Technology

blahaj has one!

I think there were two reasons for that. One was that without centralized server where element could flash nunbers in front of VC there would not be much funding just like other open source protocols like xmpp experience. It also attracted more people because you didn't have to think of servers or bother with the whole federation concept (just join the main server, as everyone is there already).

Additionally matrix is pretty good distributed database but imo horrible chat protocol. It's extremely heavy on resources making other small servers impossible to compete or run on the same terms as the big ones. Back in the days I was running one of the top 5 size matrix server but I realized that the ever growing database, load issues when users joining large rooms and ton of other problems all, I went back to xmpp. It made me realized how crazy expensive and unsustainable in long run was running essentially text chat app became, and that could be better spent elewhere. Matrix is basically not designed for the purpose it's pushed for. It might be great as a communication platform in a organization or corporation or government agency ( you can accurately track the room state from its inception so great to have an overview of who, when, what). For fedi-like chat servers XMPP which can run on a potatoe is much better choice. Both from financial perspective (as your small server joining a big room does not affect you cause you don't need to replicate the room state essentially killing your server), but also environmental (its light and scales depending on your community needs better).

To be fair, that's the lowest executive salary I've seen in a looong time.

170k for running a company? Shit. I wouldn't do that. You can make just as much being a halfway competent developer, and it's way less stress.

Depends on what that title actually means. Viewing it as a pie chart skews it so you don't realize that $170k in USD is pretty mediocre for a Director of Engineering role. If the project dies without this person, and that's what they need in salary to make it worth it to keep them there, then that's what they get paid.

It's not like they're even making an obscene amount of money ffs. That's a middling engineering salary, and this person is running the whole show. You should see what other "director" jobs at much shittier companies get paid. I think twice this amount would be a weak guess. If this person was a prick, they'd be milking that goat and taking all the free money.

This is an open source project backed by a non-profit foundation, granted, but this person is taking a massive pay cut just by working this job. Think about how that might impact their life to make that choice while trying to have a family.

$170k salary still won't you a fucking house in this country unless you live in the middle of nowhere, and this person is almost certainly in a major tech hub city, so that money means diddly when trying to pay the bills. It's barely above the poverty line in Silicon Valley after taxes for reference.

Everyone in here complaining because they make half this and think it's a lot of money because they live in Bumfuck, Idaho has no idea what it costs to live in the larger tech hubs around the world.

At some point donations become unsustainable. Like literally their options are to start charging or close up shop.

The smarter thing to do would be to rotate instances on sign-up to decentralize the Matrix-verse but it's probably too late now.

The context in the article is important. Similar to what FUTO preaches-- people don't donate. That's why corporate solutions usually win. Better to charge a bit of money so we can have nice things.

There's something that kinda helps with the migration: https://ems.element.io/tools/matrix-migration