cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/41612497

My research group still uses Slack, which is not only USAian, but also has a terrible free version and expensive subscription.

I am confident there is will to switch, but the inconvenience of learning a new platform prevents the team as a whole. What would be good alternatives that would make an easy transition period?

Isn't Mattermost basically open source Slack?

I’m not fully informed, but mattermost changed its license (still open source) and some aren’t recommending it anymore.

Maybe the Talk app in nextcloud would be enough? https://nextcloud.com/talk/

Element (matrix)?

https://prose.org looks great, it even uses a standardised protocol. I've tried it and it works well, much better than Rocket.Chat, Zulip or Mattermost.

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Matrix UX is just bad in so many ways.

There's also Rocket Chat.

Both are decent enough self hosted solutions. That's why they also both advertise, being used in military, security, and defense.

The user experience in either of those isn't particularly great. Slack beats them with ease of use and like a million easy to use plugins.