Do you guys use Signal? I'm thinking perhaps a group on there could accompany this site, considering the relatively small userbase. There is already a web chat but I just don't see it being used that much. Plus Signal provides e2ee which is more relevant when hitting someone up privately.

Why do I like Signal? It's something people use separately from this website. Web chat is reliant on someone visiting this website long-term, and if you want to hit someone up in let's say a year and they don't come here anymore, you've lost track of them. A sense of belonging arises not just from active engagement, but just as much from incidental encounters which at the least need to be enabled. If we can reach each other regardless of someone's engagement with this website, we're establishing a community akin to a digital village where you can just ring someone's door and expect them to still live there.

I'm proposing Signal because it's the best balance of what people already use and what provides privacy. If I propose XMPP or Matrix (the other one) then I'm asking people to create an account just for this and we're back to square one. Everyone and their mom uses Signal now.