> Back in the day (a decade ago), he also used to run the biggest instance of #StatusNet, identi.ca. And wrote the code for it. And wrote the protocol for it (OMB). And wrote the second protocol for it (OStatus). And wrote the prototype for AP (pump.io) and got the W3C work started that standardized it.
Your updated introduction is still understated. ?
Prodromou is the grandpa of fedi, there's no other way to say it.
Back in the day (a decade ago), he also used to run the biggest instance of #StatusNet, identi.ca. My old account is still there, even though I have lost access to it: https://identi.ca/rysiek
To be fair, the !StatusNet network that Evan was running became unmanageable -- it cost too much to run, and I think Evan was funding most of it himself (although there were/are a number of paying #StatusNet customers). Evan developed #PumpIO to reduce the number of servers needed to run a federated network, and purposely kept the UI to a minimum to encourage federation. Sadly, that didn't work. Porting identi.ca from StatusNet to PumpIO was intended to introduce people to PumpIO as well as reduce Evan's costs. That partly worked; identi.ca is alive and well as a community, although much reduced from its glory days around 2013. But the #bifurcation did spawn a large number of new StatusNet / !GNUsocial instances, so that was a good thing too. But you're right in that PumpIO never gained widespread traction, the proof of which is in its lack of continued development. In that respect #GNUsocial and !OStatus are more successful than PumpIO