this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Email is the only federated social platform that every normal person is familiar with. It doesn't matter that the technical specifications are completely different. The metaphor goes as far as "in the fediverse anyone signed up with any instance can communicate with anyone on any other instance, like email". For that purpose, it's a good metaphor.
Except it's basically impossible to host your own mail server and have it work reliably, especially for a casual user. Mail space is dominated by Gmail, Hotmail, Protonmail and other giants.
Even if it might be a good comparison underneath for the technical side, it is not a favorable comparison for an user looking to get into the fediverse.
That will likely happen to the Fediverse as well, for the same reasons.
Not necessarily, email had to work well because businesses depended on it and (lots of) money was involved. Fediverse is a much more hobbyist endeavor and attracts groups of people who are not profit driven.
That could change of course but that's why it's important to stick to these (FOSS) principles from the start. It's why it was important to reject threads in the fediverse and not let it overtake everything, which it luckily doesn't seem like it's gonna any time soon.