 Someone asked, “Why does the Fediverse need new protocols like ActivityPub when older protocols can do the same thing?” Interesting point: 1. You can create a federated chat app through email protocols and someone has (Alpha Chat) 2. You can create a federated social network through XMPP and someone has (mov.im) 3. You can create a microblogging service through finger protocol and someone has (happynetbox.com) Nothing wrong with older protocols! 3 comments
However, I realized that as soon as the W3C validated ActivityPub that this was going to be the standard for decentralized social media. It has momentum. It’s what will build the network effect, and therefore the social graph, for decentralization.  Good way to not go crazy is to see protocols as how they send data first, then what can be build. ActivityPub is most simple, works like a two-way RSS for servers to pull posts from each other. XMPP is like TCP with navigation, with many extentions. Matrix is a way to store and modify decentralized data in an abstract thing called "room" that it's members can access. Of course this is only simplification. |
Gregory's Server
@atomicpoet Agreed. Also nothing wrong with newer protocols. I think there is a strong argument to be made in favor of evolving to Matrix.