Simplifying the README and docs

[selfhoster1312]

Upstream pull request: 42wim/matterbridge#2242

The README is way too long, there's many different wiki pages with examples and not-always-up-to-date information.

I've started a branch here to improve the README: https://github.com/selfhoster1312/matterbridge/tree/improve-readme?tab=readme-ov-file

Feedback welcome :)

[selfhoster1312]

So far what i've done on that branch:

• moved the wiki into a docs folder in the same repo (so it's easier to keep up-to-date when reviewing PRs affecting a specific bridge)
• split the README.md into many docs markdown files
• moved each protocol into a subfolder in the docs/protocols folder so information can be aggregated in one place instead of having to play detective about where to update the docs
  • removed definitely unsupported protocols (see Removing deprecated protocols #9)
  • PROTOCOL/account.md has specific information about creating accounts for the bot (when available)
  • PROTOCOL/settings.md has detailed information about protocol-specific settings
  • TODO (in the future): document default settings
  • I removed references to global settings in specific protocol settings… maybe it's a mistake?
• moved docs for deployment in deploy/ subfolder -> removed deploy docs only docker was useful and it's been placed in docs/running.md
  • added warning for azure/digitalocean that docs may be outdated (not updated since 2019/2020)~~
  • removed docs for heroku pointing to two abandoned work-in-progress repositories 1 2
  • is it interesting at all to have docs for deployment on specific proprietary platforms? Docker instructions sure but maybe remove the azure/digitalocean docs (which are outdated anyway)

Specifically for each protocol:

• discord
  • removed information about running the gateway as a user account, since it was long documented that this can lead to getting banned (don't make the wrong thing easy)
• irc
• keybase
• matrix
• mattermost
• msteams
• mumble
• nctalk
• rocketchat
• slack
• sshchat
• telegram
• twitch
• vk
• whatsapp
• xmpp
• zulip

[selfhoster1312]

@poVoq it's not exactly finished yet, but i think just for this it would be worth actually forking the repo in this org, just to get the better docs… with proper dev/contributing guides, and cleaned up bridge docs.

I think just in case we don't "get" the upstream repo to maintain, it'll be better to get started on a branch with better docs. What do you think?

[poVoq]

Hmm, how about making a seperate repo that can be build as a documentation page on github/codeberg pages?

The github wiki in the original repo contains most of the documentation, so that would not translate over to a repo fork anyways.

Edit: maintaing it in the same repo makes it more likely that PRs also include updated documentation though.

[selfhoster1312]

Edit: maintaing it in the same repo makes it more likely that PRs also include updated documentation though.

Yes that's exactly the idea. It's a lot easier to keep docs in sync when they live with the code and can be reviewed in the same PR.