mikaela.github.io/_posts/2016-11-26-telegram-second-chance.md

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I have blogged about Telegram a lot and I thought I would end it to leaving it, but that didnt happen. However I MUST type about the current situation I have with it.

TL;DR I dont recommend Telegram for anyone if you arent forced to use it and to protect myself I am not setting username. As I dont recommend it, I am there only with my primary phone number (DO NOT SHARE IT), if someone needs to contact me, use Matrix @Ciblia:matrix.org or Wire (myname at myname dot info).


If you havent read my blog previously, you might want to read the aspects of Telegram I have written about earlier:

  • How to private message people on Telegram without getting reported for spam
    • Where I have Telegrams spam issue my issue and try to make it clear to its users that they are not behaving properly.
  • Why I use Telegram?
    • Where I talk about the positive aspects.
  • Telegram tweets where I refer often
    • The beginning (and end) with communication with Telegram developers.
      • I have also tweeted to Wire multiple times and I cannot remember any tweet that they havent replied just as a side-note…
  • Why to not use Telegram?
    • Where I finally leave Telegram and talk about the negative aspects.

I also think I am not going to edit all of those posts and if you have a problem, feel free to send Pull Requests.


So in the previous episode I left Telegram (and after a long time briefly visited it again as there were problems with relaybot (which simply moved to another persons API key) but it was too stressful so I left almost immediately) and now after a long time I have returned there.

I would have preferred avoiding it, but I started learning Esperanto on Sunday (20th) in the freenode channel (use ALIS) I was overspoken to returning there as Telegram is very popular with Esperantists (link in Esperanto).

This brings me back Telegram issues where the only ones that I can affect are:

  • Twisted version of FOSS
    • As the app is open source even if the source is released long time after releases, its in F-Droid which is Android app store for FOSS apps, which has compiled it (removing GCM support and possibly other propietary parts) I installed Telegram from there and I know the app which I am using is open source even if it lags long behind the Play Store version.
  • Spam
    • I dont set username (killing one of the only good things in Telegram) as that would allow anyone to contact me instead of only the people who have my number or are in common group with me.
    • I only join groups that I actually need to join avoiding bigger groups that might potentially be nice, but which would surely lure spammers. This is another good feature of Telegram killed.
      • This way to contact me you must have my number or be in common group and I might know which group the spammer is part of and in addition to reporting them for spam I can also report them to the group admin possibly getting them removed. I dont think Esperantists, SailfishOS fans or autists tolerate spamming.

Originally I was trying to be at Telegram using both phones (OnePlus3 & Jolla1), but people found it too confusing so I decided to kill the less private account to avoid confusion. It also makes the message that I dont support Telegram more clear, but makes contacting me more difficult for Telegram users who actually have something to say to me, but that is their problem. Do NOT give my phone number to these people.

I think my primary communication protocol is currently Matrix where I am @Ciblia:matrix.org, but IRC isnt going anywhere either (especially thanks to Matrixs IRC bridge). I have also started warming to Wire which doesnt require phone number (when registering using the web or desktop apps), seems to have better encryption than Telegram (which is not surprising) which is based on Signal and works on multiple devices without having to keep one connected all the time.