There are a couple I have in mind. Like many techies, I am a huge fan of RSS for content distribution and XMPP for federated communication.

The really niche one I like is S-expressions as a data format and configuration in place of json, yaml, toml, etc.

I am a big fan of Plaintext formats, although I wish markdown had a few more features like tables.

  • XMPP is not a good protocol though. There’s a reason nobody uses it anymore.

    I think it’s going to be interesting when the EU tries to enforce interoperability between the major messaging platforms. What are they going to do? They have some ridiculous targets like interoperable end-to-end encrypted group video calls in 5 years!

      • XMPP is very old and was created when nobody knew about mobile phones. It worked more like true messaging app less than messages store ( unlike matrix ).

        Requirement of permanent tcp ip connection doesn’t work well for mobile + pretty much useful feature in xmpp ( like message history ) is optional. If something doesn’t work in xmpp most people would blame xmpp / jabber rather than the lack of feature support in their server

        • XMPP is very old

          Seriously? That’s your argument? So is the wheel.

          Requirement of permanent tcp ip connection doesn’t work well for mobile

          I was under the impression PubSub was created for that.

          Still, it’s an open extensible protocol.

          •  endofline   ( @endofline@lemmy.ca ) 
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            15 days ago

            Seriously, if you do take one verse from the whole response, you get straw men you fighting with.

            I just told you that jabber / xmpp was created in the times almost nobody knew or believed mobile phones can be a thing. Thus it got created in that way: many similarities of xmpp and e-mail, irc or icq which didn’t stand the passage of time.

            Of course, you’re right xmpp evolved to get PubSub extension as an “optional feature” but because of its availability (or rather lack) - most servers didn’t support it even the client did support, xmpp didn’t win the acceptance of the end-users. It got some attention in the business world (cisco jabber) but not in the retail.

            Business cannot work forever without clients willing to pay or at least use, so it died off even in the business.

            End of story, try not to fighting with the straw men you created.

            • Of course, you’re right xmpp evolved to get PubSub extension as an “optional feature” but because of its availability (or rather lack) - most servers didn’t support it even the client did support, xmpp didn’t win the acceptance of the end-users. It got some attention in the business world (cisco jabber) but not in the retail.

              That XMPP’s extensibility is in itself a strength and a weakness is indeed a valid argument, as you’ve exemplified. I was expecting you’d criticize OMEMO though…

              Business cannot work forever without clients willing to pay or at least use, so it died off even in the business.

              No, it didn’t die off, it’s still used. IRC is still used as well, probably more or less at the same level. But if you define usage as “used in business” well then probably just a few cases, yes.

              I hadn’t heard of Cisco Jabber but i’ve heard of Google and Facebook - both companies’ messengers were, initially, based on XMPP but they EEE’d it once they got enough users and walled their gardens, dealing a major blow to the protocol.

              End of story, try not to fighting with the straw men you created.

              Can i fight my inner daemons at least? Please?

        • It worked more like true messaging app less than messages store ( unlike matrix ).

          Can you please elaborate this point? I don’t understand what you mean by “true messaging app” and why that would be a bad thing?

          Requirement of permanent tcp ip connection

          Are you sure this is the case? Maybe back in the day, but my understanding is this isn’t true anymore

          useful feature in xmpp ( like message history ) is optional

          Why is user choice a bad thing? There’s a wealth of clients that implement the features you want

          If something doesn’t work in xmpp most people would blame xmpp

          This may not be an important point, but from my experience, people always blame the client and not the underlying protocol. If I face an issue with my browser, I’d likely blame the browser before I blame http.

    • There’s a reason nobody uses it anymore.

      I and many others use it! And Google, meta, etc. Have used it but decided to lock it down.

      Yes you’re right, there’s a reason people don’t use it as much, which is because these corporations embraced it, dominated it, then extinguished it.

      But XMPP is honestly my favorite comm protocol and the most impressive imo.

    • I use xmpp. It happens to be a great fit for a private family messaging service. Good interoperability between modern clients. I get that “nobody uses it” is hyperbole, but the internet is a big place and there is room for services without mass market appeal to thrive.