SirEDCaLot

Personally I don't think it's likely that signal will close, or that they will sell out. I think the more likely problem is the sort of thing I mentioned, that having a single dev team will be a bottleneck or will reduce user choice. The iOS backup thing I mentioned is one example of that. Usernames rather than phone numbers is another one. Having only one code base does make it easier to audit. And having one foundation in charge does mean there's an easy path to pay for those audits. But it is still a single point of failure.

To be clear- as single point of failure go, I trust Signal more than the next 10 put together. What I don't trust is the whole using phone numbers and SMS verification for sign up. And I would prefer their architecture was a bit more open/federated.

From what I've seen of the people in charge of Signal- they'd probably close before they sell out.

That said, you make a very good point. Having all the registered users in one place, is a vulnerability. A great many of us have non technical friends/partners/siblings/coworkers/etc; and encouraging them to use ANYTHING new is pulling teeth. So Signal is great, but it's still eggs in one basket- if they do something user-unfriendly or sell out or close, we are back to square one in begging/pleading/cajoling people to (please) try this (much better) app.

I've also lost a few people who used Signal over one stupid problem- the iOS version has no backup/restore function. If you lose your phone, or uninstall the app, all your saved chats are gone and there's no way to get them back. Android version at least has a useful backup/restore.

Once again, my position and my post were non-partisan.
I am 100% against book bans. I'm 100% against 'suppression of ideas on social media'.

I also think the cure feeds the disease. The second someone in authority says 'you musn't say that' or 'you musn't believe that' or 'that idea is dangerous', you create the conditions for weaponized misinformation to flourish. Doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. The instant you classify a position as unacceptable, a whole host of people (many of them stupid) will adopt that position for no reason other than that they were told not to. They'll say 'the establishment told me not to do this, there must be something here that I want that they want for themselves'.

Look at coronavirus. Yes there was TONS of weaponized misinformation. But the way our culture made it unacceptable to even question the status quo helped spread that. Republicans (and idiots) accused the government of a power grab, treading on civil liberties, using a fancy flu as an excuse to grab power. I don't personally agree with that take, but if you suddenly aren't allowed to say or share it, that puts a LOT of legitimacy to the 'trying to grab power' argument. First they come for your freedom of movement or freedom to make your own medical decisions, next they come for your freedom of speech when you try to say otherwise!

I honestly believe the suppression efforts, if anything, only amplified the message they were trying to suppress.

And I'd point out- if the government has the authority to mute a loudspeaker, then what happens next time when the guy with the loudspeaker is correct? If we make suppression of speech a legitimate government power, who's to say it will only be used for good?

Or, maybe they just don't consider at an important enough problem to get fixed. A big part of my point is that if there was a specific reason why they chose not to do it, that reason would be communicated to the users. As far as I am aware, no such reason has been communicated. Don't get me wrong, I like signal a lot. I'm a little bit critical sometimes because I feel that there are important features like this, which have a serious effect on usability, that are not getting the priority they need.

Then why on Android do they do a full database backup encrypted by a simple PIN code?

If privacy is the ultimate goal, I think Signal is a bit better.

That said, Signal is doing a bunch of user-unfriendly stuff that turns me off a bit. For example, they had a great SMS integration on Android that they're now killing for no obvious reason. And more problematic- on iOS there is NO backup/restore functionality. None. So if you lose your phone, all your chat history is gone. It doesn't backup to iCloud or anywhere else. The ONLY backup or transfer option is if you get a new phone you can transfer data from old to new.
Android has a full backup/restore function that backs everything up to an encrypted file. No idea why they don't do the same on iOS.

Matrix is also better for multiple device access. On Signal, you can connect additional devices (laptop etc) but they are always subservient to the main device. Conversation history doesn't transfer from the main device to addon devices, although conversations stay in sync on both devices from the point you add the device forward. But if you get a new phone for example, that's a new parent device, so your desktop convo history gets wiped.
Matrix on the other hand, no device is primary and conversation history is stored (encrypted) on the server. So backup your crypto key and you can access everything from any device (including a web browser).

For Matrix- Element is the one to use most of the time...

This is not a partisan issue and I am not taking a partisan position. I'm not endorsing or defending Republicans or anti-vaxxers. GOP does a lot of crappy stuff. That doesn't automatically mean I should line up to support every single thing the Democrats do. We need better education. We need less censorship. These are two separate unrelated issues.

Exactly. There may be a piece of knowledge that a person should already have, but not asking the question just means continuing to be ignorant.

I've always liked the saying 'there's no such thing as stupid questions, only people too stupid to ask and fix their own ignorance'

It's definitely going to be different. Probably a mix between the old and the new. But I think the real benefit is it offers space for everybody. The people who want to be wild can do so, and those who don't need to have nothing to do with them.

Another thing to add, if you put a semicolon instead of a comma, on Android at least it will stop and pop up a prompt that you can hit continue for it to keep dialing the rest of the digits.

For the record, I am pro vaccine, I was very pro mask during COVID, and I strongly supported the various lockdown and masking policies. If anything I felt they often didn't go far enough, prioritizing continuity of business over public health. For the most part I stand by those positions. The question here is not the validity of anti-maskers or anti-vaxxers, or the question that their visibility can do harm to society. I believe it is pretty obvious that such groups did some serious harm and cost a lot of lives.

The question here is whether the government should be coordinating with technology platforms to suppress speech it disagrees with or considers harmful. And I think the answer is hell no. Even if they requests in the COVID era were helpful, this is not a good thing for government to be doing.

Go back to the 9/11 era. It was a similar situation, just with the parties reversed. Then a Republican government was saying limits on civil liberties were essential for national security, and opposition to these policies help terrorists. Now a Democratic government was saying limits on civil liberties were necessary for public health and opposition to these policies spreads disease. The merits of these two positions are irrelevant. What matters is that a free American people should have the opportunity to make that judgment for themselves, not have the "wrong" answer suppressed before they even see it. Because if we suppress the 'wrong' anti-vax today, then we open the door to suppress the 'right' answer tomorrow.

If American people are such sheep that they must be protected from 'wrong' ideas, then the answer is not censorship, it is education. If we are that stupid, that we need to be treated like children, then we need to very quickly and with great urgency figure out why our educational system is failing to teach critical thinking and fix it immediately.