Communication

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Communicating with other people online is a vital part of modern day computing, and because it is so vital everyone deemed it a good idea to build their own way of communicating, and now there's a billion different ways of talking to someone online. This guide will attempt to go over the main ways of communicating, and some of the autistic ways too.

Note: This page treats "protocols" and "platforms" the same. However they are fundamentally different. Know the difference between a protocol and a platform

Synchronous Communication (Real time)

Synchronous communication is when messages are received and sent at the same time by both parties. You can think of this as "real time" messaging. Thinks like irc, instant messaging, VOIP are all forms of synchronous communication as messages are transmitted and received "instantly".

Recommended

• IRC - Considered "dead" by anyone that doesn't know the difference between a compiler and an interpreter. Still popular(ish) among tech people/communities (although it is admittedly dead for all other discussion). There are many /g/ associated channels
• Matrix.org - There were too many different ways to communicate with people, and matrix.org was a protocol made to try and fix this, (by creating another way of communicating with people) but they swear this one will work! Its designed to be able to work with most of the already existing platforms/protocols. You can connect to all your favorite irc channels while in matrix, talk to furries on telegram and your boss on slack, all in a single place.
• Telegram - Made by some Russian dude. Claims to be privacy focused but has some design features that you wouldn't immediately think of as being all that privacy focused, however the Russian dude does a good job of defending and rationalizing the design decisions.
• Mumble - Basically like IRC but for voice and more dead. Some /g/-like (but not associated with /g/) servers floating around. If you want to talk to a friend however then mumble is minimal setup, good quality and many free servers available.
• XMPP - Like Matrix, it's decentralized (even more than matrix, (in matrix everyone uses matrix.org as server)). Supports OTR, or even better, OMEMO, also PGP, only flaw is that all clients sucks, the one that sucks less is dino for GNU/Linux and Conversations for Android.

Not-Recommended

• Discord - Probably deserves its own page on why you shouldn't use it. Richard Stallman makes some points here. Also its /v/ trash. Replacement; Matrix.org or IRC+Mumble
• Skype - Because its owned by Microsoft, gives away your ip, and is dead for anything other than business conferences. Replacement: depends what you used Skype for.
• Slack - Discord but not for gamers. Replacement: Mattermost
• Facebook Messenger - Because its owned by Facebook. Replacement: Telegram
• Kik - Because its for children and pedos. You will be v&. Replacement: stop stalking kids.
• WhatsApp - Because its also owned by Facebook. Replacement: Telegram
• Zoom - The Coronavirus has made this shitware super popular. Some Schools/universities are making Zoom mandatory for coursework. It suffers from all of the flaws of the programs above, which is trivial because its proprietary. Also its called "Zoom". Replacement: jitsi, maybe bring Tox back to life.

Asynchronous Communication

The opposite to synchronous communication. Messages have """delay""", as in you are not expected to be reading the messages as soon as they are sent. The most common is email. The primary advantage of Asynchronous Communication is that people generally spend more time thinking about what they write, and it tends to be closer to the style of a letter. This contrasts to the style of synchronous communication in which people send messages as if they were talking to each other in the same room. Carefully thought out responses vs first thing that comes to your head.

• Email - Using email to hold a discussion may seem horiffic to zoomers, however its actually quite nice if you can find an email mailing list that interests you. Many local Linux User Groups have their own mailing list (and theres probably a LUG in your area, if you look hard enough).
• Online forums (and imageboards) - Like 4Chan, Reddit and those classical type forums
  Its constantly asked on /g/ and /wsr/ what are some "good classical type forums?". The answer is that none exist they are all dead, filled with skids or full of /v/-faggotory. /g/ recommends none of them. However to stop people from constantly asking, heres a list of some that still receive regular posters:
  • Most Private trackers have their own forums. Those are probably the closest you will get to good classical forums.
  • Arch Linux Forums
  • Nulled - Skid Forum (Cracking)
  • Demon Forums - Skid Forum, although apparently more focused on general discussion than selling $5 ebooks on how to hack spotify accounts.
  • 0x00sec - Decent "hacking" forums. More focused on CTF type """hacking""" as opposed to refund-scamming amazon skid shit.
  • Hack Fourms - Way too popular. Surface level skid forum. Lots of content due to its size/history. This vid should summarize it.
  • Sinister.ly - Skid forum that looks alright on the outside, but it has basically the same type of controversy as Pale Moon. Had a war with Lainchan.
  • Lewd - The closest thing to a decent classical type forum until you realize its main focus is anime. Has a close connection to a bunch of alterative chan boards.
  • Encyclopedia Dramatica Forums - Forums for ED. Currently dead (for obvious reasons) but possibly getting remade soon.
  • Most games have their own forums. Search for "_your_game_here_ forums" and you will probably find the appropriate one for your game.
• Wiki talk pages
• Social networks - No social media is recommended by /g/. Even if the platform/site is open source, the entire premise of social networks is to share personal information and make you addicted. If you are insistent on joining a social network, do join one that runs on open source software. You can use alternativeto.net to find the alternatives (for example, finding an OSS alternative to twitter)