[JFingleton]

It does make me sad that in 2025 we still don't have an open real-time chat service.

IRC was too janky for widespread use... Everything else that has come after it hasn't been able to reach the "network effect". Too many options, too many half finished projects. Lots of missed opportunities.

[dijit]

Zulip works pretty well for this, rust-lang.zulipchat.com is a good example.

Completely open to guests, open-source and self hostable.

[saghul]

But network effect doesn't have an impact here, does it? Matrix exists and would be a great fit for this initiative.

If someone is committed enough to help out but using Matrix (either directly from the web browser or installing the Element client) is too big a burden I'd question that original commitment.

PS: I'm not affiliated with Matrix in any way.

[Sanzig]

I like Matrix but unfortunately it has major stability issues. The GrapheneOS project moved most of their chat over to Discord after their Matrix community got nuked twice. They still maintain a Matrix community which is bridged to their Discord instance, but most users are on the Discord side of the fence.

IMHO, Revolt is a better FOSS Discord alternative: https://revolt.chat/. Relatively young project, but they are unashamedly cloning the Discord user experience (even with the name). By default it uses infrastructure in Europe run by the project maintainers but can also be self hosted.

[dokyun]

You guys forget about XMPP or what? It's got tons of clients, lots with E2EE with OMEMO if you're into it. Matrix sucks shit by comparison.

[trbleclef]

I've been using IRC for almost 30 years. We communicate pretty easily