Meta-issue: Discordification of Matrix/Synapse/Dendrites (feature request)

[DonaldTsang]

Description

There are at least a dozen issues relating to the design of Riot being too user unfriendly, and that people are suggesting designs similar to established apps like Discord and Slack.
(Please post related issues in this page for further discussion)

Issue Types:

• Better Communities (AKA Discord "servers")
• Seamless E2E with better UX
• Better "unread messages" with ping as primary type
• Tag-based user and mod/admins types (similar to Discord)
• Mumble as a default widget (instead of Jitsi as it is bad on mobile)
• (others not included in the list above)

---

I have been a Riot user for about one and a half years, and I would hope for these features to give people a better user experience (features recommended from friends in Discord)

• Room feature support
  • Custom server-based and room-based emojis
    • Have custom server emojis downloaded and be usable as a basic feature
  • Emoji collection sharing
    • Similar to Telegram, Messenger, LINE and Whatsapp, but shareable and if possible, self-hosted or user-hosted
  • Emoji reaction for texts and files (useful for voting)
  • Automated (non-manual) key sharing
    • Some people are sick of needing to sharing key every time someone gets in the room, they would like to have auto key sharing once in an E2E room
  • Multi-room search
• Community support
  • Community id generation
  • Community room mass generation
  • Community room searching
  • Community multi-admin multi-mod support
  • Community and sub-community sort
• Role and access support
  • Mass room invitation by role or community
    • invitation to a server once application is approved
  • Mass room banning/kicking by role or community
    • for when "unfavorable" behavior by certain users happen
  • Community room sub-categorization and access
    • for visitor vs club member vs club staff separation
  • Role application and removal
    • for upgrading users to automatically bring them to certain rooms
  • Announcement rooms by role
    • rooms that allows viewing but not posting unless it is staff
  • Reaction allowance by role
    • for voting by certain role but not others
• audio chat support
  • self-host SIP room support (tying SIP with server)
  • self-host Mumble room support (tying Mumble with server)
  • Radio/Playlist bot support
• collaborative support
  • self-host Etherpad/Firepad support (tying *pad with server)
  • self-host Hackmd support (tying Hackmd with server)

Cross-reference: matrix-org/synapse#4030

[ptman]

At least I have the option to search multiple rooms in riot

[ptman]

Are emoji collections the same thing as sticker packs?

[ptman]

Etherpad is available as a widget

[DonaldTsang]

@ptman I would say emoji collections are like stickerpack but hosted differently. It should be more fluid, room or server-specific and easy to trade (as a standard file), and also add (if you are a mod/admin)

Still, basic community management is not in Riot Android

[ptman]

Reactions: element-hq/element-web#1357

[DonaldTsang]

@ptman that is good progress... but for the other suggestions those features are equally important. Is it possible to get this on spec?

[D4ndellion]

Custom server-based and room-based emojis

matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#1256

Emoji reaction for texts and files (useful for voting)

matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#441

Automated (non-manual) key sharing

Automating key verification removes the entire point of E2E.
matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#1267
and Cross Signing: matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#1680
will make it a lot simpler.

Multi-room search

???

Community support

Unsure what you mean here but communities need an overhaul. But here's an interesting issue:
matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#1215

audio chat support

Jitsi is supported in client right now. Could look a bit better but it works.

self-host Mumble room support (tying Mumble with server)

Nothing stops you from hosting a mumble server and using the mumble web UI as a widget.

Radio/Playlist bot support

You could again just make a radio website and have it as a widget.. Or write a jitsi bot, or a mumble bot or what you want to do.

self-host Etherpad/Firepad support (tying *pad with server)
self-host Hackmd support (tying Hackmd with server)

Both of these are also widgettable. And you can just add them to the integration manager. Just like you can self host jitsi through dimension.

[DonaldTsang]

@dali99

Automating key verification removes the entire point of E2E.

No it does not when there is a group leader that approves who is within the group.
Cross-signing do sound innovative in its own right.

???

Multi-room search (the ability to search all rooms you are in) is a core feature of Discord.

Community Overhaul

The fact still stands that there are certain features within Discord "servers" that needs to applied to Matrix, and it will be good to list them all

Jitsi is supported in client right now.

But it is really bad in mobile

Nothing stops you from hosting a mumble server and using the mumble web UI as a widget.

Please make Mumble and/or SIP as a default widget as their apps works in mobile better.

Both of these are also widgettable. And you can just add them to the integration manager. Just like you can self host jitsi through dimension.

Another one of those times standardization makes things better (at least for those who would like to avoid companies like Google Docs in favor of FOSS hosting)

[D4ndellion]

@dali99

Automating key verification removes the entire point of E2E.

No it does not when there is a group leader that approves who is within the group.
Cross-signing do sound innovative in its own right.

If you don't verify each other keys there is no way to know who wrote the key, or to who you are encryting the message to. A web of trust thing might be neat, but it still requires some amount of verification.

???

Multi-room search (the ability to search all rooms you are in) is a core feature of Discord.

So to make it clear: searching all the rooms you're in for some sort of string? That's not a bad idea.

Community Overhaul

The fact still stands that there are certain features within Discord "servers" that needs to applied to Matrix, and it will be good to list them all
A lot of these features are already listed, and its important to realize that matrix isn't discord

Jitsi is supported in client right now.

But it is really bad in mobile

Right, but it's there.

Nothing stops you from hosting a mumble server and using the mumble web UI as a widget.
Please make Mumble and/or SIP as a default widget as their apps works in mobile better.
No? You can make mumble or whatever you mean by "SIP" default in your client when people hit the call button. Other people can use what
Both of these are also widgettable. And you can just add them to the integration manager. Just like > > you can self host jitsi through dimension.

Another one of those times standardization makes things better (at least for those who would like to avoid companies like Google Docs in favor of FOSS hosting)

Google docs is just a default widget in Vector-im's hosted proprietary integration manager which they use on riot.im. When you self-host riot, you will use your own integration manager like for example your self hosted dimension to customize what your default widgets will be. That is the matrix standard way to do this.

Using riot.im you can also just use the custom widget button to add your stuff. Don't confuse riot.im with matrix 😃

[DonaldTsang]

If you don't verify each other keys there is no way to know who wrote the key, or to who you are encrypting the message to. A web of trust thing might be neat, but it still requires some amount of verification.

In private Discord servers, people are generally invited by the mod/admin to guarantee trust, and if that gets compromised, they move. In Matrix/Riot constant key-signing becomes annoying, so people would rather prefer Discord.

Google docs is just a default widget in Vector-im's hosted proprietary integration manager which they use on riot.im. When you self-host riot, you will use your own integration manager like for example your self hosted dimension to customize what your default widgets will be. That is the matrix standard way to do this.

Most people will only download apps from an "official site" so you really shouldn't expect people to make alternatives, rather make widgets be more available than ever.

[Half-Shot]

Multi-room search (the ability to search all rooms you are in) is a core feature of Discord.

So to make it clear: searching all the rooms you're in for some sort of string? That's not a bad idea.