Mumble is fantastic for voice chat. Its text features are very basic, though, so people fleeing Discord would probably want something additional to handle that. Maybe Matrix.
A single location is a good selling point. Being able to jump into a voice chat, and still post things in a shared text chat is a good feature. Mumble should work a bit on that.
Since I don't know stream audio programming, C++ or gUI programming but am well versed on the shortcomings of mumble vs discord, perhaps I can bust out the llm.
> Are you really a hobbyist if you aren't desoldering and reclaiming parts?
Fun memory from who-knows-how-many years ago:
While installing a Playstation mod chip, I accidentally dislodged a nearby surface mount resistor, pulling off one of its metal contacts in the process. (Is that what happens when you overheat them?) I didn't think that was fixable, and since it was Sunday, the local electronics shop was closed. I ended up disassembling an old junk digital camera that hadn't yet been taken to the e-waste recycling drop, and finding inside it a resistor that seemed close enough to maybe work. The transplant was a success, and the Playstation ran great thereafter. Very satisfying.
I recently got rid of a lot of components that I have salvaged and hoarded over the years. If I need a doodad for something I'll just buy it. I'm done storing all this junk I will never use
First-class integration with two of the world's largest social networks put XMPP in practically everyone's hands for a time, but when all the major hosts left, network discoverability and typical account longevity dropped drastically. The landscape is bleak today.
And since then, our collective needs and expectations of a chat platform have expanded. XEPs have been developed to bolt much of that functionality onto the base protocol, but that has led to a fragmentation problem on top of the bleak server landscape.
This unfortunate situation might be navigable by a typical HN user, and perhaps we could guide a few friends and family members and promise to keep a server running for them, but I think the chances of most people succeeding with it are pretty slim today.
Facebook never had "first-class integration". It was just a client bridge - you could login into Facebook Chat using your XMPP client, but it was a completely separate network, unlike Google Talk which was an actual federating XMPP server.
(And my point regarding support on Google/Facebook was that their users could chat with me over XMPP without having to leave their familiar sites, sign up for anything new, or do anything else special. That put it in easy reach of the masses.)
The same could be said about various XMPP transports that I've used back in the day with Google Talk to access all sorts of IM networks. Facebook was just running one on their servers rather than you running it on yours.
Ultimately they just briefly used XMPP to not have to implement their own desktop client for their closed proprietary network. It had nothing to do with network reach, unlike Google Talk which did actually bring XMPP to the masses for a while (and then took it away).
I haven't used Signal desktop, but I find Electron apps in general to be very wasteful of system resources. Out of curiosity, I once compared an Electron-based chat app to a C++ alternative, and found that the former used about 25 times the RAM and generated more CPU load.
If GP's system resources are usually dedicated to other tasks, perhaps trying to run an Electron app on top of those led to resource contention, and poor performance. You wouldn't notice this if your hardware is overprovisioned for the things you do with it.
(Tangential to your comment but apropos of the Discord news...)
Have any of the Matrix/Element teams seriously considered taking advantage of current events by offering a gamer-focused class of premium account, for Discord refugees who want to redirect their Nitro budgets to fund Matrix gaming features? (Perhaps on a separate homeserver, to avoid the lag during times when matrix.org is overloaded.)
If it were positioned as Patreon-style crowdfunding rather than selling a finished product, and expectations were set appropriately, I wonder if it could end up a nontrivial source of income with which to develop features that Matrix deserves but corporate/government customers won't pay for.
The idea of crowdfunding Discordish features for Matrix from disaffected Discorders (e.g. using the premium acct system we've built for matrix.org) has come up a bunch.
The problem is more that Element team is seriously stretched (particularly after the various misadventures outlined here: https://youtu.be/lkCKhP1jxdk?t=740) - so even if there was a pot of money to (say) merge custom emoji PRs... the team is more than overloaded already with commitments to folks like NATO and the UN. Meanwhile, onboarding new folks and figuring out how to do the Discordy features and launch a separately Discordy app under a Discordy server would also be a major distraction from ensuring Element gets sustainable by selling govtech messaging solutions.
So, we're caught in a catch-22 for now. One solution would be for other projects to build Discordy solutions on top of Matrix (like Cinny or Commet), or fork Element to be more Discordy (and run their own crowdfunders, perhaps in conjunction with The Matrix Foundation). Otherwise, we have to wait for Element to get sustainable via govtech work so it can eventually think about diversifying back into consumer apps.
Whether or not authorities with jurisdiction over you would notice your instance (homeserver) or bother you about age verification is an issue you'd have to consider for yourself.
I'm more familiar with Australian legislation than others, but here at least a home server would definitely not require age verification. Kids are free to make group chats with their friends in a bunch of services.
The spirit of the law is definitely not against chatting with friends, but it is against the idea of connecting minors with strangers, so while federation is generally not codified (or, IMO, understood well by legislators) and you're probably not going to be bothered by authorities about it, I reckon sooner or later the law will come for federated networks.
(Since we all seem fine just taking some uncertified random third party's word for it that their AI face recognition definitely didn't see a thumb with a face drawn on it, maybe it'd be adequate for Matrix.org to add an "18+ user" flag to the protocol and call it a day?)
I’ve been self hosting Element Call and use it to call my girlfriend (and also used it with another friend a few nights ago). I’ve had a few problems where when starting the call it seems to not connect but just trying again works, and that’s really the only issue i’ve had that I can think of since setting up a TURN server (before that it would completely fail sometimes, but that’s not Element Call’s fault)
Thanks for sharing. I think the design of MatrixRTC (especially the scaling via hierarchical SFUs) looks promising. It's nice to see someone actually using it at this early stage, even if only for 1:1 calls.
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