@amarsharma

It is also centralized by design, definitely better than #WhatsApp and #Telegram since it is #FreeSoftware. You still have to depend on a single entity, so easy to block and we never know what happens when leadership changes. You cannot run a #Signal instance yourself if you want to interoperate with users of official Signal server. With #Matrix anyone can run a server, just like #mastodon and we already run 2 such servers https://poddery.com https://diasp.in

@h_tejas

@amarsharma @praveen @h_tejas its centralised and uses your phone number. Absolute disaster. Snowden has a different threat model.

@akash

Chaps use prosody server with conversations as your client on android for whatsapp replacement... works a treat.

@amarsharma @praveen @h_tejas

@techbolt @amarsharma @h_tejas @praveen i do and its great, but no good software for iOS :(

@akash @amarsharma @praveen @h_tejas
Centralized is not always bad its run by a Not for profit organization its good for what it is i.e. WhatsApp without Facebook. Riot is good for Team chats i.e. Discord alternative. For best privacy/security jabber is the way to go with omemo encryption.
Signal is very easy to use and intuitive that cant be said for Jabber as you need to be tech literate.

@null0x0 @akash @amarsharma @praveen @h_tejas

Signal is good but the developer is way over his head... shoots down anyone not agreeing to his views and forks aren't allowed to use open sync so that kind of defeats the purpose... I think camp protocol is not that difficult and conversation developer also offers a solution for users not interested in running their own server.

@techbolt @amarsharma @h_tejas @akash @praveen
Yeah I do see that they are against having the app on FDroid too.
You mean running prosody server?

@null0x0

Even when run by not for profit, its easy to block by govts.

@akash @amarsharma @h_tejas

@praveen @akash @amarsharma @h_tejas
Ya even tor can be blocked. That's it what I meant.

@null0x0
People can create unlisted tor nodes, there is no single point of failure.

@akash @amarsharma @h_tejas

@praveen @akash @amarsharma @h_tejas tor traffic can be traced and blocked at isp level. Everything has an upside/downside. I agree with you on tors resilience to blockades.

@null0x0
I think there is even http tunnels for tor, but never used, may be @kushal can clarify.

@akash @amarsharma @h_tejas

@praveen @null0x0 @akash @amarsharma @h_tejas there are ways to hide Tor traffic and use it even when govt is trying to block. That is how China and Iran gets Tor.

@kushal ya

@praveen @null0x0 @akash @amarsharma @h_tejas you can make your Tor traffic look like https or smtp, goto configuration dialog and say Tor is blocked in your country.

@kushal cool! #til

@null0x0 @kushal it's easy to access tor here. Places like the gulf there are blocks on website, so getting a legit copy itself is hard

@bull500 @kushal Yeah

@bull500 @null0x0 you can download from github EFF and even via email (you will get link)

@kushal @null0x0 website are easy to block. UAE has extremely advanced systems in place. Updated Torrents/magnets would be the ultimate solution for now for mass distribution. Else get a friend in another country to upload to a drive.

@bull500 @kushal Systems with DPI?

@null0x0 @bull500 India has too much of DPI at every ISP level

@kushal @null0x0 if there's better tech than that they'll have it. They've blocked skype, WhatsApp calls and at times VPN as well. Iirc there are fines if you get caught for using voip over vpn.

@kushal @bull500 Airtel policy states they do collect browsing data. Read their broadband tos. It's shit

@null0x0 @bull500 without installing a black box dpi machine, no ISP in India are allowed to open their service

@null0x0
I don't think you need so much tech savvyness for xmpp, its exactly like #mastodon, get the app, find a server, sign up.

There is https://quicksy.im for those who don't even want that much effort. It works like #WhatsApp, just give your phone number, confirm and find friends via address book.

@akash @amarsharma @h_tejas

@praveen @akash @amarsharma @h_tejas ask @techbolt about the ease of use/intuitive ness of jabber.

@akash @amarsharma @praveen @h_tejas disaster is which way? Other than giving out a phone to anyone who wants to talk you? There is also alternative to pass special numbers only for signal ?

@praveen @h_tejas @akshay thanks for pinging! Is the server ready to take the load though in case people notice this?

@akash @praveen @h_tejas @akshay honestly probably not if everyone signs up to matrix.org. It's very slow currently even. There are some alternatives like chat.weho.st which are better though

@akash @praveen @h_tejas @akshay don't know anything about the Indian ones though

@restioson
I'm admin at poddery.com and I use it everyday. It is pretty fast.

@akash @h_tejas @akshay

@praveen @restioson @h_tejas @akshay can anyone please create #india on that server? I'll need to make an account there unless we want it to occupy multiple addresses

@akash
We can create multiple aliases, so start with your own server.

@restioson @h_tejas @akshay

@restioson

And I heard matrix.org upgraded their servers recently and even voice calls are smooth as reported by @akhilvarkey

@akash @h_tejas @akshay

@praveen @restioson @akash @h_tejas @akshay
They are upgrading not at one go. But they say their upgraded infra has 10 times the capacity to the current one.

https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix/103086678515662730

@praveen @akhilvarkey @akash @h_tejas @akshay I use matrix.org every day and it has always had lots of issues because it has too many users. Makes sense that smaller homeservers are faster. Hopefully the infrastructure upgrade helps!

@restioson @praveen @h_tejas @akshay matrix.org would make a bad first impression tbh yea

@akash

I guess the exodus won't be as popular and if required we will have to upgrade.

@h_tejas @akshay

@praveen @h_tejas @akshay lol sad but true