[TrevorJ]

Social networking needs to be a specification. Imagine if email worked the same way social networks worked, it would be ridiculous. You could only communicate with other gmail users, or whatever users were on the platform you adopted. I understand from a business standpoint why social networks have evolved the way they have, but from a utility standpoint it is a lose/lose to have these walled gardens.

What would be much better, is to let users use whatever platform they wish and implement some common protocol for following, status updates and private messaging.

[VLM]

RSS feeds on a blog and "click here to email me" links?

Personally I'm waiting for someone to "reinvent" NNTP.

[quesera]

Done. It's called reddit, and unfortunately not federated.

We're in a recentralization cycle of services, because it's easier to build (and more monetizable) than similar distributed services.

When we have the technical building blocks and business creativity to break the cycle, things will get interesting again.

[TrevorJ]

The key utility of social networking sites is that allows you to stay in touch and up to date with a larger circle of associates than you could otherwise. Facebook lowered the cost of maintaining those associations by making the process more efficient. They have been steadily raising the cost with every added feature since then.