[jjordan]

How did we let this happen? We used to have open protocols, apps like Pidgin that would bring multiple chat clients together under one interface, IRC, Skype P2P, etc. etc.

Was it spammers that caused this mass migration to ever more closed platforms?

[NegativeK]

The vast majority of people aren't aware of open versus closed protocols. If enough people they want to communicate with are using it to counterbalance how frustrating it is, they'll use it. It happened because businesses realized there's profit in lock in, and they threw resources at it.

Open protocols are still there and still used, but we're sad because the smaller userbase is frustrating. Just like how people still publish human written content to personal blogs, but they're proportionally non-existent.

[tim-projects]

They all still exist, but we don't have the collective courage to use them when it means you might miss a status update from your friends.

[WarmWash]

Closed platforms have salaried teams of workers and salaried teams of marketers. Often they usually have user friendly support too.

Open-source always has a certain level of "jank" that tends to decimate interest from common folks.