A New Era of Chatting
Alright, let's talk chatting
I get a lot of personal enjoyment out of saying words, and then having someone else say words back to me. It's something that humanity has been doing for ages at this point, requires nothing but air, and can bring you infinite entertainment value, which is pretty awesome if I do say so myself. However, there's a limitation to it in that you can only really talk with people that are in the same proximity to you. You can increase that distance via things like megaphones or shouting really loud, but that doesn't really make for a pleasant chatting experience. So, to remedy this problem, some guy came up with the idea of the written word.
This was a huge advancement in the talking space. It gave us a lot of ability to do different kinds of talking, whether that was writing something on a wall therefore permanently saying the thing there for everyone to see for an extended period of time, or even writing something and then sending it to someone to say things over a much extended distance. No longer did you have to be next to someone to say something to them, you could say it with your , and then pay some guy to take your words and give them to someone else across the globe.
There was a problem with this as well though. Sometimes you wanted to say something to someone immediately, but this whole process of writing down words and sending them to someone took a very long time. That's when the internet came along. It sent those words you wrote down through some kind of network to deliver them within seconds, all around the world even! If you had things you wanted to say to someone living in another country, or even another continent, all you needed was for you both to have some kind of internet connection.
All of these new ways talking led to what was previously known as the Zooey Dot Pub Discord server. A place where zoosexuals from around the globe could use their internet connections to talk with each other and hang out and stuff. Pretty cool if you ask me. Unfortunately, unlike just saying words to people, when you say things online, there can be a guy standing between you who decides that actually he doesn't want you speaking and so one day randomly he decides to just kill you and that's that.
So, what's ?
We always knew that there was going to be a chance that Discord decided they didn't like us one day, but (and this is fully my fault) we really hadn't invested that much time into figuring out alternatives. We'd done a little bit of research here and there, but mostly to what's out there, and not really what's viable. So, we out a BUNCH of different platforms. We demoed everything from Teamspeak to Slack to Telegram and everything else under the sun. Special shoutout to Revolt for being out second choice, but we ended up going with something else. Matrix.
Now, if you're like me before starting all of this and the only thing that you know about Matrix is that your really techy friend uses it and one time he tried to explain it to you and your head nearly exploded, don't worry. Take a deep breath. Before you get too , let me explain why we went this route. There's three big reasons why Matrix ended up being our solution to the problem of how to yap on the internet.
Thing number one is the stability it provides. We're not just starting a space on Matrix. We're running our own server, our own clients. We're doing ourselves. Essentially, it's we took the code from Discord and then just created Discord (zoo). What this means is that we never have to worry about losing our home again. We've , and nobody else has any say over that. To me at least, this is something that's really important. I hate feeling like I'm building on unsupported ground. Stressing about everything just disappearing one day causes me to want to just give up, and especially after what happened to the Discord server the fact that we're never going to have to worry about that again is a HUGE win in my book
Thing number two is the customization that we have access to. Like I said before, it's like we basically have the code to Discord and we can do what we want to it. Things like removing all the bloat, but keeping all the features. Getting rid of making you have to pay for cool things and just letting you do the cool things instead. Essentially, the Matrix space can be whatever we dream of (assuming the tech team can make it happen). Not only that, but for those of you that are a little bit more technically inclined, there are so many different ways to engage with Matrix. There's a ton of different clients and client customization options. We've got a recommended set up, and we've done a lot of work to ensure that you can get on as simply as possible with as easy a UI as possible, but if you ever want to you can play around with other clients and get really crazy.
Thing number three is possibly the best thing out of them all. When we started the Discord server, we were the first server that existed for that kind of thing. However, by far we weren't the last. he ZDPD severed a very specific niche. We wanted to be the front door to the community. A way that anyone could join in and find fellow zoos. But, having great partner spaces where people could find more specific communities was always a really important part of the long term vision as well. Thankfully, it seems like we were the only Discord server to get hit, but they've made their stance clear at this point so it's only a matter of time for the other groups too. , now we can give them an alternative. Zoospace. Zoospace is the name of the server that we're running our local version of Matrix on, and with all of the back end work done it's actually very easy to create new spaces within Zoospace for anyone looking to do so. This comes with the added benefit of being in control of the whole network, so we can have the great partner servers that we loved collaborating with, without there being the existence of any of the less desirable Discord servers. Zoospace can be a home for the future of the zoo community as a whole. No matter where and how we get deplatformed, whether it's Discord, Twitter, Bluesky, or anywhere else, we now have something stronger than that. Something that's ours.
Now, this isn't necessarily a perfect solution (at least not yet). But, I think it's about as close as we're going to get. That said, I want to be open about the flaws that we currently have to, so you can choose whether or not this is something you want to engage in.
First of all, things are a little scrappy right now. Everything works, don't get me wrong, the house has four walls and a roof, as well as some of the furnture, but we're far from fully moved in. At time of writing, 8:13 AM on , we're finally at a place where it feels fully useable and I'm ready to theoretically start inviting people, but I think the first couple weeks there's still going to be lots of changes. On the plus side, getting in early means you can help shape the direction that we grow. But, expect bugs here and there while we get things fully figured out. Also, Matrix is just by definition more complicated than Discord is. That's going to let us do a ton of really cool stuff down the line, but also getting used to a new platform is going to be a bit weird at first. We've done a ton to try and make it as easy as possible for people that just want to click join and start chatting. You can try it yourself at the link down at the bottom of this article. But, even with everything we've done, it still has a little more friction. Not a ton, but a little. It's something we want to smooth out in the future, but we haven't had the chance yet.
Even with those issues, it's really hard to understate how excited I am for this. I really really believe in the future of the ZDPM (Zooey Dot Pub Matrix). It's like we've bought ouselves a run down castle in the middle of nowhere. The walls are all falling down, the ceiling is caved in in a couple places, the moat is full of moss and the foundation is just a suggestion at this point. But, it's ours. And it's so easy to see the ways that we can clean things up, little by little, until we really have something so special and unique.
There's just one thing that we can't do, at least not on our own, and that's fill the space. Every chat room lives and dies by its audience. We were so lucky to have an amazing group of people in the last server. I'm hopeful we can find an audience again. Truth be told, I really miss the ZDPD, and by that I mean I miss the people, the conversations, the vibes. I miss having somewhere I could hang out when work was slow, or while I was watching a podcast, or any other time I had a few minutes to kill. I miss seeing chat roll by on my second screen while I played games or whatever.
So, if you've made it this far in the article, why not give the ZDPM a shot? Whether you were an old Discord member who ended up migrating to smaller spaces, or someone who was there until the end, or even if you're someone that never joined the Discord at all, check out the new space and see what you think. Give us your feedback, and help us build a new home together.
Thanks so much for your patience. I'm excited for this next chapter in yapping to your friends. See you in the ZDPM!
Special shout out to the tech team who are making this happen by the way. Holy shit there has been so much to do and I'm just a raccoon on the internet. Lykon, Fawnly, Tuvik, all of you are so amazing and so helpful and none of this would be possible without you, you're all honestly so cool and I can't thank you enough for doing this.