Only option available is Matrix. It has its problems, but they're being worked on.

Right now it lacks the gaming/voice chat parts of discord - so for an OSS alternative for that part of discord specifically, there's Mumble.

For everything else, Matrix is a good alternative. Just be sure to pick a discord-like client. (E.g. Commet or Cinny)

Might need to find more active communities?

The spam thing is annoying, but is a result of anyone being able to join a room and just upload images.

Really wish the large rooms would just disable image uploads, or use a bot to police new users a bit.

That latter point doesn't really apply if you leave America.

Well, you can see it here.

Also, here's a nice overview of what it is and why it's so expensive. I didn't know that particular species of fish was almost extinct because of overfishing.

As humanity we kind of suck, don't we?

Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota who has been dogged by controversy (...)

Oh, the Guardian - I see what you did there, and I love it.

~~Regardless, happy to see at least one troll creature slithering away from the public light. I wish the same would happen to some of the more prolific, Jewish-Space-Laser-Conspiracy touting types.~~

~~A man can dream.~~

Edit: Should have read the whole thing through before commenting. Looks like she's just trying to sweep the bad PR under the rug, which was linked to her old account. The dream is dead.

It's not proprietary, lol. You can download and deploy each of their bridges yourself to your own servers.

Source: been using their WhatsApp, Discord, and Signal bridges for over a year. I use Github sponsors to pay for development, as I appreciate how great they are.

The only closed source part of their stack is their client, which you don't have to use.

Also, they're some of the most prolific contributors to Matrix outside of Element. The emoji picker in Element was literally PR'ed by Tulir.

Love it when folk see people trying to make money off OSS and immediately resort to hysterics. It really makes closed source development look appealing if you're going to be damned by idealogues regardless of whether you release the source or not.

He does what, now? Can you post some links/examples? Is it because he posts long threads?

They mentioned that they bought premium, so they won't be seeing ads. Edit: Multiple people below are telling me that purchasing premium does not remove all ads, so that's actually quite annoying.

As an aside, I really don't get the logic of using a service like e-mail and just expecting it to be free - it's very bizarre to me.

If it's something important to you (as I assume e-mail is), pay for it - or stop whining about ads/nagging pop-ups.

And if you can't pay for it, download Dovecot and try doing it yourself - it's a fun experience, and will make you appreciate the work done by email providers. Spoiler alert: it's a massive pain in the butt.

This video: "Matrix really bad, xmpp really good. Trust me bro."

Probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever had to watch - regardless of the arguments being made. Also, the narrator sounds like a broken TikTok AI voice.

Just some responses:

• you don't have to use matrix.org, there are other sites you can sign up for (and thus avoid Google captcha)
• you don't have to use element, there are other clients (including element forks, if you want some of its beta features)
• You can use ntfy and host your own push notifications - but for instant notifications on Android you'll always need GMS as Android won't allow an alternative. (and, no, I'd rather not root my phone, thanks)
• re: xmpp is easier to setup: first pick a server, then deploy it, then pick a client. Just like Matrix. Almost like they're both very similar.
• re: synapse being hard to run: a $5 a month Hetzner box is enough for it.
• re: dendrite not having enough features: it hasn't been released yet and is still under development? The fuck are you smoking over there?
• re: matrix requires an email to sign up: it does not, only the server you've arbitrarily chosen to focus on does

So much trash in this video, it's crazy.

If you like XMPP, use it. If you like Matrix, use it.

Edit: I also like how the video author ignores all other matrix clients, but then pretends like XMPP has one client (unnamed, of course) that handles all of Element's short comings.

Seriously, if you like XMPP so much, just go use it. Why make such a bizarre post?

Edit 2: Most of the links on your website are broken - giving an Nginx 502 error - so I wasn't able to figure out what you're trying to sell us. Maybe instead of making videos like this you can go and learn how to deploy Nginx properly?

Dude, you are a machine.

Mad props to the incredible work you've done and continue to do. It's 2023 and I suddenly don't hate PWAs anymore; literally all thanks to Voyager.

...what a time to be alive.

“Just Google it, I'm on my phone right now"

[twitches]

Good bot :) (well, except for the ADVERTISEMENT text and the last sentence)