Matrix for IRC users

Matrix is a federated (=servers talk with each other and anyone can host one) discussion protocol which special feature is attempting to bridge all other protocols into it. Riot is the most popular Matrix client.

It does this especially well with IRC with matrix-appservice-irc and as a side effect it can function as a bouncer for IRC users who aren't managing any channels. It has even brought some entirely new users to IRC.

Users connecting through the IRC bridge have nicknames ending to [m] for example MatrixUser[m] by default, but they can change it. They can only see the history in your channel starting from the point they join it.

Managing your channel at Matrix

There are two types of bridged rooms at Matrix which can co-exist (even if in that case they look ugly to the Matrix rooms):

• Plumbed rooms which are manually bridged from Riot's "manage integrations" menu which causes MatrixBot or similar nick to message op nick that was entered in the manage integrations menu asking for bridging permission.
  • WARNING: Answering "yes" to it will give the request sender control over bans and all settings of your IRC channel at the Matrix side so don't reply so unless you are the one initiating the connection. PowerLevel 100 cannot be removed by other people (only the user can decide to step down and deop themself).
• Portal rooms which are automatically created when a Matrix user joins your IRC channel on a bridged network.

In order to gain moderator permissions (also known as power level 50 (or PL50)), which equals op at IRC with the exception of being unable to change power level of other users, you can op your Matrix connection. Because of a bug this may sometimes require opping twice.

See also unofficial list of public Matrix servers.

The tasks that you can do from Matrix are:

• changing the room main alias/address
• changing the room name
• changing the room photo
• allowing unregistered Matrix users to join the room
  • by default only registered Matrix users can join IRC bridged rooms)
• disabling URL previews from everyone by default
  • they are enabled everywhere by default, but users can configure it for themselves).
• listing the channel in room directory of your homeserver.

At the moment it's not possible to change room history visibility in plumped rooms, that is tracked in issue #408 about default power levels for portal rooms.