Readit NewsWe're using discourse internally for this (in conjunction with matrix) and it's allowed us to have discussions I don't think we would have otherwise had.
I was not aware of the Grid project, but they seem to make good points. Matrix is developed by a restricted group of people with a startup vibe and some cringy/questionable actions:
- spitting on other protocols (or not even acknowledging their existence) without a technical reasoning (Matrix could have been a "simple" decentralized room extension of XMPP or any other established protocol) ; which takes us to the situation where Matrix has the exact same selling points which XMPP had 20 years ago... and keeps on reinventing the wheel
- pushing for a broken state resolution algorithm (decentralized consensus) without a formal analysis, which means it's now reached its 5th or 6th version and Matrix clients are all incompatible with one another (because only Element implements them all) and once they have been upgraded rooms cannot be downgraded so in many places only Element can chat
- requiring a web rendering engine for certain extensions (eg. Video chat) ; HTTP is a decent foundation for a protocol, but why is a Jitsi <iframe> considered a decent extension mechanism? it will just harm security/privacy (through potential XSS) and make it near-impossible for clients to be implemented without a Chrome-based engine, reinforcing Google's monopoly on the web
- putting all of their $$$$ into a single web client with very bad performance, not caring for other platforms; beyond clients, investing in bridging with useless platforms like Microsoft Teams (though i did not find the code for that) while neglecting interop with open protocols like IRC/XMPP (relations with IRC/XMPP people are notoriously not very good though i hope it will improve over time)
All in all, i'm very glad matrix exists because they have popularized bridging and they do care for UX concerns like Spaces. But claiming people who forked the project because of political and technical disagreements are biased because they are a "competitor" is itself a very biased position based on the idea that only one true protocol must remain and others are heretics trying to undermine our technical purity (for their economic gain).
I wish we could have people from different protocols sitting across the table and working on interop so we can stop arguing about which network is best.
hrm, maybe this was true a few years ago?
Element currently develops two web clients. Element Web: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/element and Hydrogen: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/hydrogen
Element also sponsors development of at least one other community web client that I know of.
Meanwhile, you can find Element's Android client here: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/element-android
And the iOS client here: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/element-ios
Within Element, new features are developed in cross-functional teams and released in tandem; e.g. Spaces was released on web and mobile at the same time.
On performance - there are definitely some performance issues with matrix clients in general, particularly larger rooms and accounts which are in many rooms. This is an active focus of development, e.g. see work on sync v3, a more efficient matrix sync protocol https://github.com/matrix-org/sync-v3
Disclaimer: I am an Element employee
I really don't like how Element Android has you separately pick which space to view (in the sidebar), and whether to look at DMs or rooms (in the bottom bar). Now I often end up picking the KDE space, but only showing DMs, which results in an empty view (because I've only joined KDE-related chats, not KDE-related DMs).
I think I'd prefer a list of spaces where I can set rules for what goes where. For example, I want to create a space called "Contacts", where I first manually pin my "self-room" for note-taking and test messages to the top, then ask Element to add all DMs I'm in, ordered by "most recent" or manual order. Then I want a space called KDE where I place specific KDE-related rooms inside. Then have a space called "Rooms" with the leftover non-KDE rooms.
In the process, I'd remove the Android client's bottom DM/room selector (unsure what to do with the notification tab), replace it with 2 "default spaces" in the left sidebar (one for DMs and the other for rooms, but with user-customizable rules), and let user-created spaces coexist alongside the two default spaces.
The end result would work something like a hybrid of Telegram's automatic rules, Discord's single DM namespace followed by a server list, and Matrix's current spaces system. Unfortunately, it seems Element has officially released the Spaces feature, ignoring (or not even seeing) my feedback a week ago in the Matrix HQ room. I don't know if they're still accepting changes to how spaces operate.
The information architecture of Spaces as presented in Element isn't perfect, and is at the top of the list of improvements we'd like to make as we iterate on the feature.
Releasing out of beta doesn't mean we intend to stop iterating on Spaces - it simply means we think the feature brings enough value to share it with everyone and open it up to the whole user base for feedback.
Memrise is an award-winning language learning app with a growing user base of over 50 million. By leveraging lots of brain science and plenty of humour, we’re striving to enrich people’s consciousness and help people achieve confident, real-world language skills in just a few short months.
We're hiring in many teams at the moment:
* Senior Quality Engineer (6 month contract)
* Senior Backend Engineer (Python) (3 month contract)
* Engineering Manager for the Platform Team
* Frontend Engineers (Senior and Mid-Level)
Memrise is a great place to work if:
* You're interested in working in a small team on a product with millions of users
* You'd like to work on a largely unsolved problem, like teaching languages efficiently
Life at memrise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRrLOi6hmeA
Memrise is an award-winning language learning app with a growing user base of over 50 million. By leveraging lots of brain science and plenty of humour, we’re striving to enrich people’s consciousness and help people achieve confident, real-world language skills in just a few short months.
We're hiring in our platform and web teams. We use Python/Django/Kubernetes and React/Typescript.
Memrise is a great place to work if:
* You're interested in working in a small team on a product with millions of users
* You'd like to work on a largely unsolved problem, like teaching languages efficiently
Life at memrise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRrLOi6hmeA
Memrise is an award-winning language learning system with a growing user base of over 50 million. By leveraging lots of brain science and plenty of humour, we’re striving to enrich people’s consciousness and help people achieve confident, real-world language skills in just a few short months.
We're hiring in our platform, web and mobile teams. We're using Python/Django on K8s, React/Typescript, and Swift.
Memrise is a great place to work if:
* You're interested in working in a small team
* You want your work to help millions of people
* You'd like to work on a largely unsolved problem, like teaching languages efficiently
Life at memrise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRrLOi6hmeA
Element is the startup which employs the core team behind matrix.org - the leading project for secure, open decentralised communication.
Matrix’s mission is to make messaging as open as email - allowing everyone to choose where their data is hosted, enjoy private conversations thanks to advanced encryption, and ultimately be in control of their own communication.
If this all seems familiar, Element and Matrix are regularly discussed here on HN. Here's some recent examples:
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27969624
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28997898
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27906336
We're hiring across many roles at present - see https://apply.workable.com/elementio/
If you don't see an obvious role for you, but you think you could make a valuable contribution to our project, please get in touch - we're always interested in interesting people!
If you'd like an informal chat about any of our roles, please reach out to our recruiter Mischa on matrix at @mischawalmsley:matrix.org