[MLUG] Final Matrix server configurations.

[Kevin Exton]

Hi folks,

I'm in the final stages of configuring a Matrix home server for the group. I want to set the server name to be mlug-au.org so that we can reuse the same domain and web server as the current website. There are, however, some changes that need to be made.

• Currently the server is running on a VPS donated by @Andre Sencioles . We probably want to point a subdomain like matrix.mlug-au.org at it.
  
  
• Then we need to configure root domain delegation - Tuwunel One so that all our users are identified as @<USERNAME>:mlug-au.org. This needs to be done on the current web server by configuring a reverse proxy at some .well-known endpoints.

Who can help me with this?

-- Kevin

[zak martell]

Hi Kevin, 

What’s the purpose of the matrix group? 

I know I haven’t been around lately, but I do not wish to install “yet another app” just so I can follow along mlug group. Email is easy and something already have installed. 

Sounds like a downgrade to me. 

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[Pool Master]

Zak, I think it was created for the modern GUI aesthetics it provides and possibly for the service and flexibility it provides for communicating?

Also make note (totally off topic) gmail now has automatic AI scanning of our emails and provides a summary of key points and if there are any pending replies by recipients etc.

Problem is that you probably dont want to be emailing content such as code or anything you deem valuable, especially if you didnt use AI to generate the code but used your own braincells because the google LLMs will just get better and better thanks to our code found in our emails.

I wonder if the LLM also get a better sense of humour by reading/scanning our emails that have funny content/comments in them?

Totally off topic.

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[Kevin Exton]

On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 at 21:07, zak martell <zak.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kevin, 

What’s the purpose of the matrix group? 

I know I haven’t been around lately, but I do not wish to install “yet another app” just so I can follow along mlug group. Email is easy and something already have installed. 

Sounds like a downgrade to me. 

On 6/25/2026 3:17 PM, Pool Master wrote:

Zak, I think it was created for the modern GUI aesthetics it provides and possibly for the service and flexibility it provides for communicating?

Yeah. I recently met someone who seems interested in joining the group but isn't a fan of mailing lists. 
Not because mailing lists aren't good, but because they're of a generation that thinks mailing lists are an antiquated form of communication.
And if anyone can think of a nicer way to phrase that I'm all ears.

That being said, I hear your concerns Zak. I have a plan to implement a little bridge that connects the mailing list to a room on the Matrix home server
so that nobody is forced to use a method of communication that they don't have to. Starting that work depends on having a Matrix home-server that works
and people can connect to. So I still need to know who the owner of our web-server and domain name is.

As an aside. Organisations like Mozilla, Ubuntu, and XFCE have already or are somewhere in the process of migrating to Matrix from IRC and I'm not sure if it's even
possible to register a matrix account with a big public server like matrix.org anymore. The protocol itself is designed to work as a federation of small community servers, not 
one large server like IRC's libera.chat. Having our own Matrix home server will make it easy for members of our group to connect with open-source organizations that have 
migrated to Matrix already without the need to host their own server or fight for space on a random list of public servers that are accepting open registrations
(do you trust those anyway?).

-- Kevin

[zak martell]

Hi Kevin,

I am going to tease you here a little :D 

For someone who works i believe in web industry, i am surprised to hear that you havent heard of how DNS works. All domains must be legally registered with ICANN, so you can always use WHOIS to find the domain owner. The whois points to Andrew along with what appears to be his personal telephone number. I believe Andrew self-hosts it if i'm not mistaken but you can likely run a IP lookup on the IP address to find out more. 

While Matrix and likely "Element" are much more modern, groups like "Linux User Groups" tend to be very old, with some members who have been around for decades. Some even move away but still belong to their original home's Linux user group mailing lists, like myself who still belongs to my home country Canada's mailinglist. User groups move much more slowly than, say, a workplace. There are likely tons of people reading messages, but never message themselves for many years. I think readership would drop if you move to a more modern platform. 

 

but because they're of a generation <---  i would think a younger generation :P Gen Z? 

Although if a bridge exists, i guess it doesn't really matter, and it makes my point moot. 

