This sounds like how XMPP was about 10 years ago. e.g. the transition to XEP-0280 was rather terrible and anyone complaining about it was told they were using the wrong client; often without any recommendation for which client to switch to.
XMPP and IRC are not it, for me. Neither give me a better experience nor are they easier for non-techies than matrix.
I also empathize with the people behind the project, as monetization is much more difficult for non-scumbag companies, among which I definitely count Discord, Slack and to a lesser degree Telegram.
As a user though, the speed of improvement has been less than satisfying. It has felt like matrix was just shy of fulfilling its promises for years now.
I still enjoy using it though and am hopeful for its future.
Here's how I made it work:
- No federation. You click an invite link I send you and make an account on my server. Therefore, no spam.
- Encryption disabled in the main group chat room. The encryption experience was very poor in Riot and remains inexplicably baffling to non-technical users in Element. Supposedly Element X fixes these problems, but it doesn't support the type of SSO my server uses yet. I decided to just turn it off. DMs are still encrypted.
- Use Synapse.
- $5 tier digital ocean droplet. I plan to move it to my homelab soon.
For the most part, it has been pretty smooth. Dealing with encryption UX issues was the low point.
I wish that there were custom emoji packs though :(
sunscream89•10h ago
It’s impossible to find anything alive with the growing lists of dead old things.
It would be nice for room lists to decay dead channels out of attention from the casual user.