Armada: Encrypted, Open-Source, Discord Alternative (Built on Nostr) | Hacker News Reader

Armada: Encrypted, Open-Source, Discord Alternative (Built on Nostr)

soapbox.pub

128 pointslong____cat18 comments

"Chat apps belong to whoever runs the servers. Armada is spread across free public servers." https://armada.buzz/

The key is to make the server a browser tab. Make it possible for normies to run a server. I suppose CORS would be the problem. Would a browser extension work?

"ZeroNet and KAD (distributed hash tables) ...every member of the network donates a certain amount of storage and bandwidth (adjustable at will) without being able to choose which specific scrap of content to host...The biggest immediate problem, however, is that there isn't a single, easily hostable piece of software that includes everything Nostr is ready to do now."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49429833

A bit late but I am working on Tarvis.io and it does exactly that. I have been self hosting servers and managing infras since a decade and after doing the same thing over and over again, I made self hosting into a web interface where apps install with a click and work on browser. I will add this to Tarvis and a service like this can be spawned on browser with a click.

Spawned on and then inside the browser would be ideal.

Another idea would be to have a "server browser" especially built to run a bunch of servers. Keep Average Barry away from bash prompts, config files and compilation. I think this'd be so helpful for the local-first movement. Anyway, I should really check out Tarvis in more depth at some point.

I am building grain and it can almost do everything nostr is ready to do. It is very easily hostable. Relay and client side.

Still missing a few things. It's at 0.8.0, last few things left till 1.0

Horribly vibe-coded like most of the Nostr projects out there. There is no sign of quality or technical interest in this project. There is also this tendency to build black boxes that do not show the innards of the protocol for reasons of "user-friendliness". The project does exactly this, to its detriment. Just like Mastodon and Matrix, most people will be centralized on the few Nostr relays set by default.

I thought it was masterfully vibe coded. As for centralization, you know you can change the relays that your community uses. You can even run your own.

Look at the underlying Concord Protocol: https://concordprotocol.org/ There is definitely engineering. This part by hand.

Armada uses outbox model. It is not a client to set relays but it uses whatever relays the users define. Like all the rest of nostr.

avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e; https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/6096

- big question to the experts out there reading this

- obviously anyone can code a discord clone, instagram clone or whatever

- how do you solve the 3 body problem? you need people and their people and their people on the platform to use the platform

- how do you go about getting the 1st 1000 people for something like this?

> - how do you solve the 3 body problem? you need people and their people and their people on the platform to use the platform

> - how do you go about getting the 1st 1000 people for something like this?

I am definitely not an expert, but I did see on their site:

Discord bridge & server import

Mirror a channel both ways, or import your whole server. Nobody has to move all at once.

And I think that helps answer some of your last 2 questions. If it works seamlessly with existing discord users then it seems like a good first step. The server-runner gets autonomy and users get the ecosystem they're habituated to.

Coincidentally I am looking for self-hosted alternatives to Discord for a local community where I live. I have been considering Matrix (one of the Rust implementations) + Element, so I wonder what makes this a better or worse alternative, but there seems to exist no comparison table/chart.

Honestly I'll take pretty much anything over Matrix. I've tried to get it set up but it just feels unfocused. Too many server variations; none of which are at parity with the complex default stack, and too many clients; none of which I particularly liked. To me Matrix is kinda like Wayland in that early design decisions have made it awkward for how people want to use it in the modern day (in Wayland's example, the absolute shitshow of getting push-to-talk to work in apps running within it).

I'll have to try out Armada to see how it compares, as I'm always suspicious of the claims of decentralised software as they often end up having some unique downsides.

I have switched to https://chatto.run/. Its actually well engineered (not vbibecoded), the devs are responsive and is kinda opinionated instead of do everything and we cater for every possible scenario but be great at nothing like matrix.

This is a great tool, really deserves more recognition that currently has.

Discord tries to fool with the concept of "servers" which really aren't, Armada is indeed giving full control where data goes and even on public NOSTR servers is kept safe/private beyond doubt.

I signed up, I very much enjoy this. Similar enough to discord that you can just pick it up, but with improvements. The trick will be getting people to switch I think.

there is a bridge https://bridge.armada.buzz/

Very nice. You should consider rotating the label of a community periodically, not just triggered by rekey events. Makes it impossible or at least very hard for relay operators to delete the entire community by label.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com