In my experience it looks like a case of matrix clients not doing a good job of communicating that things happening in the background haven't finished yet, and throwing generic error messages (a bit like lemmy-ui does sometimes).

I've been able to join invite-only rooms on other instances - it said 'failed' at first, but when I went back later it turned out that I had actually joined.

Matrix definitely has its problems. Recently I've moved to a private matrix install and a lot of the issues I was having went away. I think the matrix.org domain is overloaded and has a bunch of weird errors because of it. If your account or rooms are hosted there and you have issues I'd try running somewhere else and see if you have the same problems.

Like someone else said the clients have issues too. A lot of them don't know how to report the errors they run into so they spit out garbage. There isn't a single client that works perfectly but there are a few that are good enough to use if you aren't using them for mission critical communication. It's stupid but it is what it is.

Discord sucks ass and no one will convince me otherwise. I have no desire to support them and their constant nitro spam. I'd rather use something like matrix and see how it develops.

I want to use matrix so bad but matrix clients suck and there's no voice channels like discord

Prose is an extremely good looking crosd platform XMPP client coming out very soon, I'm hoping that will help.

Currently XMPP is my preferred federated messaging platform, but to say the clients are bad would be an understatement

Matrix is a protocol, unlike discord. The problems often come with the different clients. I personally suggest fluffychat wherever I go since that is the most usable in my experience. Element I have installed as a backup on all my devices if I need to troubleshoot.

Same as with apple‘s „iforgot“ service: the privilege of privacy comes with responsibility. You must either take care of a couple things yourself or pay someone to do it. On discord, a huge margin of people pays with real money and the rest with their data.

To the topic: Matrix rooms have a version and the server you make them on matters a lot. Therefore I would stay on org if none of you know your way around. If you have skills, make your own and configure it in the most non individual way possible for maximum compatibility. If people cant join even when you invited them, you might have to check if the servers each federate correctly. If not, switch servers or tell your admin.

Edit: you‘ll probably get advice at !matrix@lemmy.ml

the thing that drives me absolutely into matrix-hate-rage is the scrolling. if youre in a matrix space with lots of little different windows attempting to scroll through almost any context is a crapshoot at best.

i like the idea of matrix, but its implementation is hot garbage.

XMPP is the way.

Ive had a better time with good old irc. But I hope matrix takes over...

A bullet proof Matrix UX would be too OP

That error happens because the room federation sync takes longer than the join client-server request timeout. Just try again.

I can make calls (voice and video) and they work great.

Encrypted channels/DMs for family

Element (android) is pretty good

Cinny (web access) is not as good, but still good enough to replace discord for family chat.

Matrix is not quite like Discord, but we have Revolt. Try that. It's a discord clone.

It works great for a closed group of people, all on one instance. Another data point that federation is hard.

Which client do you use? Desktop is the best working, second android element slow and laggy but fullest implementation so far, worst are element x which they created only to test still draft phase feature speeding up syncing but otherwise half backed. There is no other third party clients which would be significantly complaint with the protocol