I am not open to your ahistorical take on Google Chat and XMPP.
Google didn't do anything wrong by using an open standard.
They didn't do anything wrong by building a good interface that people liked to use.
And they didn't do anything wrong by disconnecting from the network when the spam and harassment outweighed the benefit to their users.
We, the XMPP community, failed to capitalize on success by diversifying the network. It's our own fault not enough nodes were there.
I don’t necessarily need to know anyone on Fedi to enjoy using these platforms.
That depends what you use it for.
On Twitter I followed a lot of specialists in my field. On Reddit there were a lot of (anonymous) specialists in my field. Both were an important part of my working life, and it took two networks totalling ~half a billion people to deliver those few hundred people who made it so useful for me.
And that was also true for my niche hobbies and my niche leisure reading.
Small networks work well for some things. But not all things.
That depends what you use it for.
On Twitter I followed a lot of specialists in my field. On Reddit there were a lot of (anonymous) specialists in my field. Both were an important part of my working life, and it took two networks totalling ~half a billion people to deliver those few hundred people who made it so useful for me.
And that was also true for my niche hobbies and my niche leisure reading.
Small networks work well for some things. But not all things.