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OT: isn't matrix/riot a good replacement?

AFAIK, there are no good implementations of the matrix protocol yet. Everyone I've talked to says Synapse is hot garbage. I have no desire to run prototype-grade software any longer; I already spent a big chunk of my life keeping early versions of steemd from falling over.

Hi, seems a very long time ago!
Good article about security whenever a project actually needs to keep secrets.
Discord is just a convenient point of first contact. Actually using Tor on one project plus, as you say, pure email is not so bad and avoids chit chat.

It's not convenient. It requires that you show ID. Privacy is important for open source projects even if everything is public, because gatekeeping on identification is a form of discrimination against those that require privacy, either by preference or for safety.

It's nothing to do with whether or not a project needs to keep secrets.