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There has been a fair amount of discussion recently about switching from the IRC platform QuakeNet to another platform for instant messaging. I've listened to a few people and the main reason for moving off QuakeNet would be the lack of TLS encryption. Recent discussion: https://irclogs.wildfiregames.com/%230ad/2024/08/2024-08-14-QuakeNet-%230ad.log https://irclogs.wildfiregames.com/%230ad-dev/2024/08/2024-08-07-QuakeNet-%230ad-dev.log There are a few requirements other than TLS. The solution should: be open source be libre, be free, ideally not be self hosted or at least part of something we already host. provide a web chat, for people not willing to install extra software. should allow logging the channels for posterity be accessible for maintainers Which basically leaves us three big families of solutions XMPP, Matrix, and obviously IRC. There is also Revolt, but it's not mature enough yet, and our test server seems to have been deleted. This also defacto forbids things like Discord. There is also Mattermost, but we would need to self-host it. Same thing for Rocket.Chat used by Godot: https://chat.godotengine.org/home You can read their reasons there. XMPP has the advantage that we're already hosting a server for the lobby, and that could open with interesting synergies if linked with the game. Matrix is a good contender, although there seem to be a preference for XMPP in the opensource world for some reason. There is already a semi-official matrix channel see https://linktr.ee/wildfire_games Something nice is it seems to offer VOIP chat recently, which could help for hard or complex discussions which can go quickly off rails with chat. Zulip: is another option. I haven't really heard of it, so might be nice for our usage, but maybe nice to test it out. IRC has my vote. We have all the tooling for it, it's lightweight and simple, and you can use bridges if you really want to connect to it from somewhere else. I'm currently using a XMPP bridge to connect there. There are three main servers we could use: Oftc https://oftc.net/: The server debian uses and other project such as https://legacy.dotslashplay.it/ Libera.Chat https://libera.chat/, The server most people went to after the Freenode debacle. Everybody is there, which also means should the reason it was created occur again, we'd have to move away form it. Freegamedev https://freegamedev.net/ : A server made for open source games, which has invited us over. There does not seem to be a lot of people there, so we might be isolating ourselves, we might meet new devs though. I'd like to hear your opinions and will enrich the posts as I go. Feel free to suggest other discussions from the forums or IRC that might be relevant. EDIT1: Added Zulip

IRC channels have the downside that IRC network operators are be able to read that communication, which certainly isn't optimal, but would be fine for me. Instead of password + kicking everybody else, making such channels invite only would probably be easier. Libera.Chat also offers a channel mode (+S) to only allow users connected via a TLS-encryption to join a channel (Freegamedev supports that as well, as they don't allow unencrypted connections at all). Maybe let's start with that, see how it goes and consider a more elaborate solution later on.

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My vote is for matrix. Yes you need to get an account, but Matrix can be encrypted, and I have had a very nice time using it. I have heard that moderation isn't the best, though, So that's one minus. Another worry is a good instachat might detract from the people who use the forums. I've looked around the Battle for Wesnoth project and literally no one's on the forums. Another thing though, and It's something some people might not want to hear, is we might want to have discord. I know the privacy policies are gross, and it's not open source etc. etc. etc. I hate discord probably more than the average person myself, but from what I can see this project has only a handful of people working on it. I'm not saying 0 A.D. is dying or anything, but it's tiny for a game of this quality and size. We need to try to make this project a bit more accessible for the "new kids". Moving to git/Gitea is a plus, because people won't have to deal with a weird/ outdated version tracker. But we also need an easy way for people to get into the community. Most people don't want to have to download a new app, get another account, figure out an entire new interface and all that stuff. The communities for minetest, endless sky and even battle for wesnoth (which none of them look as cool as 0 A.D.) are bigger than ours. What's the big difference? Well they all use GitHub for version control, (but we have mirrors and that doesn't really help) but they also have discord. Again I'm not saying Discord is amazing, I really hate it, but we might want to grit our teeth and have a discord in some capacity in order to get more people. We can have bridges and stuff and backups and other methods but I think if we want 0 A.D. to flourish it might be our best bet. In summary, if we need an instachat my personal vote is for Matrix, but I would strongly suggest we as a community swallow our pride/take a hit on our lofty OSS values and embrace discord to a certain extent so we have more than two dozen people in the community. I know more people visit, but it seems like its only Gurkan Kan Wowgetoffyourphone, me, Vantha, and Stan and like 3 others are the people who post more than once or twice a month. And I'm sure contributing code is something similar. (Also, why does the forum text field say my content needs approved by a moderator?)

Holy moly, this is how you design a civ. i am pretty inspired by this! Surely, the actual Chinese civ will probably end up quite different, but I love how he laid this all out, the thought that went into it, and the organization of it all.