I’ve long had mixed feelings about messengers – especially WhatsApp—because of privacy concerns. At the same time, as a councilman in my village, WhatsApp is essentially unavoidable in Germany. Announcements, e.g. from Public bodies and personal conversations – much of the day-to-day information flow runs through it. So I use it in that local role and follow announcement channels from government institutions. It also the tool to go for one-on-one conversations with my fellow citizens.
(Side note: for genuinely private conversations with security-aware folks, I prefer Threema. I’m well aware of the privacy trade-offs.)
Over time I also added an extra WhatsApp service for my local news blog at rainer-gerhards.de. The community uses it a lot, which confirmed something practical: if people are already on a platform, offering a low-friction channel there helps—without replacing “open web” options.
From that perspective, creating rsyslog channels on WhatsApp and Telegram is a pragmatic experiment. I’m on those platforms anyway for local work, so it’s very little extra effort to run them. If they’re useful for some of you, great. If not, nothing is lost – rsyslog news remains on the website and via RSS as always. I’ve also announced the new rsyslog channels on the rsyslog website so the broader community is aware.
So if you wondered why we announced WhatsApp and Telegram channels for rsyslog: you now know it.
We’re in a very active phase – AI First and lots of development—so accessibility matters. The goal is to reduce friction for those who want updates, without forcing anyone into a specific medium.
Rsyslog news — choose what works for you
Messenger channels (experimental):
- Telegram: rsyslog_official
- WhatsApp: rsyslog channel
Open web (always-on):
- Website: rsyslog.com
- RSS: rsyslog.com/feed
Social updates (optional):
- Mastodon: @rainergrf@mastodon.social
- Bluesky: rainer-gerhards.de
- X (Twitter): @rgerhards