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Contacting Me

I have a fairly low online presence, but you can still contact me through one of the means I mentioned here.
Please stick to sending e-mails if your preferred way of communication includes using/installing proprietary software.

Mail

e-mail: contact@codingotaku.com

If you received any another mail address with the same codingotaku.com domain from one of your contacts, please use that one to send the mail.
If you want an official talk, please do send the mail from your (or company's) domain to not lose credibility.

Instant Messaging

IM must only be chosen when the communication is unofficial, all official communications must be done through mail for better record keeping for all of us.

XMPP: codingotaku@member.fsf.org

If you have an account on any server that is compatible with XMPP Protocol, please use that. Just like an e-mail, having a decentralized way of communication makes sure that neither of us need to install any specific software or go through the hassle of creating and deleting an account.

Matrix: @codingotaku:matrix.org

Another decentralized way to contact me, I use the element client for matrix, it has support for E2E encryption, and also supports video conferencing through Jitsi.

Signal

To communicate through Signal, we both need to share our mobile number, I do not trust most people with my number as they might have installed programs that pulls, stores, and use numbers without the permission of all the unfortunate people in the contact list (e.g.: WhatsApp, true caller, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc.).

If you prefer this mode of communication, please let me know via an e-mail.
Also read Why Switching to Signal is Not Enough.

Video Call

Jitsi Meet:

One do not require an account for this (depends on where it is hosted), any server that hosts a Jitsi server will be sufficient. If you don't have one hosted, I can share you a link to my instance to join as a guest (no qualty guaranteed as this is running on a slow VPS)

BigBlueButton:

The best conferencing service ever! But I do not host one(yet). If you have a server and would like to get rid of privacy invading conference services, please use BigBlueButton. It is not hard to do it, I would love to help you set up one for gratis if the use of BBB is guaranteed in the long term.
Installation instructions

Jami : 674286597de4e38c2a72d23dfb3a5783966794a3

Though I really like the Idea, Jami is unreliable most of the time for me. Since the program is peer-to-peer, both parties are required to be online to start a conversation.
It also doesn't have support for group video calls. I was wrong, video conference is possible, see the Jami FAQ for details.

Audio Call

Mumble

Mumble is a free software just like all other programs I use.
One do not require an account or server either to use mumble. But hosting a server is preferred to avoid using public channels.
Mumble.info

Phone call

For the same reason as Signal, I tend to avoid sharing my number. I have fewer issues to share it with the employer if the job is guaranteed. But please use it only for record keeping and for emergencies.
If for some reason I shared my number with you, do notify me before you call through an e-mail, I do not save numbers unnecessarily and usually avoid calls from unknown numbers for my sanity.

Why Go Through This hassle?

This is a way of taking back the freedom not just for me, but also for anyone who will interact with me in the future.
I also found that not using free-software is inconvenient and frustrating.

  1. You have to trust a service/company to keep their promise without any guarantee. (read recent antitrust lawsuits)
  2. You do not know what is running in your system
  3. Need to switch between platforms when once they do something bad (remember WhatsApp/Facebook/Zoom, etc.)
  4. Does not rely on an established protocol, this makes it difficult to convince others to switch with you.
  5. Does not play well with GNU/Linux systems
  6. Need to keep reading the Privacy Policy since they can change at any time.
  7. Difficult to delete an account, even with GDPR/CCPA, there is no guarantee that the data will be deleted.

WhatsApp, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Discord and other proprietary programs are inconvenient for me as I have to create and account for to use it, and raise a deletion request to remove my personal data when I don't want to continue it, then wait and hope that the account and personal information will be deleted.

And most of these proprietary programs invades user privacy. Going to privacy settings, reading them, and unchecking hundreds of checkboxes are I used to do when I used those services. Why do I have to go through those hassles? I couldn't find a reason, so I sent deletion requests to all those services and never looked back.

This Is Extreme, We Do Not Want To Be In Touch With An Extremist!

All this privacy and security talks are for the systems I use personally.
For a job, if an organization wants me to use any proprietary service, the organization must provide an account and a machine for me to run that piece of software (this is what's being done in my current job). By this way, all my work can be separated from my private life.

If the organization is willingly giving away their freedom, I can't do much about it other than to promote free alternatives when possible and promoting them to my colleagues.

So if you are trying to recruit me, please do not suggest me to install a proprietary program to contact me or send a link to privacy disrespecting services for coding challenges. I will most probably refuse.

Also, read some of my blogs on ethics.