Pisscord
What Is?
Pisscord is a privately operated Matrix server with VoIP and Video Call support. Users can create spaces (analogous to Discord servers), and create rooms for chat or voice/video calls.
How Join?
pisscord.net is invitation only. If you are viewing this page, you have likely been invited by someone; ask them.
Why Bother?
Discord is a horrible platform that has been steadily getting more horrible as time passes. The compounding effects of older and more recent changes have made many of us want to move away to a platform that respects its users. Such changes include, but are not limited, to:
- Locking features behind paywalls (Nitro)
- Selling / transferring data to advertisers, analytics providers, and other third parties
- An increasingly user-hostile UI
- Questionable compliance with questionable regulations, recently in the form of requiring ID to access user-created content (UK Online Safety Act)
- Other problems frequent with centralisation
Matrix as a platform is decentralised by design, respects your privacy, and respects your choices as a user.
How Much?
pisscord.net uses entirely free (as in beer) free (as in speech) and open source software, and therefore requires only server and domain costs to run, which are minimal. This service is, and will always remain, free to use.
For those interested, at the time of writing costs to run this server are:
- VPS hosting: 7.19 EUR / month
- Domain registration: 12.18 USD / year
How Secure?
Matrix is designed with security in mind. Private messages and group chats are end-to-end (E2E) encrypted unless explicitly disabled. Authentication is performed securely - all communication with the server happens through HTTPS.
Voice and video calls rely on protocols that were not designed with security in mind, though have been configured properly and use TLS.
pisscord.net is run not for profit by someone with a vested interest in privacy and security, and your data is treated as such. Nothing is collected that doesn't have to be, everything that can be encrypted is, and your data will never be sold or shared with a third party. You can read a full privacy policy here.
Security measures have been configured sanely and with a degree of competence, but nevertheless are provided "as-is". You as a user are ultimately responsible for the data you choose to share with the platform, as well as safeguarding your devices and the information on them (including keys used for message encryption).
Who Run?
pisscord.net is operated by @mrdetonia:pisscord.net.
Okay, But What Is This Exactly?
The software that makes pisscord.net run:
- Tuwunel - Matrix server
- Caddy - HTTPS Proxy
- Coturn - TURN server for VoIP
- LiveKit - WebRTC video conferencing
- MatrixRTC - Bridge for Matrix and LiveKit
- Madness - Markdown HTML server powering this page