public/comms.md
2024-05-22 04:03:59 -07:00

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# theory of communications
*[warning: this is a draft]*
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I've noticed there are only really 4 unique ways people on the internet
communicate with each other:
- **irc**-like: instant and ephemeral, synchronous
- **email**-like: personal async
- **usenet**-like: forums, communal async
- **rss**-like: broadcast
While the naming is mostly for fun, I do think that in essence these
really are the four horsemen of communication. On the irc side, you
have software like slack, discord, or matrix, along with a plethora
of bad recreations across thousands of apps. Rss has been forked into
microblogging and youtube. Usenet is the great grandpapi of forums like
reddit. And there's email, which to this date nobody has been able to
make any significant improvement on.
Now, there's no reason why you couldn't combine rss, usenet, and email
in one client. Unfortunately, irc kind of does its own thing compared to
email/usenet/rss, and since nearly every system since then copied its
mannerisms its difficult to work irc-like into a system that tries to
combine all four together.
to write about:
- interoperability between multiple similar systems, federation and standard apis
- interoperability between different systems, and getting irc to work well with them (prior art zulip + discord forum channels, autothreading)
- inbox vs feeds, when they switch between subscriptions to recommendations, benefits/downsides
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