Is "custom protocol" really that bad if the existing ones were insufficient?
Is this question just opening myself up to a cacophony of "what was wrong with IRC / XMPP?"
Is this question just opening myself up to a cacophony of "what was wrong with IRC / XMPP?"
Generally speaking, use the standard until you can't. Then just extend it and write up a proposal for your extension to make it into the next version of the official protocol.