_Note that this section is manually updated and might be missing some
links._
- Critique
- [Inconsistency issues of Element, Element and Element, also privacy concerns]({% post_url blog/2021-08-03-matrix-perfect-privacy-not %})
- [Without selfhosting a homeserver or even then, Matrix moderation tools rely on security through obscurity]({% post_url blog/2021-12-05-matrix-community-abuse-security-by-obscurity %})
- [A couple of words on protocols (on the Discuss page)](/discuss.html#a-couple-of-words-on-protocols)
<!-- START doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
<!-- DON'T EDIT THIS SECTION, INSTEAD RE-RUN doctoc TO UPDATE -->
- [Where else can I read about Matrix?](#where-else-can-i-read-about-matrix)
- [Is there any kind of Matrix etiquette I should know about?](#is-there-any-kind-of-matrix-etiquette-i-should-know-about)
- [How do you do custom not-emoji reactions?](#how-do-you-do-custom-not-emoji-reactions)
- [What are ghost and puppets?](#what-are-ghost-and-puppets)
- [What does the public history visibility mean? I don't want to appear in search engines](#what-does-the-public-history-visibility-mean-i-dont-want-to-appear-in-search-engines)
- [Can I see who is in any specific room without being there?](#can-i-see-who-is-in-any-specific-room-without-being-there)
- [What are state resets?](#what-are-state-resets)
- [How about DAG splits?](#how-about-dag-splits)
- [Can I have a non-federated room?](#can-i-have-a-non-federated-room)
- [What exactly is room upgrading?](#what-exactly-is-room-upgrading)
- [What are these idlekicks for inactivity, why are they for?](#what-are-these-idlekicks-for-inactivity-why-are-they-for)
- [But the relaybots look so ugly](#but-the-relaybots-look-so-ugly)
- [I am told that I should Matrixify my IRC channel, what does that mean?](#i-am-told-that-i-should-matrixify-my-irc-channel-what-does-that-mean)
- [Why should I use Matrix instead of IRC?](#why-should-i-use-matrix-instead-of-irc)
- [Why isn't Pirate Party of Finland using Matrix?](#why-isnt-pirate-party-of-finland-using-matrix)
- [I don't currently want to touch Matrix, but I am seeing abuse from there, what can I do?](#i-dont-currently-want-to-touch-matrix-but-i-am-seeing-abuse-from-there-what-can-i-do)
- [I fear someone has said yes](#i-fear-someone-has-said-yes)
- [That doesn't help me](#that-doesnt-help-me)
- [Personal questions](#personal-questions)
- [Why so many accounts?](#why-so-many-accounts)
- [Brief history of my experiences with dead homeservers](#brief-history-of-my-experiences-with-dead-homeservers)
- [Why do you use Matrix URI scheme instead of matrix.to?](#why-do-you-use-matrix-uri-scheme-instead-of-matrixto)
- [Why does one of your accounts have capital letter in the username?](#why-does-one-of-your-accounts-have-capital-letter-in-the-username)
- [Which client do you recommend?](#which-client-do-you-recommend)
- [Which homeserver do you recommend?](#which-homeserver-do-you-recommend)
- [Why don't you run your own?](#why-dont-you-run-your-own)
- [Why cannot I see history in your Matrix rooms?](#why-cannot-i-see-history-in-your-matrix-rooms)
- [So do you wish Matrix to fail?](#so-do-you-wish-matrix-to-fail)
<!-- END doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
- [Miki is the Matrix wiki](https://en.miki.community/) where I will attempt to contribute to.
- [Matrix.org](https://matrix.org/) is the official website.
- [My gist repository also has notes on Matrix, mostly /devtools related ones](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/gist/src/branch/master/matrix), they predate Miki and I hope to sort more relevant or historical parts there.
- PPFI also has [a couple of Matrix files](https://git.piraattipuolue.fi/Pikaviestimet/Pikaviestimet/src/branch/master/matrix), ([GitHub mirror](https://github.com/piraattipuolue/pikaviestimet)).
