Discord have belatedly confirmed that they're working with Persona, an identity detection firm backed by a fund directed by Palantir chairman Peter Thiel.
Matrix because it seems like the most logical choice - largest platform that’s federated/decentralised and has end-to-end encryption.
Stoat because realistically being more similar to Discord I know more users are going to go there. So I thought I’d hedge my bets. Just hope it also gets end-to-end encryption, the lack of that on Discord was always one of my gripes with the platform.
I have decided on Haven, since self-hosting is a requirement (I don’t trust anyone but me), it’s UI is similar, and it can do text, voice, and video. I found it a few months ago when the discord data breach broke, but waited because it doesn’t have a docker image. It does have a Dockerfile and compose file now because of my suggestion and work of a couple different contributors, but no image yet.
Well a week into this and I have been giving issue reports, feature suggestions, and feedback to the dev, and I think it’s the best combo of ‘in control of my data’ with ‘ease of setup’ and genuine, working, features. And the dev seems really excited to see users, and the back and forth on Github is something I don’t expect - just the excitement, the welcoming of ‘can we do this’ and ‘could this be changed to make that easier’.
It’s almost discord, as a web app, controlled by you, and made by just the one dev and a couple contributors. And the differences are easy to understand.
Actually it’s not because there are third party clients available that you can use without any interactions with google services. I’m using Clerotri on GrapheneOS right now.
The one I’ve been seeing crop up a lot these past couple days is Fluxer, which is literally almost a 1:1 discord clone, even more than Stoat. Though E2EE isn’t currently on the solo dev’s roadmap, which is a shame.
Matrix seems like the best bet in terms of privacy and security, but I swear every single client is hot garbage for some reason or another. I can’t imagine non-tech-savvy users will ever be willing to stick to it.
Realistically I think Stoat or Fluxer is going to win out here. I’m setting up all 3 for now, and I plan to ditch discord completely at the end of this month.
Oh yeah I was looking at Fluxer too, though haven’t made an account yet.
In the “What’s coming next” section on the website it mentions opt-in E2EE. So maybe it is actually on the roadmap? Unless the listed features aren’t actually on the roadmap or I’m misunderstanding.
I hope it is anyway, I accepted no E2EE with Discord just because every single person I knew was using it, but I’m crossing my fingers to not have to make that compromise again if possible.
I’ll probably give Fluxer a try as well then and give all three a go and see which one sticks, hell maybe I’ll end up on more than one.
Ah maybe the article I was reading was a bit dated, good to know it might be on the horizon. Honestly I almost worry the dev’s gonna get slapped with a cease and desist because it’s almost literally a discord clone in every single way.
It did rub me the wrong way at first to see paywalled features already, but reading it more closely it seems to be mostly to offset server costs, and a self-hosted server seems to have all the paid upgrades available by default, so that seems fair enough.
After playing with all 3 a bit, I have a feeling Fluxer might be the one that sticks, mostly due to the ease of use and familiarity.
Out of curiosity, does Fluxer have any sort of directory/server list that you’re aware of? I’ve always been very reliant on Disboard to find servers with Discord, and both Stoat and Matrix seem to have similar sites but I couldn’t find one for Fluxer. Wonder if I’m just searching poorly or if one hasn’t been made yet.
Aside from wanting to use it to find servers I was curious to get a gauge on how many people are actually using it too.
Matrix because it seems like the most logical choice - largest platform that’s federated/decentralised and has end-to-end encryption.
Personally I’ve had consistent problems with messages not un-encrypting in Matrix, requiring frequent re-sending of messages. I’m also not a fan of how much Metadata is shared across the Matrix network even with encryption, nor am I fan of the group who developed and funded it, or the willingness of the Matrix/Element team to sell their services to law enforcement (They had purchased a booth at a police convention).
Movim has all of the same features as Matrix without those downsides, if you’d like to give that a try instead.
It’s a downside in my opinion, considering the police in most countries assist in maintaining the control of corporations and authoritarian governments. To offer services to them knowing this is a negative ethical marker for a company.
I’ve made Stoat and Matrix accounts.
Matrix because it seems like the most logical choice - largest platform that’s federated/decentralised and has end-to-end encryption.
