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by tweetle_beetle 1061 days ago
That does already exist to some extent. It's relatively niche for now and unlikely to ever get significant market share, but it warms my heart to know that people are doing just that through CHATONS[1]. I can't speak for them, but as a user it a provides a framework for this type of service to be commoditised, but also independent. Not all the providers offer the same services, but I can fairly easily swap provider knowing that the core philosophy is consistent.

It's a natural extension of Framasoft, where they opened up their concept so that they were not a single point of failure.

The providers are almost exclusivey based in Europe currently[2], likely due to the French origins of Framasoft. But there's no reason it has to stay thay way.

[1] https://www.chatons.org/ [2] https://www.chatons.org/search/near-me