Greetings ICE/BLK friends and family!

In light of many recent events, scares, and concerns over the privacy and safety of our members personal information and identities, we have begun the process of integrating our Discord channel with Matrix. In the coming weeks, the team we’ve pulled together will be rolling out all necessary bridges between channels, monitoring both sides of that bridge for any issues, and helping to guide any and all ICE/BLK members who wish to join the Matrix side of our server.

What does this mean for our group, and what should we expect in the near future?

Our Primary goal is and always will be the safety and privacy of our members, barring misuse and abuse of course. Additionally, we want you all to enjoy your time here with us, and keep the spirit of what ICE/BLK is alive - A safe place for wandering souls to come in, find shelter and the warmth of others, and should the time come for them to spread their wings and fly, we wish them the best of luck and a home they can always return to. On that very same mission, we have discussed which channels to back-fill older messages or not. This effectively means that most channels on the Matrix side will not have all previous messages posted in our Discord copied over for the full launch. Our reasoning behind this decision is once again the safety and privacy of current and past members. We want to keep as much of our history and culture as possible, but we’d like everyone regardless of their level of worry to feel safe in the knowledge that much of the past messages in Discord will be left in Discord. We are also discussing which channels we will be able to scrape, save, and share the contents of such as the VRC Pics channel where much of it is just your photos taken and posted from the digital world. More info on this as we progress! Finally, for the foreseeable future you can rest assured: Our Discord server isn’t going anywhere and Joining is entirely optional. Our Matrix server is being designed for members on either side of the bridge to be able to communicate with each other as they always have - with a small handful of caveats and exceptions. It’s meant for all of us to stay in touch with as many ways as we can while allowing just as many to preserve their privacy as much as we can assist in.

Q&A

What is Matrix?

Why Matrix, and why to choose it over Discord?

Where do I begin, and what Clients are supported currently?

As it stands at launch, the team will be using and supporting the Element X clients, as well as the Cinny Web-browser client primarily, so we can be on the same page together. Element X is currently the furthest along in supporting all of the same functions as Discord save for a few smaller bits like manual sorting of channels (called Rooms in Matrix), but there are other great clients out there such as Cinny and FluffyChat that are currently missing some other major features we’ve grown accustomed to but are catching up fast.

At launch, we currently do not have "The Cooler" or "The Freezer" group call clones set up as there are some issues with Element auto-enabling connected webcams currently, but DM calls are enabled. Please use DM video calling cautiously as it also auto-enables camera when calling.

For more information, please proceed to iceblk.club/instructions/ for directions on how to get started with the registration and login process!

Who is your Matrix server team?

If you have any further questions about what we’re doing, need any extra guidance getting in to the Matrix server via web browser or Element X Client, or would like assistance on it’s use, please post in the #matrix-help channel and someone from the project staff will do our best to assist. The channel will be open to all, so feel free to post or aid others if you are able and we are currently unavailable.