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Comment by tacoman | Hacker News Reader

Riot-web is a really nice app. Drop it on any web server and you're done. I use it all day long to talk to my family on a self-hosted, non-federated matrix instance. If you use linux, Fractal is a pretty good option for a desktop application. The latest release is "beta" but very usable.

https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/fractal.html

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Curious if there was a reason you chose to self-host as opposed to using a public one on just starting your own room (I assume this is possible in the same way channels are in IRC)?

What was the drive to use 1, self-host and non-federate an instance of Matrix over another platform, and 2, why? With family especially, I would assume a simple WhatsApp/Signal group would have been easier for adoption.

My extended family of 16 which ranges in age from 5 to 85 uses this Matrix instance. We didn't want pictures of our young kids on Whatsapp (Facebook) servers. These young kids and grandparents don't have smartphones so Signal isn't an option. Also, many of us access Matrix on other devices and computers other than phones.

This is how the internet is supposed to be.

Thanks. I've been tossing up setting up a forum of sorts for some close friends, but I've been going back and forth on the two extremes; an obscure telnet-only accessible BBS for the nostalgia, or a Matrix/Riot page for the ease of use.

I know about Fractal. My point it is not the reference client and not enough love is done for mobile clients also.

Personally the clients are OK. They might not be the most well designed since that is always problem for projects like that but they are OK.

So do i really have to build it?!

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