jherazobJun 23, 2023

How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse)

https://beehaw.org/post/719121

How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse) - Beehaw

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

Show threadqazwsxedcrfv000Jun 24, 2023

Basically the sequence of events as claimed by the author is that:

  • XMPP, niche, small circles
  • Google launches Talk that was XMPP compatible
  • Millions joined Talk that could coop XMPP in theory
  • The coop worked only sparingly and was unidirectional, i.e. Talk to XMPP ✅ but XMPP to Talk ❌
  • Talk sucked up existing XMPP users as it was obviously a better option (bandwagon effect + unidirectional "compatibility" with XMPP)
  • Talk defederated

    • This demonstrated exactly the importance of reciprocity. If they play dirty, kick them out asap.

    Show threadarcturus
    the thing is that we know that they will play dirty; all corporations play dirty, that's the only way they get that big
    Jun 27, 2023 at 1:17amWeb