matrix bridges are going away in late March (TPA-RFC-85)

background

in their february update, Matrix.org said:

So unless the Foundation manages to raise $100,000 of funding by the end of March 2025, we will have to focus our resources on the critical lines of work, and consequently we will have to shut down all the remaining bridges hosted by the Matrix.org Foundation. This includes bridges to Slack, XMPP, OFTC (IRC), and Snoonet (IRC). We will also mark the software behind those bridges as archived, as we don't have the resources to accept new contributions.

We have a huge dependency on those bridges, in particular the OFTC/IRC one, as we onboard a lot of people on IRC through Matrix.

options

So we need to decide what to do with this. I think those are our options:

do nothing. this is the status quo, massive disruption as everyone on matrix will get severed from IRC and there will be a splint between the two groups
give 100k$ (or some negociated amount) to the matrix foundation to pretend this is not happening (probably not an option, but putting it out there)
run our own bridge (!), requires setting up a typescript server, although there is a container, see on docker hub
move to another bridge, seems possible (debian.org runs a good irc.OFTC.net bridge, see debian.social and this form to ask for plumbing)
ditch matrix and switch to IRC entirely (requires some serious UX work, probably setting up something like the lounge (web bouncer), soju (IRCv3 bouncer), gamja, or irctoday (built with gamja)
switch entirely to matrix, either on matrix.org or our own home server

Note that options 5 and 6 cross over the wider discussion of real-time comms adressed by tpo/team#223 and should probably not be addressed here directly. We're only trying to fix the bridge issue here, so unless there's a decision on the other side, TPA is obviously not going to unilaterally decide what tool to use for everyone without prior discussion. 😄

This was pointed out by @trinity-1686a on IRC, so thank you for the heads up!

/cc @ahf

Decision

We've decided to switch to the debian.social bridge. Concretely, this means that each channel will, in turn, be migrated between the two bridges. The old OFTC/Matrix.org bridge will be disconnected, and the new bridge connected.

This means that, for a short period of time, Matrix and IRC won't see each other. And after the rejoin. Matrix users won't appear online in the IRC channel until they speak. There might also be a period of time during the transition when IRC users don't see matrix messages and vice versa.

channel list

migration procedure

disconnect the old bridge (send !unlink !OPAQUE:matrix.org irc.oftc.net #tor-example to @oftc-irc:matrix.org, for example #tor-admin was unlinked with !unlink !SocDtFjxNUUvkWBTIu:matrix.org irc.oftc.net #tor-admin)
add the the room configuration to the debian.social bridge (see https://salsa.debian.org/debiansocial-team/sysadmin/accounts/-/issues/148), needs the opaque ID of the room here
deploy the change (this involves pushing to salsa, then ssh config.debian.social 'git pull && bw apply matrix_ds')
wait for matrix_ds to join the IRC channel, can take a couple minutes to hours
invite @mjolnir:matrix.debian.social as ~~admin~~ moderator in the matrix room
remove myself from admin, if tor-root is present
move to the next room

Edited Apr 14, 2025 by anarcat