There is: XMPP

yeah I did the ansible. You just fill out a config file & point it at any Linux server with python installed and it’ll set things up for you

Good idea. That makes me wonder if voice over IRC is a thing. I feel like there might only be four people who know how to use it, but I bet I would enjoy hanging out with those four people.

Edit: Poe's law applies, apparently:
https://github.com/asiekierka/voirc

That last part is the "problem", I just need something to text and send memes and files, but convincing the people around me to leave animations and stickers behind would be impossible.

I've been using Keet for a couple of months now, really like it. Still in beta, but you can ask questions to the devs in the open chat rooms and they actually give you sound answers

Also there's Jami which looks good, but haven't tested it

There is -- jabber and jingle. And for a ver-ry brief few weeks, Google's jabber/jingle worked openly with Facebook's, and everyone could message each other. And then BOTH arbitrarily broke it with some sparkle-junkie resume-bait software 'up'grade and neither worked with anything else after that.

It was glorious.

modern

But i also feel like xmpp got feature creeped. Not to long ago, basically every messenger spoke its own subset of xmpp, basically.

Honestly, I get why one would be discouraged by signal, but as long as your threat model is not "NSA and mossad have a price on my head", I think it is still the best non-federated alternative. I'd rather take a flawed messenger with well regarded encryption than a beta version that nobody with time and crypto knowledge ever looked at.

It's not any worse than the differen't feature support levels of different Matrix clients. But especially on Android, XMPP has nice modern clients with all the features you would expect, including a/v calls and reactions/stickers.

The main issue right now are up to date Windows desktop clients, but on Linux desktop there are some good options.

Here's Matrix CEOs answer to this article: https://lobste.rs/c/jekh0n -- good discussion in that thread in general

Well... Matrix. I don't think it requires self-hosting? It's E2EE and there are plenty of public servers.

I find it really frustrating that supporters of Open Protocols appear to live in cognitive dissonance of both wanting to be "used by everyone" and "to be a small gated community".

You can't keep money out forever and with that does come influence which I know. But eventually wouldn't you like to talk to your mother on a protocol you trust, with a client she understands?

If you're willing to look, you can always find a hater

Mentioned here

Link to this issue

Yeah... well, it seems to me that Matrix is potentially there. I mean I could install Element X on my parents' phones, set it up with some account and be done with it. It would be as good as signal and whatsapp from an UX perspective. And I could then chat with them with any of the existing dozens of Matrix clients.

The worst problem, if you can call it that, currently is that Signal is good enough.

All in all, I think reading through all these messages makes me feel like doubling down on Matrix. It is currently a very passable IRC, Signal and Slack replacement and the only remaining problem is that those things already exist.

(Discord doesn't need replacing, just destroying)

That's like saying POP3 is cooked.

Matrix is the best option and we should be focusing on improving it instead of restarting from scratch.

They need more resources and better design, but that comes with time. Don't let them sucker you out of money to fuel their consumerist lifestyles.

It's fine if matrix.org goes down the shitter.

The protocol is what's important.

Is that it? We stop using better programs because we disagree with the creator's views?

What a disgusting, childish world some of these people live in.

"I was going to buy that house, but the owner's views made me reconsider. I decided to go with something worse."

I installed it with pip in 2017 without issues

Because Matrix isn't exactly private since it's meant to be a Discord clone and I share piracy among my friends and family, or for the sexy times with my friends, I need something that at least has self-destructing messages and chats where messages dissapear after some time.

I could trust it if I could self-host, but I lack the hardware (disk space, mostly) and the availability (I can't leave my pc on all the time [also I live in México, the internet is terrible and I tend to hog it if I'm downloading something]), so I'd have to trust some random yahoo with my stuff but it wouldn't have what I'm looking for anyway.