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Discord Users Threaten Exodus Over Age Verification Face Scan Controversy (www.newsweek.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Starting in early March, the platform will place every account into a default "teen-appropriate" experience unless it has proof that users are adults.

The move has brought widespread criticism from Discord users, who are citing privacy and security concerns following a recent breach of a third-party vendor that ended up exposing around 70,000 government ID images used to verify the age of Discord users.

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[–] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

I'm not threatening, I'm gonna do it. We'll see how my game jams go after this. I doubt my entire community will follow me.

Edit: I downloaded Element X for Matrix, and it seems to only be capable of creating a single chat similar to WhatsApp. Tried to download Revolt, and I cant get that one to even send me a verification code to my email. Starting of strong here...

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    Matrix allows you to structure rooms pretty similar to Discord. It's called a "space" that can then have rooms. Also Sub-spaces with more rooms. You can then manage access by inheritance or really granular on a space / room level. E.g. hidden / public rooms and spaces.

    A few notes though:

    • If you can create a space / room might depend on the Matrix server you are on and what capabilities the server admin gives you.
    • There is always the option to completely self-host your Matrix instance - like Lemmy, Mastodon, etc. Depends on how tech savvy you are and if self-hosting is worth it to you ( can mean a ton of work).
    • I am not claiming Matrix is a full on Discord replacement. Discord has it's advantages, but so does Matrix if autonomy, privacy, security are important to you. Matrix does have also neat features and bot-ability... but it's clearly not as easy as Discord. Good enough for many FOSS projects / communities though.
    • IMO one key concept (besides decentralization / federation) that can be hard to grasp for new users is the concept of the recovery key that you get in addition to your username / password. Also does not help that there is "legacy" Element and Element X which add some confusion as they differ a bit in functionality.
    • Personally I really like Matrix. Cinny might be an alternative client that might appeal more to you than Element. If you are into self-hosting tuwunel might be worth a look (or matrix synapse if you want to go with the OG server implementation)
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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Thanks for the tips! I only just downloaded Matrix. (Element X) to my phone. I'll have to do some more research on it. I personally could probably set up my own instance if I had to, work it to me, probably not. I mostly use discord for game jam hosting these days, and DnD with my friends. So, if the level of effort is high, or the barrier to entry isn't low, I don't imagine ill get a lot of people switching over to the new space. I guess we'll see what happens.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

    To play around you can either use Element X or go to https://app.element.io/#/welcome and use the Element web version. ~~It's basically the same client. ~~ Then create your account with matrix.org - you should be able to create your own space + sub-spaces + rooms to play around with inviting users, get familiar with permissions, etc. There might be limits with video / voice calls - not sure about the public, free matrix.org server.

    If Matrix is a good fit you can then look through the offerings of some of the respected hosters listed here: https://matrix.org/ecosystem/hosting/ Then you don't have to do everything yourself. They will maintain the infrastructure and your base installation and you can focus on being just the super user / admin (with your own domain) and build your community.

    IMO the only real "hurdle" compared to traditional apps is that in addition to your username / password you also get a "recovery key". That's the key for encryption and people are not used to having an additional key. If you lose that key you can still log in and see new conversions but you will not be able to read old conversations that were encrypted using the old key. A workaround for your community might be to not enable encryption in your community rooms (when creating a room you can decide if its contents are encrypted or not). IMO totally worth the little bit of extra effort, but yeah - not something users are familiar with.

    Edit: as @WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works pointed out Element X does not yet support Space management. You can check out https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/ for more clients. I really like Cinny (another web client - just checked and it supports space management). On mobile you can maybe try FluffyChat (not sure about space management - but I think they do as spaces are listed as feature).

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago*

    A workaround for your community might be to not enable encryption in your community rooms

    or another workaround is to tell them: if they don't want to deal with the recovery key, that's fine, but then they should treat it like signal where if you lose your devices, you lose your old messages. its fine to most people if they know the consequences of their choices beforehand, I think, and this way it won't feel like an obligation, like a needy app

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    in element x you can't yet manage spaces. It's silly but it's a relatively new app and and development goes slowly for some reason. you can create the space in element web though, probably element desktop too because they are the same thing.

    about the difficulty of registration. you could recommend an instance to them, so they don't need to choose themselves if they don't want to. I recommend one that has set up single signon and element call, and is medium sized (so that it is somewhat prepared for spam waves). https://tchncs.de/en/matrix/ is like that.
    what would be even better is if it was using tuwunel instead of synapse, because the former is the more efficient matrix server software, but the other is good enough too.

    if you want to put in some more effort, you can have some insight into matrix servers with this tool: https://federationtester.mtrnord.blog/?serverName=tchncs.de

    • overview tab shows at top the server software and its version. synapse is official but very resource heavy for the operator, tuwunel is more efficient
    • well-known tab can indicate element call support by having defined org.matrix.msc4143.rtc_foci with livekit. I can't believe there is no easier way to check this!
    • single signon is supported when the element client's login page for this server allows signing in with external accounts, like github, google, tchncs.de account, etc.

    and you can find a list of public servers to check here: https://servers.joinmatrix.org/

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