Stoat because realistically being more similar to Discord I know more users are going to go there. So I thought I’d hedge my bets. Just hope it also gets end-to-end encryption, the lack of that on Discord was always one of my gripes with the platform.
I have decided on Haven, since self-hosting is a requirement (I don’t trust anyone but me), it’s UI is similar, and it can do text, voice, and video. I found it a few months ago when the discord data breach broke, but waited because it doesn’t have a docker image. It does have a Dockerfile and compose file now because of my suggestion and work of a couple different contributors, but no image yet.
Well a week into this and I have been giving issue reports, feature suggestions, and feedback to the dev, and I think it’s the best combo of ‘in control of my data’ with ‘ease of setup’ and genuine, working, features. And the dev seems really excited to see users, and the back and forth on Github is something I don’t expect - just the excitement, the welcoming of ‘can we do this’ and ‘could this be changed to make that easier’.
It’s almost discord, as a web app, controlled by you, and made by just the one dev and a couple contributors. And the differences are easy to understand.
Stoat is locked into google services on Android, hard pass from me.
Actually it’s not because there are third party clients available that you can use without any interactions with google services. I’m using Clerotri on GrapheneOS right now.
The one I’ve been seeing crop up a lot these past couple days is Fluxer, which is literally almost a 1:1 discord clone, even more than Stoat.
Though E2EE isn’t currently on the solo dev’s roadmap, which is a shame.Matrix seems like the best bet in terms of privacy and security, but I swear every single client is hot garbage for some reason or another. I can’t imagine non-tech-savvy users will ever be willing to stick to it.
Realistically I think Stoat or Fluxer is going to win out here. I’m setting up all 3 for now, and I plan to ditch discord completely at the end of this month.
Oh yeah I was looking at Fluxer too, though haven’t made an account yet.
In the “What’s coming next” section on the website it mentions opt-in E2EE. So maybe it is actually on the roadmap? Unless the listed features aren’t actually on the roadmap or I’m misunderstanding.
I hope it is anyway, I accepted no E2EE with Discord just because every single person I knew was using it, but I’m crossing my fingers to not have to make that compromise again if possible.
I’ll probably give Fluxer a try as well then and give all three a go and see which one sticks, hell maybe I’ll end up on more than one.
Ah maybe the article I was reading was a bit dated, good to know it might be on the horizon. Honestly I almost worry the dev’s gonna get slapped with a cease and desist because it’s almost literally a discord clone in every single way.
It did rub me the wrong way at first to see paywalled features already, but reading it more closely it seems to be mostly to offset server costs, and a self-hosted server seems to have all the paid upgrades available by default, so that seems fair enough.
After playing with all 3 a bit, I have a feeling Fluxer might be the one that sticks, mostly due to the ease of use and familiarity.
Out of curiosity, does Fluxer have any sort of directory/server list that you’re aware of? I’ve always been very reliant on Disboard to find servers with Discord, and both Stoat and Matrix seem to have similar sites but I couldn’t find one for Fluxer. Wonder if I’m just searching poorly or if one hasn’t been made yet.
Aside from wanting to use it to find servers I was curious to get a gauge on how many people are actually using it too.
If you read the blog, it’s because the dev studied the Discord code very closely and did their best to mimic it.
It is on the roadmap. It says it right on the project homepage.
Your link is to example.com. The actual link is fluxer.app
There’s also Fluxer https://fluxer.app/ which seems to be halfway between the two you mentioned, and self hostable
Personally I’ve had consistent problems with messages not un-encrypting in Matrix, requiring frequent re-sending of messages. I’m also not a fan of how much Metadata is shared across the Matrix network even with encryption, nor am I fan of the group who developed and funded it, or the willingness of the Matrix/Element team to sell their services to law enforcement (They had purchased a booth at a police convention).
Movim has all of the same features as Matrix without those downsides, if you’d like to give that a try instead.
They are selling the messing service… of course not the messages… I don’t know whether that is a problem or not. I don’t really think so.
It’s a downside in my opinion, considering the police in most countries assist in maintaining the control of corporations and authoritarian governments. To offer services to them knowing this is a negative ethical marker for a company.