Back

@mattl@social.coop yeah, you need to register in a homeserver to be able to send (and not just preview) messages

you could take a look at a list like https://servers.joinmatrix.org and pick the one you feel like the most

many people do use matrix.org, but it's infamous for its frequent slowdowns, mostly coming from the amount of users it has

@mattl one alternative is to set up a private one. That's what I did. It's quite nice because you build your own little setup and invite people etc.
https://etke.cc/

$20 bucks a month is pretty reasonable. You can also invite your friends/family and have jitsi calls etc. And of course, you can join other servers as well and participate.
ETA - it took about 24 hours to pay and get the service with 2 urls for admin and user links.

@mattl The point of Matrix is that it's basically decentralized open-source Discord. However if everyone just joins the main instance it defeats the decentralized aspect. You can self host if you know how, but most people don't or are not hardcore enough to. I've self hosted my own for a bit but that's because I'm kind of a huge nerd sometimes. It's also bloated and will choke if you try federate with large rooms. I'm sure it would be cool if you just used it for private one-on-one messaging with people you know, but everyone treats it like Discord. Long story short it's just not really viable. Short story is, yes, join the main instance.

Good Dr @mattl You pick a Matrix instance to be your "home server" from here you can join channels and direct message other people on other servers. Different groups and like at conferences etc often create a Space which is a way to aggregate a collection of semi private rooms. Just like with Mastodon whoever hosts your Matrix user should be trustworthy. I use envs.net because its tangentially connected with / i heard about it through the tilde . club folks. This site (https://servers.joinmatrix.org/) has a helpful list of open servers. I'm tempted to join data.coop just found them as I was typing this up.

Once youre setup feel free to ping me @mnw:envs.net

For mobile I use Fluffy Chat and sometimes Element (the official client version ) https://fluffychat.im/

On the mac I like to use the Element Client I tried and didnt like the others. https://element.io/download

Could do a JitsiMeet to chat about Matrix and how I've used and failed at using it if you are bored over the weekend :)