It's really important for those of us who've lived through previous megacorp attacks on free software ecosystems to TEACH that history.
This article rehashes a lot of relevant stuff in some detail. Regardless of what you feel about the decisions around the fediverse and Facebook, knowing the history can only help.
When we learn from history, we are NOT NECESSARILY condemned to repeat it.
I think the big thing to take away from that article is... XMPP developers cared so much about retaining federation with Google Talk that they "became watchers and debuggers of Google’s servers" as it is put there. Google came in and said "this is our house now, adapt or die."
For our current fediverse, it's important I think, as a community, we put our foot down with Meta and say "no, this is our house. If you don't adapt to us, we don't federate with you. If you deviate from the ActivityPub protocol or our other implementations that we do above the ActivityPub protocol (things like boosts/upvotes/downvotes standards as agreed upon by Lemmy/kbin, for example), you will break federation with us, and we will be okay with that." We cannot become the Meta watchers.
ActivityPub is just a protocol and they can use it. It doesn't mean they have to be compatible with us. Let them have their Twitter/Instagram hybrid application. Do we care that much whether we can or cannot see their posts?
I had never heard of XMPP before, thanks for sharing. I'm in favor of blocking Meta completely. I came to the fediverse to specifically avoid those other places…
"The Fediverse is not looking for growth. It is offering a place for freedom."
I'm very thankful for that. Great article.
That was a great read! I can definitely see Meta trying to "hijack" the fediverse. By not collaborating with them, growth will appear to be slower, but the growth the fediverse does have will be due to people that genuinely care about digital freedom and privacy. I think that over time creates a more robust user base than blindly including all those that don't care.
I'm glad the post credits the artist of the image but don't know if it was used with permission and for some reason the image is at the top but the credit is all the way at the bottom of the post. So in the hopes that more people will see it, https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/110583258129951932
Great read! I’m all in favor of taking away as much power and influence away from this private companies so that the users can stay in control of its tech. Long live FOSS!
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