<!-- and [PPFI wiki page has an article](https://wiki.piraattipuolue.fi/Matrix) ([waybackmachine](https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/https://wiki.piraattipuolue.fi/Matrix)).-->
They are implemented by multiple clients other than Element. In FluffyChat, Gomuks and Nheko you can reply to something with `/react something` to add a `something` reaction. In Hydrogen there is a `...` next to emojis allowing you to enter freeform text as a reaction. In Schildichat Android when you search for a reaction, it offers to send your search as a freeform-reaction.
[Element-Web doesn't support this yet](https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/19409) and while there is [open pull request](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/pull/6628), the merging is blocked due to Element not knowing how to handle moderation and reporting for malicious reactions.
- A ghost is a Matrix account on another protocol like IRC or XMPP (controlled from Matrix).
- A puppet is the opposite, a Matrix account controlled from another protocol such as IRC or XMPP (the controller/puppetmaster being the user there).
- A double-puppet is when you are using both protocols and have connected them to each other such as a message from Discord appears as your real Matrix account and message from Matrixx appears as your real Discord account instead of something virtual only existing due to the bridge.
Additionally [Matrix Foundation considers members-only history as public and will show it to anyone through archive.matrix.org](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-public-archive/blob/main/docs/faq.md#why-does-the-archive-user-join-rooms-instead-of-browsing-them-as-a-guest). Thus if you have a semi-public room on Matrix, you should follow these steps:
- Set your room history visibility to "since user joined the room" or at least
"since the user was invited".
- Set the room join rule to `knock` or `invite` -only. If you really need to,
you may also use `restricted` or `knock_restricted`, but be careful to not
allow access from public rooms (although this will still protect you from
matrix-public-archive).
- Consider enabling end-to-end-encryption while it's generally not adviced for
You can try [Matrix Public Archive](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-public-archive/), e.g. for Matrix HQ [archive.matrix.org/r/matrix:matrix.org](https://archive.matrix.org/r/matrix:matrix.org)
omitting the leading `#`.
_If you too consider that undesirable, you can [join us at matrix-org/matrix-public-archive#47 requesting the ability to opt-out](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-public-archive/issues/47) and ban `@archive:matrix.org` from your rooms in hopes that it will be enough._
Alternatively if the room in question has an alias, you can try poking the room directory API e.g. for [#matrix.fi:matrix.org](matrix:r/matrix.fi:matrix.org): [https://matrix-client.matrix.org/\_matrix/client/v3/directory/room/%23matrix.fi%3Amatrix.org](https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/client/v3/directory/room/%23matrix.fi%3Amatrix.org), you get the room ID and list of homeservers in it and if you see a single user (or otherwise not so popular homeserver), you can make educated guesses on who may be in the room. Note that this particular link requires `matrix.org` to be in the room and aware of the alias.
in the past adding/removing users who were (or weren't) in the room at that time.
This also affects administrator/moderator access.
[This issue was supposed to be fixed at room version 2 with Stare Resolution Version 2](https://spec.matrix.org/latest/rooms/#complete-list-of-room-versions),
but regardless [still happens in all versions after that](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/8629). If you are affected, your best bet is to
`/upgraderoom {{site.matrixLatestRoomVersion}}`, which is a bit distruptive operation as all your users have to join the upgraded version and all homeservers involved must support it.
You shouldn't just trust me or the variable on this site on what is the latest version, [consult the Spec](https://spec.matrix.org/latest/rooms/#complete-list-of-room-versions) and add [Version Checker](matrix:u/version:maunium.net) or [Fluff Generator](matrix:u/+:jae.fi) or [their sibling](https://github.com/maubot/rsvc) to your room and once they join, `!servers upgrade {{site.matrixLatestRoomVersion}}` replacing the {{site.matrixLatestRoomVersion}} with your target version.
- [Matrix Specification on ACL](https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/#server-access-control-lists-acls-for-rooms)
- [matrix-org/matrix-spec#928: Consider handling server ACLs through event auth rules rather than at the network level #928](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/928)
### What are these idlekicks for inactivity, why are they for?
Some Matrix rooms decide to connect their channel to IRC maintaining the same users on both sides, which can be heavy for the IRC network depending on bridge type of which there are three "major" variants:
- matrix-appservice-irc which creates a ghost for every Matrix user on the IRC side. All of these pretend to be separate clients, so if you have 1000 ghosts at IRC, all internal PING/PONG (keepalive) traffic will be sent 1000 times every few minutes and so will every message received.
