I think he has a point. Slack and discord used to have IRC and XMPP, which made the decision to switch seem safer in light of the issues we experience today (holding backlog hostage for a fee, advertising, a/b tests). They timed the depreciation of these bridges so that it had minimal impact on their sales due to the existing network effects and captive audiences (employees, mostly).
We have seen this played out over and over and over again. Itβs tiring, and it would be great for more people to be aware of these market capture tactics to make them less effective.
Slack and Discord aren't Google though? Not understanding the point here. You can use this argument against any product from any manufacturer, it seems like. Are you arguing against interoperability in general? Or taking an absolutist free software position that proprietary tools are never acceptable? Doesn't seem to me like that was the position upthread I was responding to.
The point we are both addressing has to do with a behavioral pattern exhibited by companies with the same incentive model over the past 30 years. Not a re-summarization of an article by one of those companies.
We have seen this played out over and over and over again. Itβs tiring, and it would be great for more people to be aware of these market capture tactics to make them less effective.