Change RoomSettings so that the canonical alias is first-class

[ara4n]

Currently the canonical alias is set through a dropdown as a bit of an afterthought (even though it is now set implicitly when the user adds aliases for the first time, since matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk#2171).

@erikjohnston points out that we should steer users into setting canonical aliases for rooms (so they can be used as identifiers in the UI if an m.room.name hasn't been set for whatever reason), so instead perhaps we should make the main text field be prompting for the canonical_alias (and then have the list of alternative aliases as very much a secondary feature).

Would need UX design.

[erikjohnston]

FWIW the way I'm picturing it in my head is something like:

---

Canonical alias for the room^?:     [___________]
Secondary aliases (anyone can add a secondary alias for this room, but they aren't used to identify the room)^?: View/edit secondary aliases

[lampholder]

we should steer users into setting canonical aliases for rooms (so they can be used as identifiers in the UI if an m.room.name hasn't been set for whatever reason)

Synced with @ara4n IRL to clarify my understanding of this - the intention is that we should opportunistically fall back on aliases when a room name hasn't been set (not that we should encourage alias use primarily in order to have a backup in case a room name hasn't been set).

[lampholder]

There are two phases to this problem I think:

1. today, having aliases makes a lot of things JustWork; if room creators set an alias everybody will have better UX generally so we should just encourage the setting of aliases
2. in the medium term, what purpose do aliases serve, and how can we express that concept and its value such that non-matrix-natives can understand the utility and its application?

Tackling the first of those, I think we could get a lot of milage out of just setting a sensible default alias. This could be derived:

• from the room name (a la http://jsfiddle.net/5ocu2cqk/20/) with a unique number suffixed where necessary (or always suffixed in the case of generated alias) e.g. #video-test-room.43773:matrix.org
• from the creator's display name or mxid if no room name is available e.g. #toml_room.12435:matrix.org
• perhaps from a random set of dictionary words/animals/adjectives whatever to make something human readable e.g. #earth.three.fresh:matrix.org (I like this option the least due to the likelihood of generating a name with implied [and inappropriate] meaning)

Looking at the medium term, I think there's a lot that is suboptimal about our current UX:

• we use the terms 'address' and 'alias' interchangably (in riot at least)
• the real-world concept of an 'alias' includes aspects of:
  • a 'false name to conceal identity', which is not a meaning we're trying to express
  • an alternative name for something which has a real name, but in this case the 'real name' is the room id which we don't want people to use
• a 'canonical alias' is almost nonsensical outside of Matrix - 'this is my real fake name'

I think what I would like to see is:

• roomids to be routable (and for us to be happy that roomids are public, used, unique permalinks to rooms in matrix)
• room 'aliases' to be clearly defined as 'human readable, redirectable, ephemeral routes to roomids'
• could we get rid of the concept of a canonical alias entirely? Is a hierarchy of aliases something that users value, or something that's we've added due to implementation details?

I think the term 'alias' should be purged as much as possible - it's not an analogue that in any way aids understanding of the underlying concepts.

[lampholder]

I've triaged this as a p1 major ui/ux bug because I think we could improve UX materially by addressing the immediate problem of somehow making more rooms have aliases set.

If we get a chance to make the immediate improvements, we should definitely consider with what priority we tackle the medium term bits.

[t3chguy]

The immediate problem is dealt with: