@tchambers nope, that's not how this works. Embracing...

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@tchambers nope, that's not how this works. Embracing means that many people will use a Google service, just because it's a big name with a marketing budget. People will join Google instead. Just like people used Facebook Messenger to talk to XMPP friends. When (inevitably) the support will get cancelled or when corporations make unilateral additions to the protocol, then the rest of the Fediverse will be worse off. Not "at the point where we are now". Worse.
@darius @anildash

Like 18 Jun 2023 at 16:29 | Wall-to-wall | Open on imd.social

7 comments

Darius Kazemi

@claudius @tchambers @anildash I do not see how the effects after the word "then" in your statement follow from the causes you list before "then"

18 Jun 2023 at 16:32 | Open on friend.camp

Claudius

@darius
Look at browsers. We could argue that Google getting into that area would not take away from other browsers. Except that reality has been different. Google is now a heavyweight in standards-organisations and they have practically zero competition. The "competition" is the same engine in different themes. Oh and Firefox which has a tiny market share now.
@tchambers @anildash

18 Jun 2023 at 16:45 | Open on imd.social

Claudius

@darius
Also with Facebook and XMPP, we saw a more problematic thing that applies to networks: when Facebook cut XMPP connections, the reaction was not "oh well, Facebook is wrong here" the reaction was "get off your tiny service nobody ever heard of and just join Facebook where everyone else is".
@tchambers @anildash

18 Jun 2023 at 16:47 | Open on imd.social

Claudius

@darius
Especially Google and Facebook have a bad track record that should be taken into account. I'm much less worried about Automattic (WordPress) for example, because their history is much more aligned with a distributed, decentralised, self-hosted, self-managed web.
@tchambers @anildash

18 Jun 2023 at 16:52 | Open on imd.social

Darius Kazemi

@claudius @tchambers @anildash I am aware of all of this history I am taking it entirely into account when I make the statements I do.

18 Jun 2023 at 17:08 | Open on friend.camp

Claudius

@darius what I'm trying to say: if any of the behemoth players come to the Fediverse, they will come with intentions that are almost certainly not aligned with the intentions of the Fediverse. And they will not play by "our" rules. This will be on uneven, skewed territory where one side has a billion dollar war chest and a centralised top-down vision. The other side has a few small teams of developers doing this mostly in their spare time.

@tchambers @anildash

18 Jun 2023 at 17:27 | Open on imd.social

Eric the Cerise

@darius

Seriously?

I can host my own email server, but I can't send email to anyone with a gmail account ... not because I'm blocking Google, but because Google blocks me ... and because Google is big enough to force everyone else on Earth to block me, too.

That's the future of a #Fediverse with the #FAANG corps included.

@claudius @tchambers @anildash

18 Jun 2023 at 19:12 | Open on mstdn.io