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So Google created a chat client (Google Talk) based on XMPP, a federated protocol, and supported the standard until most people were using Google Talk instead of other XMPP clients. They then captured the lions share of XMPP chat usage, stopped caring about keeping up with XMPP developments, defederated and thus killed any interest in others maintaining a decentralized federated protocol for chat.
Years later, Twitter takes a dump on its users and everyone moves to other platforms including Mastodon, a decentralized federated microblogging platform. Meta announces that they are working to become fediverse compatible. The danger is that many people using other platforms including Mastodon will begin using Meta instead, and over time Meta, with the lion’s share of fediverse users, will defederate and kill the fediverse.
I’d say I seriously doubt this could happen, but it already has.
Jabber adaption was always low because of the catch 22. Did Google realistically steal people away from xmpp/jabber? You would have to argue that a large share even knew or cared at the time what it was. And weren’t just using it because Google. Which was largely the case. The few of us that were using it specifically as an xmpp client. Left as soon as they closed off interoperability. To this day I still use jabber / XMPP. But I don’t use Google talk anymore.
With all these things as is always the case. Most people go where most people are. They don’t care about privacy openness or interoperability really. Many are slowly coming to realize the value of them. And for them jabber and XMPP will still be there.
One of the small metaverse communities that I use off and on HTTP://sine.space has an XMPP back end so that even when you aren’t fully logged into the world. You can still chat and receive private messages. Though not participate in the open world messages. People and companies are still using it. Even if it isn’t the darling it should have been.
Thanks for the insight.
The difference being different time and different mindset. Ppl are used to updates and self hosting and looking at code more so now than during the age of Google chat. There is still jit.si out there as well. I wouldn’t say it could never happen, but we will see. I wouldn’t of expected a company like reddit to commit suicide but only time will tell
Maybe. Even if we are aware of things more now than then, we’re still pretty lazy. Reddit had to behave very badly in the end to cause any kind of schism.
