SceneCity is based on a heavily modified version of the open-source Mattermost chat software. The most important modifications are improving privacy by removing any telemetry and usage of external resources. Still, the system is compatible with existing Mattermost clients.
We have built a custom version of the Mattermost client for Android. This version automatically will provide logging in via SceneID, and has very strict privacy. Most importantly we are using our own notification server to push chat notifications to your phone.
The App is supposed to work with pretty much every Android phone and tablet. If it doesn't, please let us know.
The iOS app currently is in beta, but should be ready soon.
You wish, you can join the beta test using Apple's "Test flight" program.
For the desktop, as an alternative to the web client you may use the official Mattermost desktop client. Please note that unlike the web version, any potential telemetry used in their client is out of our control. If you are paranoid, stick with the web client.
Matterhorn is a terminal client for the Mattermost platform aimed at Unix-based systems
Matterhorn aims to provide a keyboard- and terminal-optimized user experience while still providing access to features that Mattermost web client users will expect. For example, it is providing keyboard shortcuts to switch to the next channel with unread messages and the previous channel viewed. It also provides a keyboard interface for downloading attachments and opening URLs using your system’s local browser. For message rendering, it supports full Markdown syntax and even provides a “preview mode” for message editing so you can see how your message will be formatted.
SceneCity also is available via IRC. Any IRC client should work, as well as bouncers.
Setting up IRC access requires a couple of steps you need to do once. This is because IRC obviously does not support SceneID authentication. Instead you need to acquire an authentication token by logging in (using your SceneID) to the SceneCity web client once, to there generate a token. That token then may be used permanently for IRC access. Here are the steps involved:
Log in into SceneCity, and go to your profile settings.
Select Security to edit your security settings. Click Create Token.
Give your token a descriptive name - for example "IRC". You will be provided with an access token. You need the string behind "Access Token", the Token ID you can ignore. Please note that the access token only is displayed here once, and never again. So make sure to copy it somewhere!
Of course you can always delete the old token and generate a new one, in case you forgot the old one. And of course should you one day have leaked your access token, make sure to delete that one and generate a new one.
Connect your IRC client to chat.scenecity.net, SSL (!) Port 6697. Please note that we do not provide an unencrypted port at 6667. Make sure the username and nickname you have configured are identical to the one you are using on SceneCity / SceneID.
After having connected to the server, you now need to send a private message to "mattermost", giving your account name and your access token, like this:
/msg mattermost login demoscene username token=your_access_token
That's it. Your client should now auto-join all channels you have joined on the web client before.
It's important to remember that the authentication with the mattermost user must be done on every connect. We have seen people wondering why they no longer received messages after their client (or bouncer) having reconnected. This is why.
Here are instructions for IRSSI:
/network add -autosendcmd "/msg mattermost login demoscene username token=your_access_token" scenecity
/server add -auto -network scenecity -ssl chat.scenecity.net 6697
/save
/connect scenecity