Hey guys, I recently started to play with the thought to deploy a Snikket (XMPP) server on my VPS to play around with it a bit. I already had a Matrix (Continuwuity) server running on an older VPS with Docker at one point. But besides me using some bridges (WhatsApp, Signal etc.) it didn’t see a lot of use. Originally I had set it up with the goal to replace Discord, but so far couldn’t get my small group of gamer friends to switch to something else.

What are your experiences with XMPP (doesn’t have to be Snikket) or Matrix? Would you recommend one over the other maintenance and/or usability wise?

Just curious what the community’s current sentiment is in regards to private self hosted messaging services 😊

  • Yaky@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    13 days ago

    Matrix clients aren’t great

    IMO the main advantage that Matrix-Element has for normal users is the branding: Element is Element on the web, Android and iOS. (Snikket is trying to do the same for XMPP though)

    Matrix is too difficult for “normal” people

    Agreed. Simple user+password login to a hosted (non-matrixdotorg) server takes 5-6 pages to click through.

    Matrix public rooms have a CP problem

    I was spammed with racist copypasta on XMPP once too. But being in large Matrix chats guarantees being invited/messaged.

    …Matrix also pisses metadata to any server it federates with, including matrix [.] org

    Replication+sync is a strange decision for chats. It sort of makes sense for slower fediverse posts, but creates a lot of strange scenarios and privacy issues with chats. Also, matrixdotorg is used for key backups and vectordotim is used for integrations IIRC.