I am keenly aware of Discord’s flaws[1], and folks have requested I switch Doom off of it many times[2]. Our Discourse was a step in the right direction, but it’s no replacement for realtime chat, so—as mentioned in #3589#issuecomment-1116025874—I plan to create a Matrix space for Doom.
There is no ETA on this—and I may change my mind—but I’ve created this thread to track its blockers:
I need 2-3 trusted moderators for the Matrix side,
Some basic moderation tools are missing(?) on Matrix[3]:
Rule gating: Discord requires the user read the rules, have a verified email address, and can complete a CAPTCHA before they’re allowed to post.
Cross-platform mod commands: Discord mods should be able to safely ban, mute, warn, or kick a matrix user using console commands from the Discord side (and vice versa).
Mirrored deletions: Our Discord bots (including ours) may issue warnings, ban s[pc]ammers, and delete messages. Will the bridge mirror these for us?
Can these all translate to Matrix? I don’t know. If you’re Matrix-savvy—particularly with multi-room communities—I’d appreciate your input.
Please refrain from suggesting alternatives, or prodding us to expedite our Matrix plans. I’m no longer considering new platforms, and our Matrix will move forward when these blockers are adequately resolved (and I have the time for it).
Its proprietary, login-gated (without SSOs), has an abysmal search engine, and questionable leadership. ↩︎
I’m not sure. I took that to mean Element’s client implementation of Spaces was out of beta, because I couldn’t find anything official on matrix.org.
Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind once we’re closer to launching it.
These look very promising, I’ll look into them. Do you have any particular reasons for your recommendations?
I suspected as much, though, is this a client issue? Or something endemic to the protocol?
In any case, I think our Discourse addresses searchability well enough. FAQs end up here anyway (in fact, I’ve seeded #support with a bunch of common ones already). The accessibility of Matrix clients is a big enough win over Discord to warrant adoption for me (e.g. SSOs[1], more client choice, and better support for accessibility tools).
Being able to register/log in with Git{hub,lab}, Google, etc. is much more convenient. ↩︎
From what I gather, search is done server-side (so, on matrix-synapse if using this homeserver implementation) for non-encrypted channels; encrypted channels are done client-side on Element or any other client that implements it.
The good news seems to be that it’s not protocol specific; just a matrix-synapse issue?
Couldn’t agree more; I wanted to raise the search issue as I’ve been quite disappointed with it myself. Other than that I fully support the move to Matrix.
Would having the rules in the description of the Space and in the channel topics not be enough? I’m one of the mods of a channel with >2.5k users (also bridged to IRC and telegram) and we rarely get spammers or other violations of our rules. With our mods from all over the world there’s always someone online and it usually doesn’t take long to warn/kick/ban any offenders.
Or are you worried in particular about bots overwhelming the mods (because you explicitly mentioned CAPTCHAs)?
Since our rules are in a reasonably visible place on our Discord—and folks still fall through the cracks—I doubt it’d be enough, but it’s certainly a necessary first step.
My main concern are folks asking for help. Some submit to the wrong channel, others don’t do their homework before posting, and more omit common information from the get go[1]. On average, 3 in 5 posts[2] are false positives or issues that could’ve been resolved with a Google, Github, or Discourse search beforehand.
This Discourse was the first step to mitigate this[3], but I’m also working on a Discord bot. It will auto-delete messages[4] that don’t ping @helpme (and aren’t replies), then DMs the user to explain what happened and direct them to resources they likely missed—next to the rules where the @helpme requirement is documented.
At the moment, my money is on that. Maybe it’s heavy-handed, but I’d rather a bot communicate mistakes, rather than a mod (who might be grumpy that you’re the 20th one to do this today).
I just hope the bot’s actions will reach across the bridge…
Yes. It’s a problem on our Discord that our rule-gate has (apparently) fixed[5]. The few that have gotten through have been shut down by the bots[6].
That said, this is nothing new to Discord servers. Maybe it’s not so bad on Matrix?
Playing 20 questions with every user in our help channels is a tremendous time sink. ↩︎
I’ve kept a personal log of questions/answers since October 2021 so I don’t have to deal with Discord’s absymal search engine to find them again. ↩︎
Answering with a link is easier than wrestling with Discord’s search to dig up old answers. Also, Google indexes our Discourse. ↩︎
Please refrain from suggesting alternatives, or prodding us to expedite our Matrix plans. I’m no longer considering new platforms, and our Matrix will move forward when these blockers are adequately resolved (and I have the time for it).
I want to be more active on Matrix anyway
