Re: Matrix IRC bridge considered harmful

[Michael Catanzaro <mcatanzaro gnome org>]

On Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 4:15 pm, Britt Yazel <bwyazel gnome org> wrote:
> Attached is an image of the compact mode + dark theme. Just for the 
> record.

The thing is, it really comes down to personal preference. I suspect we 
have a lot of people who like web clients, and a lot of people who just 
don't. With open protocols like IRC, XMPP, or Matrix, where lots of 
client choice exists, you can use whatever you prefer. It's no problem 
if you don't like any particular client because you can just use a 
different one.

Myself, I like to see GNOME clients: polari, dino, fractal, chatty. 
They look good next to our other apps, and vindicate the potential of 
our desktop platform. But if we're going to have a web client, at the 
very least do it using WebKitGTK, like Revolt does, to stick with GNOME 
technologies and avoid bundling Electron.

I'll also suggest: whatever we use, it'd be nice to select something 
with the potential to become a widely-accepted standard, like IRC used 
to be. Chat has become a failed disaster area of fragmented walled 
gardens, and when we have a choice between an emerging standard and yet 
another silo, I think there's tremendous value in choosing the standard.

Michael