What struck me in particular from these numbers is the dislike of IRC versus the dislike of Matrix. Unfortunately, the data doesn't seem to differentiate between the people who use IRC regularly and those who don't for the question of whether they like IRC. The question I'm wondering; is it the people who use Matrix who dislike IRC or is it evenly split between those who use IRC or Matrix? (I have a suspicion, but that would be speculating without evidence.)<p>Reasonable people will disagree, but I think IRC's lack of features is actually an advantage and not a disadvantage. My opinion is that the Matrix protocol is too powerful. That being said, for a project like GNOME, it's extremely important that one maintains a form of communication that those engaged are willing to use.<p>I realise I'm an old fart for being extremely hesitant about Matrix and Discord, but fortunately, I am also not in charge of deciding any community's lines of communication.
As smart as the tech is, the smartest thing Matrix ever did was investing in solid bridging. Backwards compatibility is the best way to transition to something new, particularly if it's only incrementally better. Which is why large companies will always kill open APIs sooner or later. It's just too big of a vulnerability.
Gnome Foundation: Please use/activate the xmpp bridge to support interoperability and don't use it as walled garden (closed Matrix instance). Thoughts on interoperability:
<a href="https://www.freie-messenger.de/en/begriffe/interoperabilitaet/gedanken" rel="nofollow">https://www.freie-messenger.de/en/begriffe/interoperabilitae...</a>
It's understandable that the Gnome Foundation would want to leave IRC. It goes against the Gnome ethos they've been pushing since 2014: simpler, heavier, fewer choices. It's not like any user input on Gnome IRC over the last decade did anything to save gtk anyway. gtkfilechooserwidget.c in both gtk3 and 4 is unsalvagable and they'd much rather work on high DPI screen support for mobile and other non-computer devices. Gotta follow what Apple does.