Matrix

"What is the Matrix?"

Matrix is an open, lightweight protocol for decentralized, real-time communications.

After a long evaluation period, Mozilla has switched to Matrix from IRC as our preferred open discussion platform. Matrix is a huge improvement in usability, accessibility and safety for the Mozilla community, and we're excited to make this change.

Community Participation at Mozilla

The heart of Mozilla is people. We put people first and do our best to recognize, appreciate and respect the diversity of our global contributors. The Mozilla Project welcomes the participation of everyone who shares our goals and wants to contribute in a healthy and constructive manner within our communities. To that end, as with all Mozilla spaces and events we expect participants in our Matrix forums to support and uphold the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines as a condition of participation.

Getting Started

New to Matrix, new to Mozilla?

Start with the Riot webapp and create an account. Once you're signed in, clicking these links will let you join the #general:mozilla.org channel for general questions or #introduction:mozilla.org if you're interested in getting involved with the Mozilla development process. There are lots more channels to choose from - there's a list of some of them below - and we'll have more as soon as we get them sorted out.

For more details, scroll down to Connect to Matrix below.

New to Mozilla, already using Matrix?

If you're already using Matrix, you can join the Mozilla conversation by opening the #general:mozilla.org room for general topics and #introduction:mozilla.org if you're interested in getting involved with the Mozilla development process. The whole Mozilla list of rooms isn't settled out and synchronizing across the Matrix ecosystem yet; we're working on it and we'll have a longer list of channels here soon. In the meantime, those are friendly channels and the people there will be able to help you find your way around. You can start using Matrix directly via the Riot webapp or one of the many native applications available.

New to Matrix, already part of Mozilla?

Mozilla's Matrix server is configured to use Mozilla IAM, and supports the following accounts:

• Mozilla LDAP
• Firefox Accounts
• Github
• Google

Any of those will work if you go through the web interface; the details are in the Connect to Matrix section below.

Already using Matrix, already part of Mozilla?

Then get over there!

Community Participation Guidelines

The heart of Mozilla is people. We put people first and do our best to recognize, appreciate and respect the diversity of our global contributors. The Mozilla Project welcomes contributions from everyone who shares our goals and wants to contribute in a healthy and constructive manner within our community

Despite our very best efforts, occasionally people do experience behaviors on Matrix that are not inline with our Community Participation Guidelines. If happens to you, please reach out to the room moderator or use our reporting hotline.

Connect to Matrix

Register a username

The quickest way to register a username on Mozilla Matrix is through the web interface.

• Open https://chat.mozilla.org/

• Review the CPG and privacy notices and press the Sign In button

• On the sign in page, proceed to Sign in with single sign-on

• Pick your choice of services to authenticate from

• Pick your username!

Clients

Matrix supports a variety of clients on web, desktop, and mobile. You can readily connect to the web client from https://chat.mozilla.org/. Matrix maintains a list of clients on their website.

Clients which currently support Single Sign-On include:

• riot-web, the software behind chat.mozilla.org
  • this is also available as a desktop client: download here
• Riot Android (also available on F-Droid)
  • RiotX is the next generation Matrix client for Android (also available on F-Droid)
• Riot iOS
• weechat, using the weechat-matrix protocol script. Note the Single Sign-On instructions.

Connection parameters

While the default parameters in most clients will work just fine, if you're already part of the Mozilla community or want to connect directly to the Mozilla Matrix instance. To do that, you'll need to change the following settings:

Homeserver	https://mozilla.modular.im
Identity server	https://vector.im

Joining a room

When connected to the Mozilla Matrix server you can join Mozilla rooms and also rooms on other Matrix servers.

There are several different ways to join a room:

• You can follow an external link. (For example, see the links to commonly used rooms lower on this page.)
• You can follow links from inside a discussion on Matrix.
• You can receive an invitation from another Matrix member.
• There are also platform specific methods:
  • On https://chat.mozilla.org/ you can click Explore in the upper left and search the known rooms to see information about the rooms and then preview or join the rooms. On the left side you can select or enter another Matrix server and search for non-Mozilla rooms.
  • Other platforms: TBA

When you follow a link you you may be given a choice to preview the contents of the room or to join. If the room doesn't allow preview you may be asked if you want to join it without a preview first.

But it is also easy to leave a room. On https://chat.mozilla.org/ find the room name (or icon) in the room list on the left and click the three vertical dots to the left of the name. There are several options on how you want to read the room. plus the option to leave.

Commonly used rooms

General discussion

• #general:mozilla.org - General discussions about Mozilla
• #developers:mozilla.org - General Firefox and Gecko development discussion
• #introduction:mozilla.org - Help with basics of developing for Mozilla
• #synchronicity:mozilla.org - Sorting out bugs and papercuts in the migration from IRC to Matrix

Specific areas

• #l10n-community:mozilla.org - Discussion about localization (l10n) of Mozilla applications

Specific locations

• #berlin:mozilla.org - General chat for people in the Berlin office
• #canada:mozilla.org - General chat for the Canadian Mozilla community
• #mozfr:mozilla.org - Communauté francophone de mozfr.org - French speaking community from mozfr.org
• #Mozilla_NL:mozilla.org - Voor Nederlands sprekende medewerkers en vrijwilligers van Mozilla
• #mozilla-hispano:mozilla.org - Comunidad en español de Mozilla https://www.mozilla-hispano.org/
• #toronto:mozilla.org - General chat for people in the Toronto office
• #vancouver:mozilla.org - General chat for people in the Vancouver office

Rooms in other languages

Lithuanian

• #l10n-lt:mozilla.org – Lithuanian l10n community

Feedback

For feedback on Riot and Matrix, head to #synchronicity:mozilla.org

History

• On March 2020, Mozilla moved from IRC to Matrix.