There are a number of differences between Matrix, Discord, and Signal. Because our Matrix and Discord servers are bridged, the differences between these two are mostly "philosophical" as they share content. This is not true for Signal.

Why Matrix?

Matrix is an open source and open protocol service. The Matrix community is very active and diverse, and there are many clients and servers that implement the Matrix protocol.

Why Not Discord?

It is well-known that Discord does not honor user privacy and sells user data to data brokers. Additionally, the Discord clients work very poorly with assistive technologies, limiting who can use them. And finally, nothing about Discord is open source or open protocol. However, if none of those are issues for you, then Discord is a very useable chat service.

Why Not Signal?

Signal is a very privacy focused chat service. However, only their clients are open source, and Signal is a "closed" service much like Discord. While well-funded, Signal has yet to address reported issues regarding their clients and assistive technologies, along with many other usability issues such as lack of threading. There is also no Signal web-client, and their desktop client is just a scaled up mobile client. For NoVaLUG's purposes, there is no bridging.