Talk:2699: Feature Comparison

The image has changed. Now Mastodon includes USER-RUN INSTANCES (though I believe it should also have a check next to DOESN'T REQUIRE CENTRAL SERVER).

I tried googling "wikipedia feature comparison chart". Instead of finding a page explaining how these charts work, I got a chart comparing different wiki softwares. Barmar (talk) 23:22, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Of course, it wouldn't be hard to make apps on smartphones support mesh networks ... however, the manufacturers and app developers prefer to work hard to make sure they don't work without being connected to internet and serving advertisement. Although ... -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:25, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

There seems to be a lot of wrongness about this matrix. Besides that mastodon instances can be run by user (which is fixed):

• Mastodon does not support file transfer. You can only upload images, and not even all image formats—webp is not supported. Some other ActivityPub servers support file upload, but then it's not Mastodon.
• IRC also doesn't support file transfer afaik.
• Mastodon and SMS don't require a central server
• Discord, Reddit, and Slack doesn't have user-run instances
• Discord doesn't have builtin games last time I checked. The games are by the bots,

I don't know about Slack, but pretty much all of Discord and Reddit is user-run/moderated instances.

That slash is doing a lot of work there. 172.69.34.31 06:57, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Your definition for "instance" must be very different from mine then. For me, "instance" refer to the server software's instance; that is, the user must be able to run the server software on their own to qualify this. If you consider subreddits and discord chat rooms (I refuse to call them "servers", because that's not what they are) as "user-run instances", then so are Facebook groups, right? Those are not instances; they're just communities or groups moderated by some selected people. --172.71.215.3 12:55, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

"IRC itself is a teleconferencing system, which (through the use of the client-server model) is well-suited to running on many machines in a distributed fashion. A typical setup involves a single process (the server) forming a central point for clients (or other servers) to connect to, performing the required message delivery/multiplexing and other functions." – J. Oikarinen, D. Reed; Internet Relay Chat Protocol; RFC 1459; May 1993. Emphasis added. 172.71.154.158 01:45, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Notably, Mastodon eschews file transfer - audio specifically - for fear of enabling piracy (issue #7495). Tumblr would have a more comprehensive version of file transfer. 172.71.146.136 03:17, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

IRC has (X)DCC for File Transfers and for it's centralisation it depends on the deployment, the original network that became EFNet (Eris-Free Network) doesn't have a central server, but things like Libera and OFTC have centralised services for authentication and servers maintained by only one organisation. Btw for games on the fediverse (which Mastodon is part of) Misskey includes some, sadly they're centralised. Lanodan (talk) 03:40, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Tumblr does have group chats. They're publicly viewable by anyone, but only people in the group can send messages, so I think they still count as group chats.

It appears we are all having a 386 moment watching Randall finally be wrong about something. How dare he?! 172.70.111.30 05:37, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Nobody wants to put this train wreck into the explanation, but someone has to. I'm guessing we're waiting for further corrections just in case.

ki172.69.34.31 06:57, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Discord did add games recently: https://discord.com/blog/server-activities-games-voice-watch-together Spenc (talk) 07:28, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

He also just left out Matrix entirely, y'know I'm starting to think this isn't a serious comparison. --172.70.250.193 07:42, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Not sure what built-in would mean, but Slack has plenty of games you can install on it as an admin (Similar to Discord) 172.70.162.223 09:52, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Also on April fool's days Tumblr occasionally have some sort of built-in game 172.70.162.46 09:54, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

xkcd has those too :p --172.71.215.3 12:55, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

I'm wondering if we shouldn't include in the explanation, besides (on instead of) the link to Mesh networking, also a link to Comparison of software and protocols for distributed social networking. --Waldir (talk) 10:34, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

I can't help to notice phpBB is so dead it's not even on this chart. -- Shirluban 172.71.122.79 10:37, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

I agree that the table is riddled with a surprising number of errors, but if the conspiracy theory that Randall has been replaced by another, evil cartoonist (as I write, the head of this explanation) is meant to be funny ... it didn't seem amusing to this particular explainer. Nitpicking (talk) 12:55, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

It wasn't meant to be funny, it was meant to explain the comic. How much fake news about fake news about fake news do we need before we talk about it? It's clear to anybody who can tell how severe the mistakes are, that this is what the comic is about. 172.70.111.29 15:10, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

While I'm sure this could start a holy war in its own right, if you include MMS under the umbrella of SMS, you get sort-of file transfers and also group chats. Jpatterson (talk) 14:12, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

If you think about the difference between user *run* instances vs user *hosted* instances, that might explain why Discord, Reddit, and Slack all have that check. However, I can't think of a possible reason why Mastodon is missing "Doesn't require central server" when that is its main selling point. :shrug: 108.162.246.67 14:59, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Somebody reverted my change that IRC does not require a central server, but it doesn't. The protocol has clients connecting to _one_ server among a _network_ of interconnected servers, where anybody can run such a network. 172.70.111.29 15:10, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

There's still going to be centralization of administration even among federated nets of IRC servers, unlike USENET for example. 172.69.33.168 15:31, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Are we encountering a new kind of vandalism where plausible edits are made introducing terrible prose, typos, and falsehoods? I noticed something similar happened with the recent Y2K comic. I really don't like to log in because we usually show we can do good work with most people logged out and IP's CDN-obfusticated for actual mass anonymity, but I will absolutely log in and push for page protection if vandals start trying to get insidious with subterfuge. 172.69.33.168 15:31, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

I don't know what vandalisms you're referring to. I've been adding the "Intermediate Edits", mostly behind HTML comments while fine-tuning so as not to make it look awful during the time I know it'll be half-completed (or less!).

As to terrible prose, I cannot refute the possibility that I'm guilty of that. I do my best, but genuine typos or personal proclivities for purple prose may indeed creep in.

With falsehoods, nothing I have added (or changed) is deliberately wrong, but may be not the same interpretation as someone else. I'm somewhat handicapped by not being a (regular/registered) user of most of the services (and may understand, e.g., Mesh Networking only in a form that a modern re-envisaging of it has moved drastically away from), but I've been taking my cues from only the very best external references (or Wikipedia!) and trying to boil down the supernumary technicalities to a more Explainxkcd-friendly format.

As always, another editor with a genuinely better idea (in all those aspects) can refine things. As, I notice, has already been started. Didn't get an Edit Conflict, which I put down to being short and sharp in my insertions, and hope I caused not too many for others. - Taking a break from imposing my own edits, now. I shall deal with any further changes (or reversions) in good heart when I get the time again, later. Good luck and good editing to those who wish to pick up any of the work (or rework it) in the meantime. 172.70.91.53 15:58, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

I think some of you missed the forest for the trees. The point of the comic is to illustrate how feature comparison charts, which are very common sales tools, might be abused to show that the seller's product looks better than it really is. That should be in the explanation of the comic. 172.70.210.243 17:27, 17 November 2022 (UTC)