[tehabe]

The problem with Jabber is, that you are locked in to one server, switching means that you have to re-add all your contacts and so far there is no automatic way to do it. I think the developer of IMCom (console Jabber client) thought about that and how it could work but I don't think his idea got a lot of attention.

[SamWhited]

As opposed to what that doesn't lock you in? I'd be curious to see how they do it. With an XMPP compatible account you could at least host with your own domain (by running your own server or using a hosted service like https://account.conversations.im/domain/), and then moving isn't too bad. If you fall under GDPR regulations you can presumably ask for a copy of your data now too, and then hand that to whatever your new provider is if you move. That being said, people don't move servers that often, so it doesn't seem like a huge deal either way to me. It could certainly be easier though. Maybe someone should write a spec for that or update one of the older ones?

[tehabe]

Weirdly enough, services like WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram are more portable. Because the identifier is not owned by the service but is provided by s.o. else. It is essentially a decentralised social graph in the address book of your phone. I'm aware of the caveats though.

[singpolyma3]

The "right" way to handle this is as with email: get a domain name, and then use that for your JID. This means you can only use servers that support hosting a custom domain, but at least you can switch servers without changing your address.

[seba_dos1]

Re-adding contacts is easy. Back in 2006 I used to manually prepare XML for injection into XML console in Psi in order to add all my Gadu-Gadu contacts to XMPP roster using transport. Now things like that can be easily automated thanks to XEP-0144. You could probably use XEP-0321 for it as well.

[wst_]

Is it a joke? Well, I'll bite. You do understand how cryptic and unbelievably this sounds to common folks? And even if, as a tech person, I could do such kind of magic I simply don't want to. I believe software must be dead simple to use. If it isn't, it means the designers screwed up their job.

[seba_dos1]

This comment wasn't targeted to "common folks", it was targeted to HN readers interested in XMPP. Common folks can use Google/DuckDuckGo and find one of the readily available scripts that already do that. Others can implement their own in 15 minutes. GP claimed that there's no automated way to do that, I just said that it's wrong.

Anyway, you won't be able to migrate your account to another provider at all when using most of other networks, and generally you shouldn't need to do that with XMPP as well (only in rare, special situations), so I really don't think that every user-friendly XMPP client out there needs to provide big fat "MIGRATE MY ROSTER" button.

[dcbadacd]

> Common folks can use Google/DuckDuckGo and find one of the readily available scripts that already do that

This pattern of thought is why it still isn't the year of Linux on the desktop. Black squares containing only text scare people.

[OoooooooO]

> Common folks can use Google/DuckDuckGo and find one of the readily available scripts that already do that

We seem to have quite different views about "common people".

[SamWhited]

It's only easy if servers and clients support those specs; I'm not aware of any that do, but at least they exist. Maybe it's worth updating them and pushing for adoption.

[seba_dos1]

At least Psi and Spectrum do, and I think every major server does. I haven't chosen my clients by support of those XEPs and all of them happen to support at least one, so I suspect that at least one of them will be pretty commonly implemented these days.

In fact, to just one-time migrate your roster you don't even need any of them - you just download the roster from one account and push it to another. There are plenty of tools to do that on the Web. XEPs make it easy to keep them synchronized, or to "push" roster from one account to another without having to log in into new account with the tool you want to use.

[SamWhited]

Conversations definitely doesn't, and I don't see it in Psi. Can you provide a link? Maybe I'm just missing something.

[JepZ]

I don't see the dependency on you provider as much as a problem as how you should know which provider will be there in five years.

Furthermore, running your own server isn't as easy as it should be. I run my own ejabberd with about 20 users (mostly family) since a few years now, but the configuration still gives me headaches. It is not as complicated as mail server, but still not as easy as providing the domain name and a certificate. Maybe ejabberd is just too powerful for small/simple installations.

[rascul]

Have you looked at Prosody? They try to make it easy to setup and configure.

https://prosody.im

[rascul]

This isn't a problem I have. Especially if I'm running my own server.