Proposal: Switching from Gitter to something else

Hi all,

I was wondering if there would be any interest in moving from Gitter to another platform. The main reason I bring this up is because Gitter could be out of the way for a lot of us and the application doesn't encourage dedicated usage. Email lists are a bit old school and signing up for the Interledger one is out of the way. I think the reason for such a cryptic interface for the w3c style/linux foundation emails list is sybil resistance and anti-spam since there are liberal write permissions to the lists. I think scaling the community requires something better than email and Gitter. Would be great to hear thoughts on this.

Couple problems with Gitter:
* Clunky interface
* Poor separation of conversations/rooms
* Bad search function
* Bad mobile app

Some alternatives I think users enjoy using, and are well known in dev communities:

*Rocket.chat ( https://rocket.chat/ )*
Pros:
* Open source chat (basically a friendly IRC replacement)
* Self hosting is free, cloud options available, easy to deploy with scripts
* Slack-like interface
* Good search functionality
* Threads ( https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat/pull/11803#issuecomment-455963816 ) are being implemented
* Usable mobile applications
* Actively maintained + marketplace integrations
* Can deploy at chat.interledger.org (would be happy to help).
* Easy sign in with GitHub, just like gitter.
Cons:
* Not as well known as discord, slack or gitter from what I can tell, but I expect it to continue to grow in usage down the line and gain even more support than it already has.

*
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*Discord*
Pros:
* Commonly used
* Free to use unlike sack
* Fast and friendly
* Solid mobile apps
* Actively maintained
* No self hosting or maintenance
* Supports integrations
Cons:
* May not be free forever
* Chat logs are owned by Discord
* More complex interface than Slack/Rocket (some colleagues and I describe it as heavier

This list may not be complete in terms of pros and cons so please chime in if you have a personal preference or have something to say about these platforms or others. I've spent some time with both alternatives, you can generally find demos on their corresponding websites to see what you like best.

*Akash Khosla*
Fourth Year EECS
akhosla@berkeley.edu