Improving BDK community tools

[notmandatory]

Let's discuss here pros/cons of current and alternative tools:

We are currently using:

• discord for community chat/ team+community calls/announcements
• GitHub for code repos, CI workflows
• sometimes Jitsi and Proton Meet for team calls

[notmandatory]

Discord

https://discord.com

Pros

• easy to use, polished multiplatform clients (desktop and mobile)
• includes live chat and voice/video/screen sharing
• popular with younger devs who also use it for gaming
• free, including search history
• can link in profile to other accounts like GitHub id
• support for public and private channels
• good tools for blocking/banning spammers (manually)

Cons

• frequent spammers
• frequent impersonators
• requires enabling more KYC (phone #) to better auto block spammers
• id is owned by discord (ie. not transferable to other platforms)

[notmandatory]

Github

https://github.com/

Pros

• most popular with other FOSS projects
• free to use including CI
• good web and cross-platform tooling support
• tied into much of software tools ecosystem

Cons

• recently unstable, slow and sometimes broken
• frequent spammers, admins slow to respond, no good tools to block
• complicated permissions configuration
• target/victim of recent supply chain attacks

[notmandatory]

Related post from thebluematt on why bitcoin projects should move off of Github: https://nitter.net/thebluematt/status/2068726534941364593

[sdmg15]

Related post from thebluematt on why bitcoin projects should move off of Github: https://nitter.net/thebluematt/status/2068726534941364593

I recently posted an alternative to it which is https://radicle.dev
We could try exploring it.

[notmandatory]

I can't support radicle because the team building it is pushing their own token. Even though the token isn't currently part of the radicle project I expect it ultimately will be required.

[notmandatory]

Jitsi

https://meet.jit.si/

Pros

• free and open source
• free to use on web, mobile and desktop
• no KYC required to use
• high quality video/audio
• can create recurring chat URLs
• can create moderated calls

Cons

• basic features, no fancy backgrounds or blur effects
• not integrated with other tools like email/calendars/chat
• no saved history
• must use hard to guess call URLs and keep private or can get random spammers joining

[notmandatory]

Proton Meet

https://proton.me/meet

Pros

• cross platform client web/mobile
• polished UI with background and blue effects
• good integration with proton email/calendar and other ics based email/calendars
• end to end encryption via MLS, no tracking

Cons

• not free to create meetings, included with proton email subscription
• meetings seem to cut off after scheduled time without a way to extend
• not integrated with other tools like chat