💾 Archived View for zaney.org › journal › 2023 › switch-to-element.gmi captured on 2023-09-28 at 15:40:04. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Big news around my Discord server, I posted an announcement earlier today. The Discord server is going to be slowly shutting down. For a while I will be posting announcements on both Element and Discord. Then just to Element.
My hope is that around the end of year the Discord will be completely ready for a two week notice of it's final shutdown.
Element is probably the best, definitely one of the best, clients for using Matrix. Matrix is discribed as, 'a new basis for open, interoperable, decentralised real-time communication.' So that is why you will here Element and Matrix used somewhat interchangably. As just with talking about Discord, doesn't mean that your only talking about people using the regular desktop client. Plenty of Discord users are using alternative clients, but their still talking on the Discord network.
When it comes to feature set Element can do everything Discord can, but it's open source and you can self host your own server and still interact with everyone on Matrix. I am excited for this switch as a focus on using high quality open source solutions is definitely something I have lacked.
Element's Jitsi integration has gotten much better and can definitely work for most if not all of my uses. The only issue is a lot of the times it takes a solid minute for the meeting to load. It shows the hold up being waiting on Elements link to load so hopefully this is a bug that has been fixed just not pushed into the release. Please do keep in mind I just started using Element again like 3 hours ago lol.
Overall Element and Matrix are a fantastic communication solution, with security and open source in mind.
This is something you can do, typically it's called bridging the two servers. I am not familiar with how this would work and also not really interested. As most of the people who are active on my server are willing to make the switch to Matrix / Element. Those that aren't I am sorry to say just won't have my Discord server for the long-term. There's plenty of other Discord servers even some by friends of mine so it's really no problem in my mind.
I just want to manage one messaging platform in the first place. I am lazy, sorry 😅
It's creators total and utter abandonment? Probably not lol.
Not trying to leave chaos in the wake of the switch, but create a smooth transition. Besides I think Discord may be the mainstream, but only because we willing let it. In the past it was definitely one of the best options, but Element has come leaps and bounds.
If I have the option of using a platform that values open source, self-hosting, and security with encryption I am probably going to choose it. The funny part is I am definitely choosing it when Discord tries to push Nitro down my throat and can be just as unrealiable as it's worst competitor.
I am excited for the future of my community of friends over on Element and will be very excited to see people switching over to it. Just as I think the future for Gemini is very bright, I think Element and Matrix is the same.
Thank you for reading!