this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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You've basically got it. To use the "Google XMPP" example some others have:
XMPP users existed, and its userbase was growing (similar to Lemmy). Google made Google Talk, a desktop chat application they used to have, compatible with XMPP (which was the "ActivityPub" of chat applications) (embrace).
After a bit, Google started adding their own proprietary stuff to XMPP. (It's similar to how Apple/ Google added proprietary stuff in their respective text message applications, like reacting to a text with an emote.) The XMPP devs, for whatever reason, couldn't or didn't make Google's own proprietary Google Talk features compatible with XMPP, so XMPP users might've started feeling left out (extend).
After a while, Google Talk got rid of its XMPP support, and, as a result, many XMPP users could no longer communicate with many of the friends they had made on the platform. (Since Google Talk users outnumbered XMPP users, there was a very high chance that people you communicated with on there were using Google Talk.) Google Talk users, on the other hand, simply noticed maybe one or two people on their list had gone offline permanently (extinguish).
Yeah this is the one, and it seems easy to see exactly that process taking place. I don't think it's so much the data concerns, alone at least, nor even the potential for content. I think many would agree that, to some extent having a larger user base available could be a good thing. It just so happens that 1) the user base is "more accessible" at best and potentially dangerous at its worst (not all of threads is friendly) and 2) it's Meta. There couldn't possibly be a reason for them to pursue this other than not having their grasp on it. I see no reason to trust it.
Someone you like on Threads and nowhere else. Use it there then. You can view them if it's federated? Will that still be the case in 1, 2, 3 years? At which point you've integrated so much of your instance into Threads that when support for ActivityPub is dropped or whatever change gets made, well, you may as well stick with Threads...
There's just no good outcome. I am an optimist, for the right perspective and reason devil's advocate is always worth a glance... and this? This has no good causes behind it. Man, what is it with all the big corps and apps trying to tie everything into one single spot like WeChat. Can't people just scroll Mastodon then X then Threads then Lemmy then Kbin then Facebook all separately like a normal mass consumer?
I actually don't have a problem tying everything together. I think the fact that Mastodon and Lemmy can communicate with each other (even though it's not really intentionally designed that way) is pretty neat.
What I do have a problem with is the corporations that are trying to do it. I don't trust any corporation to do it responsibly, especially not Facebook.
Oh yeah, I don't mind the activitypub level of interaction. It's neat that if I wanted, I could mostly just use Kbin and get a full experience.
Like you, I moreso meant a single app led by a corp