Glossary of Terms in Matrix
See Room Alias.
A 'bot, short for "robot", is an automated program with a network presence that may seem like a human user which provide functionality that might not yet be built into network specifications. When well configured they provide helpful or important functions where a human with sufficient Power Level or privileges may not be immediately available. However they can be seen as annoyances, i.e when a "Trivia 'Bot" interjects questions every few seconds, to produce room activity.
A "bouncer" or "BNC" (Bounced Network Connection) is actually a term from IRC. However, it can be useful to describe Matrix as including the functionality of a bouncer where clients do not really need to log room content. This is done by the user's Homeserver. And under normal circumstances Homeservers are always connected to rooms where users have joined. During outages other Homeservers should forward any content missed to the user's Homeserver, once it returns to normal operation. But, basically, an IRC Bouncer is active on a computer, often a server, and attempts to stay connected to IRC at all times, and the user's client connects to said bouncer, getting scrollback when reconnecting. Some articles emphasize Bouncers as only useful for hiding your real I.P. Address from the network, as if you are not just after privacy, but up to no good. But Bouncers keep room history during netsplits, disconnections, and while intentionally offline; which is generaly not possible with the current state of IRC without using a Bouncer. There are few IRC network that are progressive enough to include a Bouncer, perhaps only one at the time of this writing, Rizon. See also: https://wiki.rizon.net/index.php?title=RizonBNC_FAQ
Centralized is the complete opposite of Decentralized models such as Federated or P2P. A Central Authority has control over much of the User eXperience and can dictate or censor much, subject to their politics or possibly on a whim. Examples include Facebook™, Twitter™, Reddit™, Youtube™, and many other popular sites.
This term is carried over from IRC and more recently, Discord™ On Matrix, and many other places online, the term is "Room".
In Matrix a Community is a group of rooms with common members, themes, interests, et cetera. Communities have also been described as "Groups". Some coming from Discord™ might compare a Matrix Community to a Discord™ "Guild", which they call erroneously call a "server". See note at Server. The equivalent of a Room Alias for a Community begins with the Sigil +, i.e. +somecommunity:somehomeserver.tld.
A distinction should be made between a Homeserver and the Communities of people, possibly from various homeservers, who populate rooms, and share common interests.
This generally describes network topologies such as Decentralized-Federated, Decentralized-P2P, and perhaps Decentralized-IoT. See those entries for more details.
Not to be confused with Multi-Network Bridging.
Double Bridging happens, for example with IRC bridging, when a user joins both a Portal Room and a Plumbed Room. This is annoying for such a user, Matrix room Admin's and other room members. Messages and notifications can be doubled for one intended content stream. Double Bridged members may also have more than one MXID active in a room, one being the type of MXID provided for briged members. It is recommended that a native Matrix user only join Plumbed Rooms if both might be available, searching the Matrix directory first.
End to End Encryption.
See also: Why is E2EE not recommended in Public Rooms.
Decentralized connection of servers that are not under the control of a Central Authority, aside from Internet Service Providers or government agencies. Clients connect to these servers. A common example of this happens with mailto: protocol for Electronic Mail. Matrix is Federated, and so is Mastodon. Due to confusion with terms used to differentiate between various topologies, it is recommended to use the term "Decentralized-Federated". Compare with Centralized
A homeserver is a Matrix server to which Matrix Clients connect. They stay connected to other Homeservers by Decentralized-Federation, are responsible for keeping room contents synchronized across federated Homeservers, and user preferences in sync' over multiple Matrix Clients. At the time of this writing, the only Homeserver with a stable release is Synapse.
See also: https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html#servers
A distinction should be made between a Homeserver and the Communities of people, possibly from various homeservers, who populate rooms, and share common interests.
While IoT may work in a manner similar to Decentralized-P2P, there are some differences, beyond the scope of this Glossary. However IoT is often automated without a human at the client, and may be under the control of a Centralized Authority. Due to confusion with terms used to differentiate between various topologies, it is recommended to use the term "Decentralized-IoT".
Not to be confused with Double Bridging
Multi-Network Bridging is simply when Matrix, or a Matrix Room is the "glue" or proxy between more than one network. Room members may require some adjustment in overcoming something new. But if all is working well, this should not be an issue, other than resistance to something new, a.k.a "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).
A Matrix ID.
See also: What is a MXID?
Dedentralized, Peer-to-Peer serverless connections of clients without any control from a Central Authority other than an Internet Service Provider or government agency. An example of this is GNU Ring. Due to confusion with terms used to differentiate between terms used for various topologies, it is recommended to use the term "Decentralized-P2P".Compare with Centralized
A Permalink on Matrix points to a specific "event" or message in a room. Such a Permalink, when generated by most Matrix clients contain the Room ID and the part pointing to the event begins with the Sigil $. Splicing a Room Alias in place of a Room ID has been shown to work. However use of the Room ID is due to the permanent nature of the Room ID, whereas a Room Alias may be changed.
A room in Matrix that has manually been bridged or linked to another network This is typically done by a Matrix room Admin' or other with sufficient Power Level.
See also: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/wiki/Permissioning-in-Portal-vs-Plumbed-rooms#plumbed-rooms
A room in Matrix that has been automatically created to a bridged network This is typically done by an "appservice" 'bot from scanning the other network, or when users issue commands to join the other network. Often this is seen with IRC.
See also: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/wiki/Permissioning-in-Portal-vs-Plumbed-rooms#portal-rooms
A numerical variable assigned to users in rooms, and settings in rooms, whereas a user requires a sufficient Power Level to manipulate those settings. Often abbreviated "PL", and given with actual numbers, i.e. "PL-100". PL-100 is the maximum Power Level in a room, and users at that level are permitted to modify all settings. Note: Generally a PL-100 may only demote themselves, so caution in giving out that PL is advised.
A place where messages or chats are passed.
An Alias for a Matrix Room, used instead of a Room ID, can be compared to an internet Domain Name being used instead of an IP address. They are more human readable, recognizable and might be shared from a person's memory. They always begin with the sigil#, ie #someroom:somehomeserver.tld.
Room IDs contain a string of characters generated during the room's creation and are generally not assignable by users. They contain the Homeserver of the MXID of the user who created the room. They begin with the [Sigil](https://github.com/MilkManzJourDaddy/matrix-org/wiki/Glossary-of-Terms-in-Matrix#sigil-identifier-characters] !, i.e. !gfdsgdksgsfs:somehomeserver.tld.
Not to be confused with the erroneous use on Discord™ where "Community", or what they also call a "Guild" is meant. In the rest of the world, "server" ≠ "Community".
In Matrix a Server has the common meaning as most everywhere online, However the term "Homeserver" is used; as, at the time of this writing, a MXID has one home at one Homeserver. See: Homeserver.
Characters used in Matrix for Identifiers and Aliases i.e.: #, @, !, +, and $.
See: Common Identifier Format