Ok what are possible Discord alternatives?

[drwho@masto.hackers.town]

@thedarktangent One thread here:

Marc (@mdiluz@mastodon.gamedev.place)

Time for a #discord alternatives thread, for no particular reason. I've actually been looking into all available options for the past few weeks for other reasons, so here's a thread to share what I've found. In particular I'm looking for stuff with: * Data sovereignty * Strong moderation tools * Wide platform support Hopefully this gives everyone else some ideas too, and feel free to chime in with corrections, suggestions or anything else!

Gamedev Mastodon (mastodon.gamedev.place)

[adamshostack@infosec.exchange]

@thedarktangent ICR. (I Can’t Recall)

No wait. Almost?

[drwho@masto.hackers.town]

@thedarktangent I also have a couple of options in here somewhere:

Search: [Chat] - Bookmarks

(bookmarks.drwho.virtadpt.net)

[swat@fosstodon.org]

@thedarktangent
Matrix or the aforementioned revolt, come to mind

[adamshostack@infosec.exchange]

@thedarktangent Seriously. IRC.

[nosirrahsec@infosec.exchange]

@adamshostack @thedarktangent hnngghhh right in the childhood

[nosirrahsec@infosec.exchange]

@adamshostack @thedarktangent We're such a unique group of people that if we went to IRC we'd have thousands upon thousands of experts on IRC administration lol (or at least the technical acumen to learn it)

[tomseppert@fosstodon.org]

@thedarktangent

Hasn't any good old forumsoftware always been a better alternative to Discord?

I have never understood why one, especially opensource projects, would put all their valuable data in a closed system like Discord, hidden from public search.

Look at Proxmox for example. Lots of searches for Debian/sysadmin related stuf land on their forum and that's part of why they are so popular imo.

[oschell@mastodon.social]

@thedarktangent Last time, using a video game was working (Baldure Gates, Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 4 are possible options I belive)

[0xtero@ohai.social]

@thedarktangent IRC is pretty easy, well tested alternative if it's just for text. Becomes complicated if you need voice chat out of it as well. Matrix sort of does it and I guess it's the current "leading alternative". It can have IRC bridges as well but the whole experience is not entirely smooth and self-hosting is a bit painful

[em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange]

@thedarktangent https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/116042481643735408

[marshray@infosec.exchange]

@adamshostack @thedarktangent We need voice chat channels and preferably screen sharing

[grahamperrin@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@mttaggart/116041595378233675

@TomSeppert forum software is typically not realtime chat.

Cc @thedarktangent

[mttaggart@infosec.exchange]

@grahamperrin @TomSeppert @thedarktangent I will note that Discourse has real-time chat, but it's not the primary mode. It's meant for backchannel/off-topic.

[suzannealdrich@hachyderm.io]

@marshray
How ‘bout XMPP and WebRTC?

WebRTC | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

WebRTC + XMPP = <3 WebRTC is a free, open project that provides browsers and mobile applications with real-time communications capabilities. Jingle, the XMPP framework for establishing p2p sessions, makes for a great pairing with WebRTC. XMPP is …

(xmpp.org)

@adamshostack @thedarktangent

[zeank@mastodon.social]

@thedarktangent @Em0nM4stodon depending on your needs Movim (https://movim.eu) might or might not be a good fit.

[soph@grrl.me]

@thedarktangent

Just saw this: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@mdiluz/116043145998840217

[loloster@mastodon.social]

@thedarktangent https://mstdn.social/@hkrn/116043905590233460

[csepp@merveilles.town]

@thedarktangent Depends on what purpose you have in mind.
I've used Matrix the most so I'll try to comment on what it's fit/unfit for.
E2EE: sometimes it breaks, hence the infamous "unable to decrypt message" meme
system load: Synapse is known to use lots of resources, you definitely can't just leave it unattended for months, it will fill up disk space. Other implementations are lighter but support fewer features. Less of a problem if you disable federation.
clients: Element is pretty heavy, the others lag behind in featured / bug fixes. Even Nheko isn't exactly lightweight.
voice/video chat: Native calls actually work pretty smoothly now, but I haven't tried screen sharing or group calls.
moderation: Moderation tools are lacking. Permission system is also not very fine grained and AFAIK uses "power levels" instead of ACLs.
notifications: Still doesn't have a "mentions" list, or maybe it does but it's in beta. If you have a busy "inbox", you will get lost.

I see others recommending it as the default Discord alternative and I think that should be taken with a heap of salt. It's certainly viable for some niches, but expect some flaws.

[csepp@merveilles.town]

@thedarktangent re: E2EE, I will say that I've had unrecoverable OMEMO issues on XMPP where we had to disable encryption completely, so if you need encryption, XMPP is not great either.