PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS. I am looking for a React-capable, full-stack developer who would like to lead a new fork of #Element.io. The existing forks are simply not very aggressive, and there is a massive void for a project that is. I am confident that a few new features and some better documentation will make it very popular, very fast. #developers#FOSS#matrix
@erlend Sure, By aggressive, I mean a much faster evolution. I’ve been using it regularly for almost 3 years, and it makes Mastodon growth seem speedy.
As for features, off the top of my head, my short list includes images (and multiple images) embedded in messages, forwarding transmittal notes (so someone knows where a forwarded message comes from and why (the present system could start wars); in-browser search; bookmarks, room metadata, contact filters, fewer … 1/4
EE2E “session verification” procs and messages that only engineers can understand, an ID server that works with custom element clients out of the box (even their staff can’t make ours work), clarifying the confounding ambiguity between “people” (DM rooms) and any other room (it confuses everyone); space list filtering, speed search, and resizing; space utilities and features like customizable menubars, link lists, tag sets (and tuple tags), announcements, reading lists, … 2/4
room/space-specific email invite messages, disable-able presence (for large room), normal AVIs when presence disabled, room use limitations (auto-booting of inactives from big rooms), Chatterbox themes and ActivityPub integration; a less awkward and more useful “recents” list; a screen sharing icon (few users know know shift-video exists); multi-select of messages for copy. export, and archiving; more robust user profiles with user-defined data field; user-specific … 3/4
Finally, documentation aimed at people, not just engineers.
I’m sure I’ve left out a lot, but you caught me unprepared :)
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Element. I just feel all messengers are underutilized because they are optimized by engineers with a very narrow use-case perspective. Element is probably the best matrix solution we have. I just want to make it the best messenger and chat tool we have. 4/4
Practically all of these will make it on to the #CommuneApp roadmap at some point. We basically take the approach that our client experience isn’t competitive until it’s as user-friendly as Discord; that’s where the bar is set.
As such we have one key departure from Element in that with Commune encryption is opt-in rather than required from the start.
It’s also web-public (like a forum) by default to enable lurking, aka ‘anonymous vibe checks’.
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