Fair point, you're correct. I should have said that it doesnt matter if Signal is meant for private instead of anonymous communications when its user id system inherently has privacy flaws.
amanneedsamaid
joined 2 years ago
scli exists, but Signal's support for third party clients is pretty dogshit. The frontend uses signal-cli commands in the background, and worked well when I used it a few months ago. It doesnt have every single feature the electron one does, but it did everything I needed it to.
- Phone numbers are not any easier than usernames, and contacts do sync via XMPP. Frictonlessness is secondary to the functionality of the app.
- You act like anonymity is a toggle switch. There are levels to how personally identifiable a user ID is, and at the very top top level are phone numbers.
Phone Numbers < Chosen Usernames (XMPP) < Singular Random User IDs (Session), < Per-Conversation Randomized User IDs (SimpleX).
You also aren't taking into account metadata, whose availablity is directly impacted by a messenger's user ID system.
Trying to make the argument the phone number requirement isn't Signal's biggest detractor, but is actually a positive feature, are based on nothing but you thinking that.
Matrix is heavier to self host, and anecdotally I think a lot better for communities / group chats than instant messaging.
XMPP is easier to self host, doesn't leak a shit ton of metadata to an overused homeserver, and has better clients on all platforms but iOS.
Element's (matrix's most developed cross-platform client) feature parity is really impressive though.
- The phone number requirement is by far Signals largest downside, and usernames have been their most requested feature.
- Signing up with a username and password is not more complicated than putting in a phone number.
- Thats assuming a lot about the XMPP server you're using. I've never experienced downtime with mine, so either pick one with a good history for reliability, or self host.
Dino is a much better desktop client than Signal's imo. Especially because Signal only distributes their desktop app as debs and flatpaks. Mobile apps aren't as good looking, but Conversations is more performant. iOS clients are the only missing link to make that last point moot, and I think Monal is getting there.
Im sure ending wokeness ought'a do something about it.
I use Fennec and Brave.
Backwards take, attempting to ban substance use is the driving reason behind international drug running organizatons buttfucking the US market.
Yes. Just go to their channel page, right click, view page source. Search the source code for channelid=(long string of letters and numbers)
Put this into your feed reader: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=(long string of letters and numbers)
Its glorified autocorrect trying to figure out how words string together coherently.