My experience with being "the person who wants others to switch to the non default option" is that you need to be willing to do all the work: set up, helping people get started, technical support every day of the year, if something breaks because of (in this case) a Mattermost change take the blame, apologize for features that are missing or working differently than in the default option, live with the slight condescension of other who now have to make "all this effort" to install one extra app etc.
So either nemosaltat is incredibly lucky with his family, or he is an extremely patient person. Kudos either way.
That's true but switching family to secure solutions which doesn't require any maintenance say like Signal itself is turning out to be impossible.
I'm talking from my experience in India, WhatsApp has embedded itself deeply in the lifestyle, It is not just a messaging app but 'The gateway for Internet' as smartphones are the first computer for the majority.
So they see a personal connection to it, It has disproportionate level of trust leading to severe misinformation/disinformation issues; Especially alarming during pandemic w.r.t vaccination.
Everything from Govt. messages to banking messages arrive on WhatsApp. I've given up trying to convert people to secure solutions and so I have sandboxed WhatsApp in a VM to receive WhatsApp messages via email[1].
This has been exactly my experience. My family is used to me advocating for various “security best practices.” I’ve always been the “family tech support guy,” so I have ~15+ years of accumulated goodwill. Some folks were a little more resistant than others, but so far there’s been enough family/social pressure.
I’m not the most patient person, but I’ve made extra efforts to be patient with this. I’ve also done everything I can to include/involve interested family members in the process. We have a channel dedicated to feedback on Mattermost itself, and I’ve been able to recruit a few folks to help me evangelize.
I may not be able to change the world, but I can make a difference to those closest to me. I am extremely fortunate to have a family that humors me.
Now that's an achievement I rarely hear, Here I am ostracized from the family and friends for not being in their WhatsApp groups.