With Meta starting to actually implement ActivityPub, I think it would be a good idea to remind everyone of what they are most likely going to do.

  • paf0@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    fwiw, XMPP/Slack/Discord/etc basically solve the same problem that IRC already solved. Software Engineers just reinvent the wheel again and again as everyone loves a green field.

    That said, Meta cannot be trusted. They’re going to do a year or two of embrace and extend, pretending to be good citizens. Then they will invent some crisis that causes them to want to de-federate, likely that content on other servers is not moderated to their standards or that convoluted features of their extended protocol are not being met. This take seems pretty spot on to me.

    • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Software Engineers just reinvent the wheel again and again as everyone loves a green field.

      While somewhat true, this is also a dumb take. Not everyone working at Slack/Discord/etc can work on IRC. They’re making competing businesses, not just wanting to re-solve the same problem but wanting to do it with a new code base.

      • paf0@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I suppose that applies more to XMPP, but not everything has to be a business, and you don’t have to be an ass about it.

        • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          You’re the one being an ass about it, saying developers always want a greenfield project. Tons of people contribute where they can, but we still need a job. So if somebody wants to make a business making a new chat client so they can make enough money to feed their family, well, that’s the capitalistic hellhole we’ve found ourselves in.

          • paf0@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            And those developers get told what to do. The wheel also gets reinvented by PMs and entrepreneurs who think they can do it better. Sounds like someone is salty about their software maintenance job.

            • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              I’m talking about the new company phase, not the established phase with management. Every company starts somewhere.

              I don’t even know what you’re on about, I don’t know how you could see that as salty about anything with my job lol

    • amki@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      No.

      • I want to send messages to people who are not currently online (having a server stay online for you is a desparate hack and not a solution)
      • I want to send media other than text
      • I want my messages to be e2ee
      • I want presence - e.g. know if someone is available, busy, away
      • I want voice/video calls

      and many more…

      None of these were solved by IRC but by the others you mentioned.

      • paf0@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sure, but all of those things could have been done by extending the existing protocol.

        Also, fwiw, it has had media sends, presence and support for encryption for a very long time. The rest could be added. All of those things could have very well been an IRC client with a couple of extra features and a server upgrade to queue messages.