@evan No, I'm just using Mastodon as an example of a popular fedi software that used to run on a different protocol.
Do you think the OStatus predecessor network was meaningfully different in character than the present fediverse? It seems like the same idea, just not implemented as well, and more narrowly focused on microblogging.
Could you call the OStatus network an early fedi? Could a new protocol with similar values and goals still be meaningfully fedi?