Setting up a matrix community and bridging it to discord

[swedneck]

Hi all!

I'd really like to improve the IPFS (and other protocol labs projects) rooms on Matrix.
My suggestions are to:

• a) Remake the currently bridged rooms, and manually bridge them to IRC.
  This is needed because the current rooms were created by the IRC bridge, and it's thus impossible to make anyone admin in them.

• b) Make a Protocol Labs community (+protocol-labs:matrix.org) and add the now remade rooms to it.
  Making a community would help organize the rooms and make it easier to find them.

• c) Bridge the rooms to Discord. (https://discord.gg/24fmuwR)
  A bridge to discord makes it much easier for the average joe to get into IPFS (and other projects), as they most likely already use Discord and are hesitant to use IRC or Matrix. Done!

[daviddias]

Agreed on a), https://riot.im/app/#/group/+ipfs:matrix.org is currently kind of painful to manage as only @Stebalien can do it. @Stebalien thoughts?

I don't think b) is necessary or do we want to call it protocol labs

Given that we have the Matrix community, riot.im makes it super easy. I don't see why creating another bridge to discord c) would make it simpler.

[swedneck]

It may be easy for you, but for a lot of people they just don't want to use anything they're not used to.
Bridging to discord would help make IPFS much more approachable for the average person.

[daviddias]

Bridging to discord would help make IPFS much more approachable for the average person.

It just sounds you are trading the cost of creating a Matrix account by a Discord account. I don't believe that the "average person" (here meaning, the number of users that both use one of these tools and are part of the IPFS community) is actually large and therefore, the "average person" they will have to create an account in one of them.

[swedneck]

You already seem to have made your mind up, so i won't keep arguing.

[daviddias]

@swedneck not necessarily. I'm just not getting your point and shared the understanding I have.

[ThibaultLemaire]

I can relate to not wanting to be forced to create a new account, and given the discord user base is pretty large I can see the use of a bridge.

Although, it could be argued that people interested in ipfs would not be that reluctant to create a new account in matrix, at least for now because it remains a techy subject.

The truth is without actual data on the subject it's hard to decide. So what's the cost of setting up and maintaining a Discord bridge? We could set it up for a trial period to get some feedback on the subject, and then decide whether to keep it or not?

[swedneck]

I already have the bridge software running on my server, and it's already bridging 2 communities (linux gaming and thinkpad), so there would really be no cost to running the bridge.

If you want official ipfs servers running the bridge, you'd have to set up https://github.com/Half-Shot/matrix-appservice-discord

[bonedaddy]

Personally while I have no qualms with IRC, I don't think IRC is very condusive to a vibrant community as it will most likely only be used by developers. IMO it's also hard to have long-term, engaging discussions over IRC. I think using discord allows you to cultivate a more vibrant community, not just of developers but also general people who may be interested in IPFS, IPLD, etc..

[Stebalien]

Agreed on a), https://riot.im/app/#/group/+ipfs:matrix.org is currently kind of painful to manage as only @Stebalien can do it. @Stebalien thoughts?

+ipfs:matrix.org (community) is unrelated to #ipfs:matrix.org (room). Remaking the room won't fix the fact that, at the moment, communities can have only one admin (as far as I can tell). At the moment, that community only really exists to reserve the name.

Given that we have the Matrix community, riot.im makes it super easy. I don't see why creating another bridge to discord c) would make it simpler.

The idea behind bridges is that it gives users choice. They can choose to use whatever protocol they want and still participate in the same room.

Basically, it's not an either-or, it's a both. IMO, as long as setting up the bridge/server is easy and doesn't hurt either the IRC or matrix users, we might as well offer the choice.

Personally while I have no qualms with IRC, I don't think IRC is very condusive to a vibrant community as it will most likely only be used by developers. IMO it's also hard to have long-term, engaging discussions over IRC. I think using discord allows you to cultivate a more vibrant community, not just of developers but also general people who may be interested in IPFS, IPLD, etc..

So does matrix. Personally, I have absolutely no intention of supporting or encouraging users to use a closed communication platform, I just see no issue interoperating with it.

[dignifiedquire]

Leaving my 2cents, please enable the discord bridge, for me personally the UX of discord is worlds better than matrix/riot/, at least today.

[leshokunin]

Hey guys, I'm the admin on the IPFS Discord.

Let's keep things simple: we all want to have more IPFS fans. Having the bridge helps with this goal.
I don't see the upside in not collaborating. I think we can try it, see if it works, and if we're not happy with it, we'll roll back.

Cool?

[leshokunin]

Done!

[dud1337]

Seems the last update here was well before Riot's UI and cross-signing updates. Was this reconsidered?

[swedneck]

There's nothing official but shokunin's startup is sponsoring a matrix server which is currently bridging #ipfs:matrix.org to discord!

[mvdan]

Worth noting that IPFS on Matrix, bridged to other places like IRC and Discord, happened earlier this year - including more rooms like #libp2p: https://docs.ipfs.io/community/chat/