I feel like the obvious winner in this case would be Matrix. Synapse can be a bit of a bear to set up, but you get E2EE in both 1:1 and Rooms, things can be organized into Spaces and you're able to freely join and leave any room or space that's irrelevant to you. Administration isn't all that bad when you're running a Private server, but it comes with costs in terms of the resources needed to store and serve the various components of Matrix. Would be curious if anyone has any proclivities toward another service with similar offerings. On Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at 3:49 PM, John Stoffel via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> wrote:
Hi all, A bunch of us are also chatting on signal (look in the email archives for a link to join!) and I feel like we're leaving the email forum users behind.
And we need to keep the WLUG community working together and sharing together, no matter what their systems or resources are.
I found this interesting article on replacing discord with something new.
https://taggart-tech.com/discord-alternatives/
And I thought we as a group show evaluate some of these options as well. In order of requirements I think:
- needs to be open - WLUG needs to control the data - needs to have clients across a swath of systems. - web based - CLI / plain text based - Apple/Android clients. - searchable - able to organize a bit into channels. - announcements - regular chat - questions or howtos
Right now I enjoy the signal chat and how free form it is, but since I can only read it on my phone because getting a CLI client working is a pain... and I don't want to install the signal app on my work laptop.
So what do people think?
John _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug@lists.wlug.org To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave@lists.wlug.org Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/XQDKNE...