There seem to be plentiful options for text chat servers, so I’m curious for those that self-host their own, what their preferences & experiences have been with them.

Also those mentioned in the title were just a few examples, if you run something else, e.g. Revolt or Mattermost or something else less popular, would be interested in reading about it!

  • Shmandom@feddit.ukEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    XMPP with prosody is good once you’ve figured out the modules you need.

    Unfortunately, I had to quit a few years back as there was no reliable iOS client. Long story short: notifications were never working as expected on that plateform.

    Matrix.org is overkill for my needs, but at least notifications work accross the board 👍

    • caseyweederman@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Mine just stopped working when not on the local network and I haven’t had the energy to find out why and then to fix it and then to convince everyone I’d brought in that this time will be different

  • russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.netEnglish
    41·
    1 year ago

    I’m a big fan of Matrix, as it’s easily accessible from anywhere - plus I already have a server for it spun up going on two years now which makes it easier for me.

      • russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.netEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Personally, its a combination of the following reasons:

        • I’m not held to another server, and self-hosting my own makes sure that whomever hosting the server doesn’t just close the doors one day and decide they’re no longer going to do so

        • I find it fun to setup my own services, like Matrix, Lemmy, Mastodon, etc

        • I control what servers are blocked / defederated from, from my knowledge though defederating on Matrix doesn’t happen nearly as often as it does for ActivityPub based platforms however.

        • I created Matrix accounts for some of my family members to communicate with, and if they lose the password I know that I can reset it for them rather than hoping they setup the account recovery info correctly.

  • EngineerGaming@feddit.nlEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I recently started hosting XMPP with Prosody, and now try to get people besides my family there. Thought of Matrix but it seems to be the same thing but bloated. Most of my groupchat socialization is on IRC (I have a bouncer in the same place), but that’s not with people I know IRL.

  • mariom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Place where you have most of your friends…

    Used to xmpp, but it died naturally over the time and someday I just stopped my prosody server. Nowadays - a bit of IRC (few friends still are there) and discord (not selfhosted, but from all the alternatives… feels best).

    • Chobbes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      XMPP didn’t really die a natural death, it was kind of murdered. It’s still around though, and works great, but of course the problem is as you mentioned — your friends probably aren’t using it.

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzBEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    Git Popular version control system, primarily for code
    IP Internet Protocol
    SSO Single Sign-On
    TCP Transmission Control Protocol, most often over IP
    VPN Virtual Private Network
    VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

    5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 11 acronyms.

    [Thread #119 for this sub, first seen 8th Sep 2023, 07:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

  • CAPSLOCKFTW@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’m in a irc channel with a bunch of internet friends. I like how ancient it is, it reminds me of the old internet. The limitations are severe however and I would never suggest to anyone to use IRC as a text chat server. Without these people and the nostalgia I would go for matrix I think.

  • hitagi@ani.socialEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Matrix but then I realized I only used it for the bridges so now I use Beeper instead. RIP my Matrix server which only served two people.

    • Tamás Barta@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Beeper is pretty good, but the security model is only acceptable with self hosting for me. I’m yet to set up the LinkedIn bridge, but I’m pretty close to what they offer.

  • pqdinfo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Matrix is good, though I’ve been reconsidering it ever since I read this: https://telegra.ph/why-not-matrix-08-07

    Also I’ve considered it less than perfect since they added encryption and managed to make it a hell to set up. If you can’t get people to understand Mastodon because “yOu hAvE To cHoOsE A SeRvEr” how the hell are you going to get them to set up a Matrix account when it involves downloading files and other crap that you need to keep with you when setting up all your clients.

    Revolt looks nice but until it’s possible to use one account (and browser tab) to access multiple servers (in the computing sense, not the Discord sense), it’s not going to be ideal as a Discord replacement.