Mass Invite or Force-Invite 'Bot for Homeserver Dev'Op's to Make Critical Announcements

[MilkManzJourDaddy]

XMPP has the ability to send messages to all on a server.  IRC has "Global".  But it seems Matrix lacks such.  Wehost and Disroot have "Status"/"State" rooms, and such seem like the best option for urgent messages about a Homeserver.  But not everyone is aware of such, so a Mass Invite may help.  ↵↵¶However, this has potential for abuse, so this probably should only be an option for Homeserver Dev'Op's or another they choose. This especially, if the ability to "Force-Join" MXIDs is added, as it should be, if possible.  ↵↵¶A use-case of this is the end of the Homeserver on hackerspace.be as room Admin's should transfer PL100 to another MXID and should probably demote the hackerspace.be MXID in case someone else puts a Homeserver on that domain.

[MilkManzJourDaddy]

And it seems a MXID may be Force-Joined into a room upon signup, so there is a mechanism in place.

[turt2live]

This is best reported as an issue on your homeserver of choice. For synapse, the particular issue is matrix-org/synapse#1199 which is much more possible thanks to work in the GDPR sphere.

[MilkManzJourDaddy]

You are confusing a use-case with this solution. The 'bot would invite, or force-invite a range of MXIDs that may be parameter restricted. But it solves the other issue. Yet the broader consideration is not spamming some IRC MOTD, if this concept is not abused, and only used where important. But at the end of the day, an invite may simply be rejected, or people may leave a room. For critical Homeserver announcements, an invite should be understood as not everyone has out-of-band/off-platform information sources for their homeserver.

[turt2live]

The link to matrix-org/synapse#1199 is not about the ability for MOTD or similar features, it's about the new functionality that has been implemented in synapse on develop. There's now a concept of "server notices" where the server can force users into a room and give them information (the current use case being "please accept our terms of service").

This "server notice" functionality being added to synapse seems to be what you're after. If I'm wrong, please describe the issue more simply.

[MilkManzJourDaddy]

The timing is kind of funny that I just received, and accepted, an invite from the 'bot System Alerts into what appears to be a 1:1 chat, but is no ordinary Direct Chat as I am not an Admin' but muted.  It did not force-invite.  ↵↵¶That is, in part, but largely, what I meant, citing the use-case of announcing hackerspace.be going defunct, thanks.  So, Homeserver Dev'Op's should be aware of this feature and Disroot or Wehost may want to mass invite to their Public Status/State rooms.  ↵↵¶However, there might be other use-cases, maybe with Matrix Communitie.  But it would need consideration.

[MilkManzJourDaddy]

I know of some very large rooms right now which seem to be constantly affected by something like Spontaneous leaving/rejoining rooms [state resets] #1953 .

A possible workaround is to just start over, as they did with #matrix:matrix.org; assigning the Alias(es) to a new room. But that would destroy or decimate a community room that had had huge growth over the short time Matrix has been a thing. That room linked above probably more than 12K MXIDs when that was done. Now I see little more than 1.5K. Sure some were IRC "ghosts". But AFAIK, while i.e. Riot-Web puts the Alias in the navigation bar/link, room members are tied to the Room ID. I reassigned a Canonical/Main Alias, re-launching a room and did nit see members automaticly follow the move.

So that is yet another use-case for this concept.

It's really underwhelmingly unfortunate to see issues closed without understanding the heart of the issue, or use-cases. But it is commonplace.