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> I'm beginning to suspect that we will not see a federated protocol as successful as e-mail in my lifetime. This is one of the smartest things I've read in a

> I'm beginning to suspect that we will not see a federated protocol as successful as e-mail in my lifetime. This is one of the smartest things I've read in a long, long time. It seems deceptively simple or shallow, but it's not. At least once or twice a year, for the past ~15 years or so, I reflect on how the email protocol has survived and thrived despite numerous attempts at "reinventing email" and such.

aidenn0 4y ago
In one sense it's simple and shallow, but I feel like it needs to be said. In a way it's like saying "we won't have a baseball team as good as the 1939 Yankees in my lifetime" in the sense that e-mail is the '39 Yankees of federated protocols. On the other hand a lot of boosters for various new federated protocols want to compare their pet project to the '39 Yankees when they it's more like the 2021 Orioles.
jbn 4y ago
.. and it's funny how a system where there are no guarantees of delivery (people email to reach their inbox in seconds, but the delivery time is not guaranteed at all, nor is delivery!), no privacy (IMHO most emails are transported in plain text and one only needs to sniff the traffic..), and no guarantee of authenticity (you can send an email with any "FROM" address, pretty much), well how a system like that can in fact be incredibly useful. Of course, the layman thinks all these things are in fact guaranteed...