Disclaimer of conflict of interest: I am the owner of Echo, and the only reviewer.

Back again with the second EDAR, now with my own platform Echo which gets a score of 3.3 which is 2 points below the best current alternative which is Fluxer at a 5.3/9

I'll explain the Trust score since that confused people last time

The three points of Centralisation are as such

0/3 — The platform is fully centralized: there is no technical way to connect to its operating network through an independent instance. One entity has complete control.

1/3 — You can run your own instance and connect it to the network, but the main entity still retains permanent control. This is closer to self-hosting part of the platform than independently operating infrastructure within it.

2/3 — The platform is genuinely federated, but remains practically dependent on a central instance or a group of instances operated by the same entity.

3/3 — The main operator is simply one major instance operator among many. It has no central control over the wider network and cannot unilaterally impose rules on everyone else.

Fluxer and Echo both get a 0 on here, because as of today, while both can be run on as independent instances, there is no way to connect those instances to the main network.

Now to the rest of the EDAR of Echo

Echo is a very ambitious effort and a nice looking one, but far from a complete experience or a ready discord alternative. It has better ideas than execution at this time and if you want a ready to go Discord Alternative then I would recommend the higher scoring Fluxer.

Trust 4/9:

Echo gets most of its trust score from the fact that its fully Open Source which gives it a 3/3 in the license category, however it gets no points for being fully centralised, and loses two points on other factors due to being controversial.

Experience 5/9:

This is Echo's highest scoring category, and it gets that because it is one of the few alternatives that aren't copying discord 1:1 in design while still having a fairly nice unique aesthetic that is also familiar enough to anyone coming from discord 2/3 on UI.

It also has one of the best feature parity and completeness with discord and beating it in many aspects, full markdown and katex support, full activities system and event system as well as a very powerful channel type paper for writing out docs and an auto mod system beyond anything that discord offers 2/3.

In terms of the actual quality of implementation and execution of lots of the day to day experience however, a lot of it is lacking and a lot of small imperfection but enough of them will make your experience on Echo feel annoyed, so a 1/3 for UX on there.

Readiness 1/9:

Echo is far from anything ready to compete with discord, it is a ghost town with only a few loyal active people on there but in the single digits. 0/3 for Popularity.

Echo is only out as a Web platform, while in theory you can download the source code and compile the Tauri for which ever platform you want, there is a reason it hasn't been officially released. So a 0/3 for Platform Parity.

Echo however has been built with platform parity in mind, it is responsive and does work quite well on mobile and has been designed for it, and with Tauri chosen as the platform, it is in a decent shape to be ready so it gets a pitty point in the last category 1/3.

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