Thursday is a good day to delta with friends and family.

[rbuzz@mastodon.social]

@leanderlindahl why this looks so whattsuplike?

[b0rn_dead@metalhead.club]

@leanderlindahl I'm slowly getting people on Signal, I doubt this here will happen.

But the screenshots imply desktop usage as a bigger thing? Could it be an alternative to small discord communities?

[pelle@veganism.social]

@b0rn_dead @leanderlindahl
as #signal user, i've often wanted to use a separate profile for work, for personal and for activism. whenever you're in that situation, #deltachat is helpful.

if you ever find yourself communicating in a context where it would be bad if you're phone numbers are leaked (despite being set to "hidden" because that setting is broken), then it's time to switch from #signal to #deltachat for that.

honestly signal's whole phone number thing is about as un-private as #facebook's real-name policy.

[tudbut@social.tudbut.de]

@b0rn_dead@metalhead.club @leanderlindahl@social.folkdata.se yes, i use it as a discord alternative. it doesnt require syncing to phone either

[tudbut@social.tudbut.de]

@b0rn_dead@metalhead.club @leanderlindahl@social.folkdata.se (i also use it as a signal alternative as i am slowly trying to get off of signal as well since i am finding it increasingly suspicious)

[b0rn_dead@metalhead.club]

@tudbut @leanderlindahl what's suspicious about Signal? I think they're striking an amazing balance between privacy and usability. I'm paying monthly as I am happy to support an ethical alternative and ensure that they can stick around for a long time.

[tudbut@social.tudbut.de]

@b0rn_dead@metalhead.club @leanderlindahl@social.folkdata.se

their main issue i have is that its a black box. the app on google play and such is not auditable because it isnt verified against the source code. the authors of signal also reject packaging on f droid, which makes me doubly suspicious: why would they do that if not to make sure they remain the only people compiling the app?

other than that, the phone number requirement is absolutely archaic, and made much worse by the fact that they require me to use a phone to sync my messages to my desktop. i fundamentally distrust phones, so an app that forces me to use one despite relying on no phone-specific features is extremely annoying to me because i cannot in good conscience use it for private messaging.

the need to have one singular profile also goes against basically all advice you will find on opsec. there is no point in doing this other than some form of traceability (whether by others through easier discovery or otherwise).

[tudbut@social.tudbut.de]

@GOKUSHRM@mastodon.social @b0rn_dead@metalhead.club @leanderlindahl@social.folkdata.se most people im talking to will still be using the sus app, and i just dont feel like using a platform that does this stuff. also the other two points still apply, among others (e.g. centralization)

[scenepeek@fosstodon.org]

@leanderlindahl Feels so good to be able to sign up on a new platform by only providing a username. No emails, no phone numbers. Kinda like the old days.

[maypop_neocities@wetdry.world]

@pelle @b0rn_dead @leanderlindahl
the phone number requirement is actually worse because, unlike names, phone numbers are globally unique and you can't effortlessly just make one up.