One-page guide: Conda Community Chat using Element

[tnabtaf (Dave Clements)]

The conda ecosystem is migrating has migrated from Slack and other platforms to Element for community chat. This is your one-page guide to getting up and running with Element.
Note that this will have only a minimal impact of current Gitter users.

Links

• Main conda chat room: bit.ly/conda-chat-room
• Conda space: links to all conda-related chat rooms bit.ly/conda-space
• conda-forge space: links to all CF-related chat rooms bit.ly/cf-chat-space

Technology

• Element: A chat client that works with the Matrix protocol. Element is also available as a web site.
• Matrix: An open protocol for chat.
• matrix.org and gitter.im: Matrix-compatible chat providers that host conda community chat rooms.

Element enables you to connect to and participate in conda community chat rooms hosted on the (matrix-compatible) matrix.org and gitter.im services.

Think of this as similar to email: Email clients (like Outlook or Thunderbird) use email protocols to connect you to email providers (like your school or employer). Element does this for chat.

Structure

• Rooms, such as the main conda chat room, are where chat happens.
• Spaces group related rooms together. Spaces can also link to other related spaces.

All known conda-related chat rooms are linked to from the conda space. conda-forge has it’s own space, which is linked to from the conda space.

Get started

1. Download and install Element, or go to Element’s web interface.
2. Create an account:
   • Set Host account on to matrix.org
   • Create a new account from scratch or connect with your GitHub, Google, GitLab, Facebook or Apple account
   • You may be asked to validate your email.
3. Once inside Element you will see an empty People list and an empty Rooms list.
   • Open this conda Community Space invite link in a new tab in your browser
   • Click Continue
   • On the Choose an app to continue page, click Continue underneath Element.
4. If you have Element installed then your browser will prompt you to open the element link with Element. Otherwise, you can click Continue in browser.
5. In the popup, click on Join.
   • And now you are in the conda space.
6. You can now review and join any of the rooms listed. Some good places to start include:
   • conda/conda, the main chat room
   • conda-forge/conda-forge.github.io, for conda-forge discussion
   • mamba. org/Lobby, all things mamba
   • Any other rooms that are relevant to you.
7. Start participating! Posts can include Markdown.

More about Element and Matrix

• A short guide to getting started
• The Element User Guide for all the details of setting up and using Element. If you prefer video and have 25 minutes then check out this video from Techlore.
• Gitter is going fully native Matrix in Feb. 2023

[tnabtaf (Dave Clements)]

Beyond the one page guide: Further tips and tricks

Change the room order in a space

The order of rooms in a space initially appears to be random, in both the sidebar listing the rooms you are a member of, and in the space’s home page. Well, neither is random, but they may not be that helpful.

To change the order of the rooms you belong to in the sidebar:

1. Hover over the top of the Rooms list in the room’s sidebar
2. Click the ellipsis “…” that appears when you hover
3. This displays the list options. Select the Sort by and Appearance options you want.

This shows the options to sort the sidebar room list alphabetically

To change the order of the rooms and spaces on the space home page:

1. You can’t.