I just received my invite code today and took a quick look around the app. Like Mastodon I do not prefer microblogging platforms. And that’s all I know about Bluesky.

So, what can you tell me about this project?

78 points

It’s twitter except for the old guy instead of the new guy. If you left twitter for bluesky then you are likely just going to run into the same issue down the road where the old guy sells it for tons of money to whoever will pay. Those willing to pay are likely not great at managing a social media platform.

permalink
report
reply
28 points

Came here to comment this. Spot on.

We should use Mastodon instead.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

I wanted to like Mastodon but couldn’t. The only reason I used microblogging services like Twitter was to shitpost about Vampire: The Masquerade. Said game includes lots of death, blood, and other topics that make some folks uncomfortable. On Twitter, the atmosphere was very “don’t like, don’t read”, but Mastodon has an intense culture about using content warnings on anything that might make someone marginally uncomfortable. I’m cool with that, but I can’t do it on my shitposting or it sort of ruins the joke. Bluesky doesn’t have that atmosphere.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

I know folks usually skew that way but it’s server to server. Frankly, I don’t use any warnings because I can’t be bothered and my instance is fine with it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Did you try it this time last year?

When everyone migrated there were a lot of “helpful” newbies enforcing rules that simply don’t exist. There are too many people like that still but not so many you can’t mute them all.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Bluesky supports porting user accounts between servers even more smoothly than Mastodon does - even if the original host do not want to cooperate.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Has Bluesky even federated yet? I’ve not seen it happen.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points
*

They have a sandbox environment federating with 3rd party servers where other devs can participate in testing, and in the main public beta environment they just switched away from one main server to like a dozen (still no 3rd party there) and moved user accounts around, so they can test the federation code for stuff like performance and effects of account migrations, etc, in a live environment.

They’ve said they won’t open up federation with 3rd party servers on the main environment until they have moderation tools which can handle it, so they’re working on that also now.

permalink
report
parent
reply
22 points

It’s great if you liked old Twitter (2016ish) or you’re a furry. It’s very furry-heavy though because the furry community is very tight-knit and so invites got passed around like candy for a while.

permalink
report
reply
13 points

Been my experience that mastodon is chock full of furries too. So much of it gets posted on the art centric server I’m on. Had to create multiple filters for it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

It’s caused by refraction of the sun’s light by the atmosphere

permalink
report
reply
6 points

It’s actually caused by scattering of the light in the atmosphere not refraction. Refraction is what makes rainbows tho.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

The best kind of correct.

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

It’s a microblogging service (similar to Twitter), ran by a small dev team and backed by Jack Dorsey (of Twitter origin). It’s been in “invite-only” closed beta forever so it has never really gone super mainstream. Some communities have kinda made their way over there but for the most part it seems threads and mastodon will run away with things in terms of being heirs to Twitter (imo). Bluesky is building their own platform (AT) that will allow others to stand up their own “bluesky” instances that federate with each other, similar to how mastodon works on the Fediverse with ActivityPub. Not sure what the progress is with that but am skeptical it will ever actually be a popular choice given the success of AP/Fediverse and the fact that threads and other large platforms (Wordpress, Tumblr, etc…) have already implemented or committed to building in AP support.

permalink
report
reply
8 points

Could Bluesky not just implement ActivityPub too? Is there a reason why they are not doing that?

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points

They chose not to after researching options. Pretty sure they decides account portability was a key feature needed and AP doesn’'t do this. As in taking your account and all your posts and data witj you to a new server. I assume there is a technical reason why this would be very difficult to add to AP/Mastodon otherwise they could have just added it themselves.

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

Yeah the not being able to fully move your account and all its history is one of the biggest shortcomings of AP for me. I hope they shore that up eventually.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

It’s nothing to do with that, they made the AT protocol because is structured in a way that ensures that bluesky (the company) will always control the network. They wouldn’t be able to keep control with ActivityPub, it’s the same reason Threads will never implement it.

All the stuff about account portability is a distraction. Think about it: where would one move an account to anyway? Another BS node? Why? Unlike Mastodon instances there is no functional difference.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

They could but they are developing their own protocol.

https://atproto.com/guides/faq#why-not-use-activitypub

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points
*

AT is not truly decentralized like activitypub. It’s similar to crypto where the majority stakeholder (in this case, bluesky the for profit company) controls the network. There are not “instances” run by community leaders, just free hosting.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Ah interesting. One more in the “negative” column for Bluesky then imo. What Mastodon gets right (perhaps in a sea of things that it gets wrong) is that it relies on people to build and maintain their communities, rather than hoping that technology can solve all the issues of moderation, etc… Yeah, there are improvements that we hope will get to AP. It’s obvious bsky is just not the future.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Yes, you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s contextual moderation that makes a space worth being on. This is a good piece that sums up the differences.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

The only thing they control is the DID lookup for PLC type account DID values, but if you have your own domain and use web-DID they control nothing that can’t be replaced

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

This is the best reply so far. Also worth mentioning both the platform and the protocol are open source.

https://github.com/bluesky-social

permalink
report
parent
reply
14 points

It’s just Twitter run by the old CEO. There’s some promises that it’s going to be decentralized at some point, but no real motion towards that yet AFAIK. Anyone on the Fediverse should just pick Firefish or Mastodon over it.

permalink
report
reply
4 points

Bluesky is “decentralized” in the way that crypto is in that the biggest fish (bluesky.social) controls everything.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Jack doesn’t have a majority on the board, he’s not even on the site anymore (deleted his account and ran off to nostr)

https://slrpnk.net/comment/3988061

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

and misskey over firefish :)

permalink
report
parent
reply

Technology

!technology@beehaw.org

Create post

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Community stats

  • 2.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.4K

    Posts

  • 78K

    Comments