Element informed the Foundation that it will be forking Synapse and Dendrite: https://matrix.org/blog/2023/11/06/future-of-synapse-dendrite/
We'll do our best to answer your questions, address concerns, and find a path forward together.
Today is a tough day, and we'd like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support and insightful questions.
We're keeping a log of questions and concerns, will be sharing more answers as we have them.
Keep in mind:
The Matrix spec is the beating heart of the ecosystem. It is under an open source license, and subject to open governance that's slated to become more open when we elect our first Governing Board next year.
#Matrix is bigger than any one or two projects.
@n0toose This isn't a breakup with Element, but nonetheless you can expect the Foundation to put in a serious effort to gather feedback so that our efforts are appropriately targeted.
On top of being the right thing to do, our resources are too scarce to spend time on solutions that aren't responsive to known issues.
@matrix Why is it tough? The license changed for the better. I haven't heard anything else besides that, did something else happen?
@chocolatefossty We definitely like that the new license they chose is still open source! AGPLv3 seems very appropriate, though we'd prefer for the projects to remain with the Foundation and without a CLA.
The net of all this may end up being a boon for Element and/or the ecosystem, that remains to be seen.
In the meantime, it definitely adds to the workload for the Foundation – in navigating the changes, and in building trust in our work.
@matrix
Doing specs is good, but synapse is the only viable project out there and now that they took full control over it they will have zero incentive to wait for specs to be written before implementing features.
You will either be on synapse + element or you will be a second class citizen.
That's a shame, I used to like this project.
@matrix I don't fully understand the different licenses in this case. I think I get the overall dilemma. It reminds me of similar license discussions about profit/non-profit and how to keep actors on a competitive commodity market from exploiting commons. I think Dmitry Kleiner did some really important work with the idea of #copyfarleft that perhaps could be built on.
@matrix If this is a breakup with Element, PLEASE go around and ask non-Element-affiliated contributors of the ecosystem as to what's going wrong when you have the time and the capacity.
Sending warm regards and wishing you the best ❤