DebianSocial service notes for matrix.debian.social
Description
Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralized communication. Debian Social runs a Synapse server and element web client (https://element.debian.social).
Authentication
Sign-up is via SSO to Salsa. Accounts are created with the username from Salsa, with matrix.debian.social as the home server. For example Salsa user bob would have the user @bob:matrix.debian.social.
The authentication flow with Salsa does not work in all clients. Some clients known to be broken:
- On Android, Element X is broken.
Element Classic authenticates fine: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/im.vector.app/
- Thunderbird's chat.
Requesting Bridging to IRC
If you have an IRC room that you would like bridged to Matrix. You can request it using the following link and choosing the add-matrix-pumbed-room template:
https://salsa.debian.org/debiansocial-team/sysadmin/accounts/-/issues/new
Limitations on Matrix to IRC bridging
The IRC bridging is not perfect. First practical concerns:
- Channel topics are not always synced from IRC or can be cutoff in Matrix.
- Matrix sports features which do not translate to IRC such as reactions, replies, threads. Using these can be confusing to IRC users as they don't receive such context.
More on limitations to Matrix to IRC bridging at Ubuntu Discourse article https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/limitations-on-matrix-to-irc-bridging/42324
Administration
Mjolnir is a moderation tool for Matrix. The Debian Social team maintains an instance @mjolnir:matrix.debian.social. This can be added to any room and granted Admin permissions for the instance-wide ban list to be applied to the room. The ban list can also be subscribed to by other Mjolnir instances by subscribing to the room #spam-ban-list:matrix.debian.social.
Configuration Notes
- Synapse is installed from Upstream's repository.