I co-run a small board game group in SF, and we have been using FB for years to organize events.
I've considered moving to eventbrite or meetup.com, but the app buy in with FB and FB messanger means we can post an update or send an IM and assume people see it, which isn't the case with either alternative, unless people check email.
I really wish there was a ubiquitous open standard open source IM client, so people could download one client and use it for everything.
I'm with you, and I didn't mind XMPP (having implemented a Jabber server before, it wasn't all bad)
Same deal with IRC (which I think is the best protocol wise).
They all suffer from the same problem: the openness of the standard is not data collection inclusive. The upside is better privacy, the downside is its incredibly hard to fight spam in such wide open systems.
Also, for a the briefest of overviews about the some notable issues with mass adoptions on XMPP, check this:
I've considered moving to eventbrite or meetup.com, but the app buy in with FB and FB messanger means we can post an update or send an IM and assume people see it, which isn't the case with either alternative, unless people check email.
I really wish there was a ubiquitous open standard open source IM client, so people could download one client and use it for everything.