matrix has u

Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso <me@christine.website>

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+---
+title: Matrix Has U
+date: 2015-11-27
+tags:
+ - matrix
+ - irc
+ - legacycontent
+---
+
+[This is an old post that didn't survive the port of my website from Lua to Go.
+I have rescued this post from archive.org. Hope you enjoy 2015 Xena
+posting!](conversation://Cadey/enby)
+
+As a lot of people close to me know, I am a very avid IRC user. I like the 
+simplicity of IRC and how easy it is to set up your own node. I like how the 
+protocol is easily scriptable for and think that a lot of the extensions are 
+well thought out and useful.
+
+That being said, a lot about the protocol is absolute garbage. It is poorly 
+understood by nearly all but the most sophisticated developers and a lot of 
+companies that offer IRC gateways to things half-ass it. Not to mention of 
+course the other core problem that ircd in 2015 acts the same way as ircd in 
+2005 did.
+
+Every time your TCP socket to the server dies, your session is deleted and you 
+need to start over from scratch. Bouncers basically just make it harder for the 
+TCP socket to die by having another server with a (hopefully) more stable 
+connection keep your IRC socket open. You have to verify your identity to a bot 
+in order to get access to places from another bot, and if you're lucky that 
+will be done by default and not require additional commands in order to enter 
+invite-only secret rooms. You'll have to be even luckier to have an IRC server 
+or bot setup that caches the most recent channel messages so you have context 
+to what is going on there. Private messages are one-to-one and adding another 
+person to a conversation means having to create a private channel, meaning you 
+just bring on the pain points mentioned earlier.
+
+Things like this are also causing IRC networks to slowly hemmorage users to 
+things that do the job even worse like Slack, Skype and Telegram.
+
+It's a mess. There has got to be a better way, one that lets you still have 
+channel moderation controls, doesn't have clients that look terrible in 
+comparison, still lets you have file uploads and the like, seamless mobile 
+integration and not losing messages when connecting from a different device.
+
+Luckily, we live in the future, and there is an option. This option is 
+[Matrix](https://matrix.org).
+
+From a high level, it will look like the new XMPP. It kind of is, but at its 
+core it is far superior to XMPP in my opinion. Its protocol is nothing more 
+than JSON over HTTPS. It is built for multi-user rooms from the beginning 
+instead of [half-assing it in an extension](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0045.html).
+Its reference home server [synapse](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse)
+is under the permissive [Apache](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/LICENSE)
+license. You can even set up your own homeserver and have it federate to
+other home servers, or if you like you can also choose not to.
+
+You can even join channels hosted on IRC networks like Freenode or Moznet by 
+joining channels formatted like `#freenode_#ipfs:matrix.org` or their main home 
+base `#matrix:matrix.org`. The bridging is seamless, with one matrix user 
+created per active IRC user and vice versa.
+
+Usage of matrix via the [Vector](https://vector.im/beta) client is very simple:
+
+1. Sign up for an account by clicking on "Create a New Account"
+2. Enter in a valid email address, a password and your desired username
+3. Check your email for the activation link
+4. Click it and click the button on Vector that says you did so
+5. Join a channel and start talking
+
+My current home-base on Matrix is `#ponydevs:matrix.org` and I'd love see you 
+in there too.
+
+TL;DR: IRC is dying, Matrix is a very valid sucessor. Matrix has u.
+
+To find out more about Matrix, read their [home page](https://matrix.org) or
+their [FAQ](https://matrix.org/docs/guides/faq.html).