- heisenbridge has two modes, either it acts as a IRC bouncer keeping everything separate for every user or a single bot connection to IRC while creating puppets for IRC users to use at Matrix. It also supports RELAYMSG for more modern IRC networks.
- matterbridge is the most lightweight of the three working as a traditional relaybot on both sides. Unlike the others, it doesn't require selfhosting your own homeserver making it the most accessible for those with less resources and the option I use whenever possible. Sadly it doesn't look that great [without RELAYMSG support I live in hope of Matrix implementing one day](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/840).
As matrix-appservice-irc very quickly becomes traffic-intensive, its operators generally have agreement with IRC networks (or are IRC networks by themselves) to remove unused connections after a month or three of inactivity, which is judged by lack of public read-receipts anywhere the bridge can see. It could have been implemented better [pretending to be a server instead](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/issues/329), which would have a problem of practically being `root` and thus not many IRC networks would open their door to a third party bridge and the Ergo IRCd doesn't even support server linking (opting to be HA instead, but more of that in "Why should I use Matrix instead of IRC?").
Being a server would also resolve IRC users getting annoyed by huge disconnection floods whenever matrix-appservice-irc restarts as it could be [batched by the IRCd users are connected to](https://ircv3.net/specs/batches/netsplit).
The issues of matrix-appservice-irc grow worse when the room has bridges to other protocols, as those grow the IRC user count, use nicknames (sometimes capturing nicknames of people using both protocols and may be difficult to regain if the bridge doesn't answer to `!irc nick SomethingElse`) especially when the other protocol doesn't support direct/private messages and doesn't have even that excuse of using a connection slot.
I hope this answer helped explain why this behaviour exists and that IRC users aren't opposed to bridging out of malice.
#### But the relaybots look so ugly
IRC users have dealt with them since always, I tend to use Limnoria IRC bot which is forked from Supybot and has had the Relay plugin (for relaying messages between multiple IRC networks) [since possibly before `Wed Feb 2 06:45:35 2005 +0000`](https://github.com/progval/Limnoria/commit/e4e5c1482489451c1ae9b6b4ee9b9147a295320e) and I imagine it was far from the first IRC relay.
This means that even before IRCv3 RELAYMSG and displayname proposals, which I wish to merge so modern clients could show displaynames and legacy RELAYMSGs, there have been client-side solutions that have also been evolving:
- Irssi I haven't used personally, but I hear it has a [detelexify](https://github.com/zouppen/irssi-detelexify/) that looks a bit like it's made with Heisenbridge in mind.
- WeeChat used to have a separate script for this, but at version 1.1 in gained the Trigger plugin able to perform actions without scripts, thus meaning you can use something like [this Relaybot 2 Trigger example](https://github.com/weechat/weechat/wiki/Triggers#relaybot-2) without having to install anything (while `/script` would be easy too).
No reason, if IRC suits you better than Matrix. As I have said before, I find
maintaining IRC easier. IRC also tends to work better for me in poor network conditions
and with [IRCv3](https://ircv3.net/) specifications and implemented draft proposals,
it can be very pleasant modern experience without the issues that come from federation.
There is a usecase for every tool and while federation is important feature
in general I am yet to miss it in IRC.
I keep mentioning Ergo IRCd, which [scales](https://github.com/ergochat/ergo/blob/master/docs/MANUAL.md#scalability), has serverside history and integrated bouncer
feature so it's just a matter of adding it to your IRC client alongside your
SASL credentials and you will receive your offline messages whenever you
reconnect. Ergo also supports `RELAYMSG` making messages from other protocols
seem more native to read and many graphical IRC clients even provide integrated
image uploading support.
[Pirate Party of Finland](https://piraattipuolue.fi/en) considers Ergo-based [PirateIRC](https://pirateirc.net/)
and [its webchat](https://webchat.pirateirc.net/) a reasonable fallback should we have to leave other protocols
If you are using Telegram or Discord, you are out of luck, as while you can
remove messages, that may get removed from Matrix, you cannot remove the
abusive users. If you are using XMPP you may be out of luck.
