@ReignOfRaining@transfem.social @sablefeline@transfem.social
I don't like Stoat being shared around as the viable option as much as it does.
From what I have seen so far it is the least viable option even.
It does not feature federation nor E2E, meaning that you either have to self host it and not be able to talk to anyone or just put all of your convos on someones server. From a quick check, federation does not currently seem to be on the map (
https://github.com/orgs/stoatchat/discussions/1073#discussioncomment-15814788) which is a total dealbreaker for me.
The funding situation of Stoat is bizarre at best and dangerous at worst. I tried to figure out how to donate something and had to dig for quite a while to find a Kofi that was just under the name of the lead dev. It had a redirect note to a proper Stoat Kofi, which at that point 3 weeks ago, did not even have a profile picture set. Hosting a platform of the size and scope that Stoat has by now without any clear funding is blaring alarms that either money isn't needed as something else is the product or that funding is so uncared for that it will eventually run out, closing up shop the next day. If your Kofi is that hard to find, I seriously have to question how much money can even reasonably come in.
Apparently the mobile app for iOS has been dead for a bit after the rebrand, can't prove that though, as I don't have an iOS device, development on other parts also seems slow.
There also currently seems to be a chatlog floating around wherein the owner of Stoat has been accused for misusing funds of older projects. I cannot prove the legitimacy of those chatlogs for obvious reasons and I do not foot my decision on that part, it is just something that sadly fits into the weird image Stoat has given me since day one.
In general I am not a huge fan of how flippant this whole discussion has been and how everyone keeps jumping from one project to another. I hope that a good alternative becomes viable soon, but I have sincere doubts that Stoat is anywhere close to a reasonable alternative. Please don't just jump to the next best ship and do a critical review of all services.
#discussioncomment