Bridging VHS Slack to Matrix (modern IRC)

Space and infrastructure
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I’m setting up a Matrix server and I’d like to bridge the Slack workspace in to Matrix for those of us who prefer to use open source technology.

What is matrix? Well it’s the name for a distributed/federated network of chat servers that talk the matrix protocol. Think IRC reimagined for a world with Slack, Discord, WhatsApp. See matrix.org

What is bridging? As you may surmise from context it is taking events, messages, rooms and sending them through to the opposite chat system. It works both way for almost everything and the bridge is actively developed. See bridges on matrix.org, matrix-appservice-slack features, and matrix-appservice-slack repo.

What’s a decent client? Decide for yourself here. (Riot.im is the defacto standard.)

What do you need? Help from an admin on the slack side to add a bot to the workspace and test some stuff.

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I’m a slack admin and I’m willing to help with this.

I will wait a couple days before we action in case anyone has any objections.

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Thanks Rob! I’m looking to test how it works initially then I’ll probably tear it down and try to get something more permanent set up on premises at VHS.

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I am mildly anxious about this, but I won’t full-on object to this.

What does it require for someone to sign up, and how can admins audit a connected client on such a system?

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This is a great initiative. Thank you @Thovthe!

Slack is really useful but the closed-source SaaS model is not a good fit for VHS. We are constantly filling up our attachment quota, and Slack provides no convenient way to expire or throttle those uploads except to start paying (or ask users to jump through hoops to delete their own attachments periodically using a third-party utility). It’s a bit of a user-hostile antipattern IMO.

So it will be great to have a Slack escape plan.

Let me know when your server is set up. I’ll join and help test.

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That depends on which server you register with but typically you just need to register a username and password. I’m running off a RasPi initially, if it stays on similar hardwear it might be worth having people register with another party like KDE (the desktop environment group) to reduce the load but I don’t know yet.

I’m not sure I understand you here but if you’re worried about spam we could (maybe should) make it invite only. I believe we can share a link on here or the main website to get people on board. I believe that ban and redactions will work on any one side of the bridge. Maybe we op the current admins from slack on the matrix side.

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