It initially begun as an email thread, but we settled on WhatsApp owing to, well, most people having WhatsApp.
Surely e-mail is even more widely used?
Dunno if it's a generational thing or what, but I check my email like maybe once a day sometimes I can go 2-3 days without looking at it. It's just a place where Stuff gathers and I go through it when I Get around to it. Can't even remember when I used email to actually communicate with a non-business entity outside of work.
WhatsApp messages I get immediately.
Surely checking once every three days is frequent enough to see an invite for a meetup that happens once every eight to ten weeks?
I am not from the area but the deliberations about which messaging platform is kosher are an enormous time waste for every bottom-up organization, especially FOSS projects or hacker spaces.
As a Finn, I've definitely had to say the phrase "No, I don't have WhatsApp" more times than I care to count. That being said, I imagine a FOSS project or hacker space to be more cognisant of WhatsApp's ownership than a car dealership trying to sell me a used car via video call. I got rid of my WhatsApp precisely because Meta started tweaking the terms of service.
There is a conscientious objector to every communication system. As was said above: WhatsApp had the fewest.
There are a few people who don’t use e-mail, sure, like Donald Knuth. But conscientious objectors to e-mail? I don’t know of any, and if you find any, they probably don’t use the Internet, either.
There is also Böbbi Tables from Trollhein
Interesting you think it's less important for "FOSS projects". I would think the chat should be free software especially in those circles. IRC, XMPP, Matrix, email. Lots of options that have been around for decades now.
My thoughts exactly, but I noticed Europe is heavily dependent on WhatsApp for some reason, everyone I have ever talked to before they ask for WhatsApp and some even look shocked when you say you never use it! Instead of email, simpleX or element would do the job.