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.
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.
I would totally let them federate and then blanket ban them all. Seriously, don’t even let their content sync on instances like world (not worth hosting costs). This way the fediverse gets to consider all Facebook users as part of its own user count and I don’t have to see their garbage. We can have our cake and eat it.
That’s not good. The beef we have is with Meta, not the people. Federating with Meta only allows it to suck Fedi’s users data more effectively, while blanket banning everyone just sends a message that Fedi users are elitist dicks. It’s exactly backwards.
“The beef we have is with the Nazis, not the people giving the Nazis money and raising the Nazis’ profile.”
I do have a beef with people using services that are literally tearing society apart from within. I guarantee you that any Mastodon/Pixelfed/Lemmy/whatever instance I use that doesn’t defederate any and all Meta connections will have at least one less user to worry about in their stats.
You know that old chain email about comparing someone to Hitler to instantly win an argument, as an internet cheat code, that was just a joke, right? It doesn’t really work that way.
I’m not saying Meta are Nazis. I’m saying the position vis a vis Meta and Meta’s enablers is very much the same as how you’d have to deal with Nazis and Nazi enablers: excision.
I’m sure a lot of people using Meta are very nice, decent, ordinary people. But they’re still keeping an organization that is literally tearing society apart from within alive and thriving. There’s no way to support them without also supporting Meta, and thus aiding and abetting Meta’s abuse of society.
I do have a beef with them. A large one. Large enough that I excised them from my digital world almost a decade ago and have not looked back. If you’re comfortable engaging with people who blithely give support to those who work hard to destroy the social order … well, you be you, Boo. You be you.