public links to specific conversations

[pdurbin]

Something we lost when moving from IRC to Matrix is public links to specific conversations.

For example, in IRC we started talking about Matrix in earnest here: http://irclog.iq.harvard.edu/dataverse/2021-05-26/#i_138097

In Matrix, I can grab a link but you have to log in. Here's an example: https://matrix.to/#/!AmypvmJtUjBesRrnLM:matrix.org/$ylhOdQFhGNfaifhwDNtUYWfqApt_1S2nYZWR9Q1iYy8

I imagine we'll want to open in issue at https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-static

This seems related:

• URL preview for messages in public rooms that allow guests matrix-org/matrix.to#25

[pdurbin]

Good news! @MadLittleMods of Gitter fame has been hard at work on a new project called Matrix Public Archive (still a work in progress) that should give us nice public links to specific conversations. It looks like this:

That screenshot comes from Matrix Live from October 14th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT6KSEqDUf8&t=548s

You can find a writeup here: https://matrix.org/blog/2022/08/05/this-week-in-matrix-2022-08-05#matrix-public-archive-website

In addition, just like the IRC days, we should be able to put a date in the URL to go directly to that date. (By the way a jump to date feature is coming to Element.)

Eric and team seem very responsive. I just opened this issue last night and it was addressed right away:

• Allow public preview of #matrix-public-archive matrix-org/matrix-viewer#149

[pdurbin]

I started playing around with Matrix Public Archive and got it running locally. Here's day 1 of #dataverse on Matrix from http://localhost:3050/r/dataverse:matrix.org/date/2021/06/04 on my dev machine:

The "copy permalink" feature works differently than I expect. It links here, for example: https://matrix.to/#/!AmypvmJtUjBesRrnLM%3Amatrix.org/%24Jnp9yT6YITIhuoLG0q5q0tSK6XAvnPhVK1giiFEksMI

The way I would express what I want is here:

• Permalinks to the archive itself? Rather than just https://matrix.to/#/… permalinks matrix-org/matrix-viewer#146

That issue was closed in favor of this one, which seems to be the one to follow:

• Update message timestamp to link to Matrix Public Archive permalink ?at=$xxx matrix-org/matrix-viewer#137

That is, I'd like to have links to the archive site itself.

[MadLittleMods]

Keep in mind that the Copy permalink option will be disambiguated to Copy matrix.to permalink. This was already addressed in element-hq/hydrogen-web#921 (comment)

For linking to the archive itself, we will have matrix-org/matrix-viewer#137 and additionally there could be a Copy permalink menu option that links to the archive as you expect.

[pdurbin]

We've switched to Zulip, which allows public links to specific conversations. Works great. Closing.

For more on the switch:

• consider switching from Matrix to Zulip #22