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[Glenn McIntosh]

On 24/6/26 15:18, Kevin Exton wrote:
> I'm in the final stages of configuring a Matrix home server for the

> group. I want to set the server name to be mlug-au.org <http://mlug-
> au.org> so that we can reuse the same domain and web server as the

> current website. There are, however, some changes that need to be made.

Sounds like a great idea, love to see people volunteering to run
infrastructure.

My 2 cents worth is not to worry about trying to have a root domain as
part of the matrix username, ie, just use the subdomain
@{USERNAME}:matrix.mlug-au.org to keep things simple, especially when
you have multiple services on the same domain on different machines.
Indirection adds another thing to break, merely to save a few characters.

Bridging in both directions with email is a good idea, but should be
open for evaluation after a month or two of actual traffic. The issue I
would foresee is that matrix messages tend to be shorter and more
frequent, which could potentially flood what is generally a low-volume
email list. But worth a try.

I think messaging apps and email have different advantages, but the
culture around how quickly messages get responded to and how measured
and permanent the response is can differ.

Glenn

[Kevin Exton]

On 6/26/2026 2:31 PM, Glenn McIntosh wrote:
> On 24/6/26 15:18, Kevin Exton wrote:
>> I'm in the final stages of configuring a Matrix home server for the
>> group. I want to set the server name to be mlug-au.org <http://mlug-
>> au.org> so that we can reuse the same domain and web server as the
>> current website. There are, however, some changes that need to be made.
>

> My 2 cents worth is not to worry about trying to have a root domain as
> part of the matrix username, ie, just use the subdomain
> @{USERNAME}:matrix.mlug-au.org to keep things simple, especially when
> you have multiple services on the same domain on different machines.
> Indirection adds another thing to break, merely to save a few characters.

It's not a complicated configuration.

> Bridging in both directions with email is a good idea, but should be
> open for evaluation after a month or two of actual traffic. The issue
> I would foresee is that matrix messages tend to be shorter and more
> frequent, which could potentially flood what is generally a low-volume
> email list. But worth a try.

The eventual plan will be to batch everything so the mailing list won't
be flooded with lots of messages. The bigger pain to usability is
actually message threads and the way email clients typically handle
replies. I think I'm going to prioritize making messages over the bridge
readable and just trust everyone to not immediately spam the mailing
list from Matrix (you guys wouldn't do that right?)

-- Kevin

[Andre Sencioles]

On 26 Jun 2026, at 15:31, Kevin Exton <kcex...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 6/26/2026 2:31 PM, Glenn McIntosh wrote:

On 24/6/26 15:18, Kevin Exton wrote:

I'm in the final stages of configuring a Matrix home server for the group. I want to set the server name to be mlug-au.org <http://mlug- au.org> so that we can reuse the same domain and web server as the current website. There are, however, some changes that need to be made.

My 2 cents worth is not to worry about trying to have a root domain as part of the matrix username, ie, just use the subdomain @{USERNAME}:matrix.mlug-au.org to keep things simple, especially when you have multiple services on the same domain on different machines. Indirection adds another thing to break, merely to save a few characters.

It's not a complicated configuration.

Just a small clarification on this: we don't need to reverse proxy or any establish any connection from the MLUG web server to the Matrix server. We just need to host two static files under https://mlug-au.org/.well-known/matrix.

https://mlug-au.org/.well-known/matrix/client should return:

{

    "m.homeserver": {

        "base_url": "https://matrix.mlug-au.org/"

    }

}

And https://mlug-au.org/.well-known/matrix/server should return:

{

    "m.server": "matrix.mlug-au.org:8448"

}

The client file is used for client discovery, and the server file is used for inter-server federation.

This can be done by creating files directly on the web server, or by changing the web server configuration. Eg. for nginx:

    location /.well-known/matrix/server {

        add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;

        default_type application/json;

        return 200 '{"m.server": "matrix.mlug-au.org:8448"}';

    }

    location /.well-known/matrix/client {

        add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;

        default_type application/json;

        return 200 '{"m.homeserver": {"base_url": "https://matrix.mlug-au.org"}}';

    }

Cheers,

Andre