Re: matrix.org as a replacement for IRC?

[Brendan Higgins <brendanhiggins@google.com>]

On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 5:06 AM Aneesh Kumar K.V
<aneesh.kumar@linux.ibm.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,

Full disclosure: I use both Martrix and IRC.

> Was there any discussion around using matrix.org or any other
> alternative as a replacement for IRC? This should help to avoid setting
> up irc proxy to keep track of discussion when the users are not online.

I think that matrix.org is very useful. However, I wouldn't replace IRC with it.

I use Matrix's bridging functionality to basically act as a cloud IRC
client (since it's free and I only use it with IRC channels which are
public anyway), but I do mostly use a local IRC client for my day to
day.

I like the features that Matrix gives you, and I think that it
provides a web interface which is less unfamiliar to a newbie.
However, I do think for someone who knows IRC, the overhead of joining
Matrix is meaningfully higher than joining a new IRC server/channel.
Also, the features Matrix provides are not very useful if you either
have a bouncer, a cloud IRC client, or you don't care about history or
access from a mobile device.

So I definitely see Matrix vs. IRC as a tradeoff if you are living in
the all-or-nothing world, and a tradeoff that many people would
reasonably not want to make. Nevertheless, as I mentioned, it doesn't
have to be that way: just use the Matrix bridge feature and then
everyone is happy. You get to use Matrix if you want, everyone who
just wants to keep using IRC is happy too. (Also, you don't need to
ask for permission to do this either.)

Cheers