[jdev] Feels like it's dying

["André Z.D.A."]

> This is an interesting point to make, but I don't think that main reasons
> are technical.

The main reason are technical. But there are several types of technical
reasons for something exist. And there are other resons.

Several details are pointed my the Fastmail team announcement of their
drop of XMPP integration for their users:

https://blog.fastmail.com/2015/11/16/shutting-down-our-xmpp-chat-service/

I think it is bad. And I own accounts in FM. I rarely used XMPP with those
accounts, but the only thing I needed was people that talked with me by
emails and something else, where a faster conversations were needed. In
the end, the other XMPP accounts I already had are more used. But having
them integrated with an email account I use a lot is something nice I
don't make use of - but soon I won't be able to choose to have it.


> XMPP standards have accomplished an nearly impossible task:
> communication among different clients, using different servers. This is an
> extremely complicated technical achievement, and its worth our praise.

I agree. This is something to praise. But do you tell your friends to try
it while, at the same time, you take your step by not using some more
popular alternatives? I rarely see people that, like me, are willing to
give away the alternatives knowing that it may take sometime and a few
tries to talk with a few people with the "best" choice we make.


> Some things may should have done differently, while more modern
> technologies could be used in some areas.
> On the other hand, this has lead to fragmentation of clients and servers,
> making a public network difficult to maintain.

The Fastmail case is not public. But they still need to expend valuable
resources to maintain a XMPP server fully working, as said in the page I
pointed above.

> However, my understanding is that economic reasons exist as well:
> - Do FOSS applications give enough incentives for developers to built the
> extremely elegant and complicated UXs that today's end users demand?

Nothing needs to be top-notch to be used. Today, I see only one
alternative of a client that (maybe) has the most common features used by
the current most popular similar service (Whatsapp). One client. And it
is, for a few friends of mine, the 3rd or 4th client they would try to use
an instant message. Some of them only talk with me through XMPP!