This blog post by Ploum, who was part of the original XMPP efforts long ago, describes how Google killed one great federated service, which shows why the Fediverse must not give Meta the chance
Google realized that most XMPP interactions were between Google Talk users anyway. They didn’t care about respecting a protocol they were not 100% in control. So they pulled the plug and announced they would not be federated anymore
I never used Google Talk nor XMPP but I gather XMPP didn't have enough users to sustain itself.
Chat systems (and Twitter/Facebook similar platforms) need a very high amount of users to be "sustainable" because they are centered on individuals.
The fediverse doesn't need that many because is centered around meaningful discussions, having too many is even counterproductive because discussions derail into shitposting (look at reddit).
I agree with the blogger when they say
We should not try to include as many people as we can at all cost. We should be honest and ensure people join the Fediverse because they share some of the values behind it
Mainly because if we did, lemmy would go down the drain as much as reddit has done the last few years.
I want Meta blocked because I don't want their shit coming over here, much more than being worried about them trying to extinguish the fediverse, tho you can be sure they will indeed try.
The fediverse doesn’t need that many because is centered around meaningful discussions
I’m not sure I agree. I think a small user base results in /news /politics /[whatever big group] being better… but results in things like r/fire’s predecessor being much quieter.
I hope I’m wrong though. /patientgamers seems just as busy.
I think there is one main difference between xmpp and activitypub. A chat protocol gets better the more users it has. So the users were the killer app. xmpp arguably wasn't much worse off after Google left than before it got there.
Mastodon is a bit like this, in that lots of users are probably looking for the same type of content from the same users as they got on Twitter.
kbin/lemmy are a lot less like that. I just need enough people to surface interesting content and have a meaningful conversation. And I've already (mostly) got that now. If meta brought all of their users to link sharing it would probably get worse with clout-chasing, organic marketing, and low effort crap.
Going to be a big moment in internet history, how we decide to handle this will shape how the internet is used and content is consumed for the next decade
It will be big only if we can protect the Fediverse. Should we allow the ActivityPub to fall to corporate control, like XMPP and OOXML before it, ActivityPub will be barely a footnote in history, amounting to little more than an idealized dream.
This would suck ass. Meta would then buy up the #fediverse shares or do some kinda huge stake in it. then kill it off then we are back to facebook and twitter! How do we stop this?
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