3.5 KiB
You might have read my post on why I use Telegram or something else about Telegram I have typed, so I guess I must also blog about why I left.
- Communication - you might have seen Telegram
tweets and how there is only one tweet which they ever replied to.
However they never implemented any way to limit who can start those
secret chats (that are insecure by the
way).
- Changelogs - when I write this, Telegram Desktop changelog lags month behind the releases which there have been at least three.
- Twisted version of FOSS - They claim to be Free Open
Source Software, but they never released the source of the server
side software and they always release the source code long time after
the client has been released, even if I know Android does this too. The
third party clients suffer from the same issue, they say their code is
stolen to paid projects and thus they just stop releasing the code. As a
side issue they also don’t use
git tag. - Security - you have surely seen someone comment that Telegram is insecure and what do the founders do? They start attacking the person saying that it’s insecure instead of doing anything to the security issues. The latest case was Pavel Durov vs Edward Snowden at Twitter.
- Spam - the topic I have written the most about. At Telegram
there is no way to control who can message you (you can only report them
for spam afterwards if you don’t reply and that doesn’t apply to their
“secret chats”). As I am a woman, I get messages from many men and my
block list was around 110 people at the time I removed my account. The
issue didn’t get helped by removing username which is one big reason to
use Telegram and while I had username, it got worse when “Telegram
search engine” Intent.to listed me as a “channel or bot” which
apparently meant “dating bot” as my username was “Kissaela”, I was
probably findable with the word “kiss”.
- How other services have reslved this?
- IRCds generally have usermode +g preventing anyone from messaging
you unless you
/acceptthem or give them permision to PM you first. - Matrix/Riot requires you to create a room for even messages between two users and to message the person, you must invite them to your new room. The invited user has a choice whether to follow your invitation or refuse it.
- IRCds generally have usermode +g preventing anyone from messaging
you unless you
- How other services have reslved this?
How do you reach me now? I will be updating my SOME page to include IM accounts or kill the chat page replacing it with contact page including some kind of details on how to contact me (remember the PGP key that won’t be listed) hopefully keeping control on who can contact me. Whichever I do, you will find the SOME or Contact page from top bar. It still needs some thinking and I won’t be updating this page.
I almost forgot, you can remove your Telegram account at Telegram.org/deactivate . You are asked your phone number in international format and then security code sent t Telegram and you are asked for optional feedback before leaving and final confirmation. When you confirm, you are logged out of all Telegram clients and your account is gone. However your groups stay as ghosts.