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matrix-doc/proposals/1929-admin-contact.md

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MSC 1929 Homeserver Admin Contact and Support page

Currently, contacting a homeserver admin is difficult because you need to have insider knowledge of who the admin actually is. This proposal aims to fix that by specifying a way to add contact details of admins, as well as a link to a support page for users who are having issues with the service.

This proposal aims to fix https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/484

Proposal

The proposal suggests adding a new endpoint: .well-known/matrix/support.

The file would contain:

{
    admins: [{
        mxid: "@admin:domain.tld",
        email: "admin@domain.tld",
        role: "admin" # If omitted, the default will be "admin"
    },
    {
        email: "security@domain.tld",
        role: "security"
    }],
    support_page: "https://domain.tld/support.html"
}

The mxid and email do NOT need to have the same domain as the homeserver. It is expected that a server will have a "backup" contact address if the server is down, like an email.

Entries may have a mxid OR an email, but at least one MUST be specified.

role is an informal description of what the address(es) are used for. The only two specified in this proposal are "admin" and "security." Admins are a catchall user for any queries, where security is intended for sensitive requests.

support_page is a optional property to specify a affiliated page of the homserver to give users help specific to their installation.

Alternative solutions

Hardcode a given user localpart that should be used as an admin address.

  • The account would need to either internally redirect messages intended for @admin:domain.tld to another account(s)
  • OR require an admin to regularly sign into this special account to check for messages. Neither of which is useful.

Specify the same content inside a homeserver endpoint, rather than use .well-known.

  • This requires the homeserver to be up or responsive, which might be not very useful if trying to report issues with connectivity.

Use vCards.

  • vCards would add bloat, as the vast majority of a vcards contents is not useful for contacting an admin.

Security considerations

If the host is compromised, any information could be specified in the well known file which may direct users to send sensitive information to a malicious user.