[MVMA] Mattermost (chat) Server on the mesh

[Ray Cooper-KD8PNV]

Good morning everyone, 
 So I recently discovered the big MatterMost server in CA where a lot of the AREDN developers hang out and thought that would work so much better than some of the alternatives that we have available to us; IRC is nice and lightweight but has no history and mobile clients aren't the easiest, meshchat isn't mobile friendly in my experience, etc... 

So down sides first, it does require creating an account to use it (for now). There is a way to disable that, but because of a major benefit in my opinion, it needs to be that way for now. That benefit is I also have it available over the internet (spectrum willing). 

A couple of small details that I don't see any problems, I am requesting that everyone use their call sign as their username to keep us in line with FCC regulations of identification. The software gives you the option of changing the display on your side if you would rather see real names, which are also optional to enter. Also right now, I'm going to call this a testing phase and with that in mind I can't promise 100% uptime or data integrity, but who can. I have it currently running on a raspberrypi 3b which is not exactly a supported method of installation.

My reasoning for doing the rpi route instead of a more powerful server is I wanted something that could be run from a battery long term should the need arise ,and to be honest it would have been way easier to just spin it up in docker and let it fly. 

So, I share this invite with everyone on the list to join and try it out. You can create an account here - http://kd8pnv-rpi.local.mesh:8065/signup_user_complete/?id=iatre8fbobykjmxt9oqour1ibw

If you are so inclined to try out using it via mobile or non-mesh, you can use the address http://mattermost.kd8pnv.com:8065 instead, but obviously I encourage use over the mesh ;) 

So a little bit about MatterMost, they offer a free open source version of both their server software and client software. Offer clients for IOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as working in a web browser. Gives you the ability to scroll back through chat history, and even search. Has multiple channels available, as well as private channels (group dm's) and direct messages between users. They do have a paid enterprise option for some advanced features, but it is by no means required. It also offers the ability for plugins and bots that I haven't explored too much yet, but we could potentially find a use for. 


I hope it's something useful that I can add to the mesh and that others will find a use in.

Ray
KD8PNV

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