However if you use IRC and the Matrix users are behind matrix-appservice-irc
([check this list](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/blob/develop/docs/bridged_networks.md) or your network operators) you may be in luck as long as
[you or your ops haven't answered "yes" to the Matrix bot](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/issues/462).
Matrix-appservice-irc attempts to sync permissions from IRC in a limited fashion,
and if it's unable to join a ghost (see an earlier question), it will kick the
user from Matrix for as long as the ban stays in place.
In other words, if you were using Matrix personally, the IRC bridge would
drastically increase the moderation tools available for you! You can now use
wildcard bans that aren't natively supported and even extbans like (LiberaChat's)
`/mode #yourchannel +b $r:*:matrix.org*` to ban all matrix.org users from your
removed the matrix-appservice-irc bot from power thus preventing it from
kicking users banned from IRC letting them spam freely on Matrix while being
invisible to IRC. In even worse scenario the abusive user was given power
and they are immune to whatever is done from IRC.
There is also the chance that [a netsplit gives a Matrix user moderator permissions that are never removed when sync occurs](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/issues/518).
[late 2021](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/gist/src/commit/b50dacc0a457754c44ee901ce9e78988a39714fa/associations/feneas/meeting-logs/2021-12-09-annual-general-assembly.txt) and [early
2022](https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/gist/src/commit/f3277852084d1a644189c7f9198f0bf470bc0ba4/associations/feneas/meeting-logs/2022-01-04-annual-general-meeting.txt) we decided to disband the association due to
I dislike matrix.to as a concept. It's a centralized service on decentralized protocol and in my opinion it shows lack of self-esteem on Matrix side considering neither XMPP or IRC require something like it, both of those trust being known or handled appropiately.
Honestly the only one that I can recommend is [Nheko nightly flatpak](https://flatpak.neko.dev/repo/nightly/appstream/io.github.NhekoReborn.Nheko.flatpakref), even if it's also missing features I care about such as [Stories (#1038)](https://github.com/Nheko-Reborn/nheko/issues/1038).
I have also said it before, but for any serious use of Matrix, you will need [Element Web](https://github.com/vector-im/element-web) and especially the `/devtools` command it has.
If you absolutely need Matrix somewhere neither fits you, maybe [Hydrogen](https://github.com/vector-im/hydrogen-web) is your _PWA_ hoping your needs don't include too many Matrix accounts ([#783](https://github.com/vector-im/hydrogen-web/issues/783), [#817](https://github.com/vector-im/hydrogen-web/pull/817)) and hoping you [don't use SailfishOS](https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/progressive-web-app-pwa-in-native-browser/3867?u=mikaela) ([#1000](https://github.com/sailfishos/sailfish-browser/issues/1000)) or [Ubuntu Touch (#1144)](https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/1144).
<!-- The one that fits your needs. Personally I mix-and-match:
- I am a Finnish translator and moderator. It does multiple accounts.
- hydrogen.element.io PWA mainly on mobile, sometimes on desktop
- It's the only Matrix client that is yet to log me out randomly, very stable, multiple account support and so far the only Matrix client running on Nokia 1 (TA-1047).
- develop.element.io / Element flatpak on desktop
-`/devtools` is essential (see my critiques), and they don't support Fedora.
- Nheko nightly flatpak on desktop
- I am a Finnish translator, it's actually the most Spec-complete client in my experience without long delays before something becomes supported and it's lightweight probably for being a native app instead of Electron.
I am hesistant to recommend any. Finnish users may be interested in the [Linux.fi wiki listing](https://www.linux.fi/wiki/Matrix), everyone else may be served by [joinmatrix.org listing](https://joinmatrix.org/servers/).
As can be read between the lines from my critiques, I don't consider any homeserver to be in the state that it's either safe to run legally or lightweight enough or not require constant maintenance as opposed to IRC which I do selfhost.
The world situation in general discourages me from anything as heavy.
_The lucky Matrix number is `{{site.matrixLatestRoomVersion}}`, but do [consult the Spec for that](https://spec.matrix.org/latest/rooms/#complete-list-of-room-versions) and definitely ask `!servers upgrade {{site.matrixLatestRoomVersion}}` from [Version Checker](matrix:u/version:maunium.net) or [Fluff Generator](matrix:u/+:jae.fi) or [their siblings](https://github.com/maubot/rsvc)._
