@MisuseCase @aral @precariousmind @element b-but they tried to hid that almost all of their funding came from the fucking CIA for a decade...

maybenot

@kravietz @couscous @aral @element @ahltorp

the imho central point is, will the relationship with institutional customers shape the service and over time start to resemble the relationship that bigtech has. and that is a hard to quantify risk as a user.

Couscous

@kravietz
those alternatives make no sense, but I guess you already know it
TBH I don't know when you can start saying france is fascist (US is falling more blattantly, even though our gov follow them at every step)
what france is though is plain and simple : colonialist and white supremacist (or tries to be at least), and I can't see how taking their money isn't helping crushing humanitarian views, from domestic or international point of view (think palestine...)

@aral @element @ahltorp

:awesome:🐦‍🔥nemo™🐦‍⬛ 🇺🇦🍉

@aral

When I read your post I was like… this will generate a lot of discussions, yet still a good post Aral

Also one of the many reasons why I don't use it or promote it too…

&

https://anarc.at/blog/2022-06-17-matrix-notes/#metadata-handling

https://anarc.at/blog/2022-06-17-matrix-notes/#data-retention-defaults

https://telegra.ph/why-not-matrix-08-07

https://element.io/blog/bundesmessenger-is-a-milestone-in-germanys-ground-breaking-vision/

Cool kids use Signal/Molly & Delta Chat

Rysiek posted this during that Signal foo two days ago

https://signal-contingency-plan.info/

https://blog.feld.me/posts/2025/03/deltachat-is-actually-good-though/

Sincerely

Misuse Case

@cygnathreadbare @aral @precariousmind @element And somehow they are *still* better than Matrix

Misuse Case

@SuperDicq @aral @precariousmind @element Help, I’m getting mobbed by anime avatars

Tamtam

@davidgerard I'd be prepared to pay for it as a service.so that I don't have to run it myself, which I wouldn't know ho to anyways. I can't believe it's not possible to make it private, even with payments. Not that I 'd know anything about it, but just looking at all the solutions that people have found, like linux on apple silikon chips or countless others.

Stomata 🥼

@MisuseCase@twit.social @aral@mastodon.ar.al @element@mastodon.matrix.org @precariousmind@neopaquita.es well signal is not something I recommend. After all they use fascist hardware.

divVerent

@aral@mastodon.ar.al @element@mastodon.matrix.org Yeah... apart from this, Matrix is also a way overengineered protocol with not a single working implementation, and Element in particular is bloated as heck and frequently dies for running out of memory on an iPad Apple still supports.

I need an alternative, but sadly none exists, as I absolutely require multi device support and being able to talk to people without handing them my phone number. Maybe XMPP needs to have a revival - collect a good set of extensions, give that a new name and start over?

Carlos Solís · anarc.at/blog/2022-06-17-matri

I wonder, how do XMPP extensions deal with the technical issues mentioned here.

Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK · anarc.at/blog/2022-06-17-matri

@nemo @aral I've worked in UK public service and am currently employed in a highly regulated industry (health and social care).

Even if there isn't any covert backdoor to the FOSS version, communications services considered suitable for use by public services and corporates are *expected* to provide some way of monitoring comms and inspecting data for regulatory and compliance purposes (usually at server level), its extremely difficult to get contracts/funding for software without this.

So once they are chasing funding from these sources, there is now no commercial incentive to make a system secure to the point its safe for users such as activists etc, it just needs to be "good enough" for the govt/corporates...

FreediverX

@kravietz @aral @element
Fascists and fascist enablers should be judged by their actions, not by their race or gender.

You seem to approach this subject from the neoliberal perspective that is just thinly veiled colonialism and authoritarianism.