this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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I am also not sure how EEE is supposed to work with decentralized platforms. In the end, everyone can say "that it's all too much for me and I'll build my own network with like-minded people, just like at the beginning of the fediverse."
The article linked above describes how Google killed a federated service by EEE. If you are interested how it can work I'd recommend it.
After EEE is done the fediverse would be irrelevant and lack users. But course it doesn't stop people from making their own servers and federating into small communities. But the vast majority of users would use the meta version which was eventually made incompatible with the fediverse. That made 99% of users go there. And I if you ask someone to join your fediverse groups they'll wonder why you are not on the meta thing instead.
As I stated in another comment it is not impossible that they may leech the fediverse to death but I think its highly unlikely. The fediverse is much more than just a decentralised platform. It is an amalgamation of many platforms with different userbases and different goals. In order for the fediverse to collapse, everything would have to be replaced together as well as the flexibility to continuously integrate new services, as is the case here now.
In the case of XMPP, the community became a passive spectator of google's advance and was eventually replaced by it. But as long as the community does not become dependent on the big corpos in any way and regards their contributions more as a nice bonus, something like this will not happen. It is this self-sufficiency that allows the freedom to go one's own way and to keep the power decentralised in the community. I have to admit, however, that this can be a big challenge, but one that is nevertheless manageable.
Sure, you can always go back to having a federation of a 1000 users in the same way that you can still host teamspeak servers or IRC and maybe get someone to join them. Some of us want a more widespread adoption though so we actually have people to follow and talk to - in that case meta coming here, taking over the users and then gimping or maybe even ditching the rest of the fediverse is not a good outcome.
So waht you are saying is
I'm not saying it's impossible, but in my opinion it's very unlikely. The fediverse, unlike XMPP, does not consist of a single service but of a multitude of platforms. To shut down the fediverse, you would have to destroy all of these platforms and create your own platform that can do all of this and also flexibly integrate new services, as is currently happening with git hosting sites. I don't think even the biggest companies will be able to break this power of the community.
It's really not what I'm saying. They won't "destroy every single instance in the fediverse", I'm saying they won't care about the 1% of old fashioned techies that remain here after they establish a monopoly on users and content elsewhere.
Besides, XMPP didn't consist of a single service either, it was just a protocol. It still exists and can be used today. Good luck establishing a community with it though.
It was a protocol used mainly for text communication. The fediverse is far more than that already. It's not the instances that matter but the services that the fediverse offers. It is a unique tool on the internet to connect different platforms. I don't know of any alternative that can do it that way.
Also I wouldn't say that XMPP is dead it's just that less people want to use it anymore. but that depends on us users and no one else. I, for example, still offer to switch to XMPP for my communities and recommend it to others.
I see some merit in Ploum's argument that the same way the Google monolith slowed down XMPP development, Meta could slow down ActivityPub development or steer it in a certain direction by forcing others to implement their extensions if they want to keep interoperability, before finally dumping it. But yes the "extinguish" situation would then be a return to the current status-quo, Fediverse as a tiny niche of like-minded people doing their own thing.