Bluesky and Mastodon users are having a fight that could shape the next generation of social media (techcrunch.com)
from Wilshire@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 02:29
https://lemmy.world/post/11971216

#technology

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autotldr@lemmings.world on 15 Feb 2024 02:30 next collapse

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Software developer Ryan Barrett found this out the hard way when he set out to connect the AT Protocol and ActivityPub with a bridge called Bridgy Fed.

Barrett planned to make the bridge opt-out by default, meaning that public Mastodon posts could show up on Bluesky without the author knowing, and vice versa.

In what one Bluesky user called “the funniest github issue page i have ever seen,” there was a heated debate over the opt-out default, which — like any good internet argument — included unfounded legal threats and devolved into bizarre personal attacks.

As a nonprofit, Mastodon’s appeal is that, unlike Instagram or Twitter or YouTube, it’s not controlled by a big corporation that needs to make its investors happy.

The ideological issues around Bridgy Fed are likely to continue stoking tension across these federated social networks as they increase their connection points.

“I am thinking and feeling deeply that however content moderation works on either side of the bridge, it needs to be at least as good as it is for native fediverse users, and vice versa,” Barrett said.


The original article contains 1,176 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

aew360@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 03:27 next collapse

Mastodon logo looks like a happy comma

ArachnidMania@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 04:33 next collapse

I thought that was the intention?

A double meaning icon, since the comma is used in writing on a text platform. I thought it was more creative than all the other soulless corporate minimalism.

PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 06:37 collapse

That is cool…tbh I never saw the comma - I only noticed the elephant - until that person pointed it out. But you’re right - it is creative.

far_university1990@feddit.de on 15 Feb 2024 06:52 collapse

Elephant? I see a speech bubble.

door_hater@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 07:29 next collapse

it’s clearly a happy t-rex

[deleted] on 15 Feb 2024 08:05 next collapse

.

[deleted] on 15 Feb 2024 08:05 next collapse

.

jol@discuss.tchncs.de on 15 Feb 2024 08:05 collapse

It’s a speech bubble and an elephant-like creature.

JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 08:52 collapse

Did you know you commented thrice?

jol@discuss.tchncs.de on 15 Feb 2024 09:07 collapse

My Internet was acting up. Thanks for pointing it up

Link@rentadrunk.org on 15 Feb 2024 08:16 next collapse

I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be an elephant. The mascot is an elephant too.

…wikimedia.org/…/800px-Mastodon_mascot_vector_ver…

kzhe@lemmy.zip on 15 Feb 2024 13:10 collapse

No, it’s a Mastodon.

Link@rentadrunk.org on 15 Feb 2024 13:43 collapse

Yep you are right! Didn’t know it was a real animal.

BreakDecks@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 17:23 collapse

His name is John Mastodon.

RagingRobot@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:06 collapse

The blue sky one looks just like the msn logo

glowie@h4x0r.host on 15 Feb 2024 03:43 next collapse

Bluesky is trash and not even decentralized

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 05:54 next collapse

It’s federated just as Lemmy & Mastodon are…
Trash? Well I don’t use it, so automatically…

felixwhynot@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:09 next collapse

It is not federated at this time AFAIK

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:34 collapse

You really think someone wouldn’t have their own server up .05s after it went public a week ago? You gravelly underestimate this community.

felixwhynot@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:36 collapse

I’m just saying, it’s not federated today. And until I see that code released, it’s vaporware to me!

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:41 collapse

It’s right here

felixwhynot@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:47 collapse

Ok, I did not know there was this reference protocol implementation. Seems like it may not have all the features you need to run a whole service, but better than nothing!

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 08:32 collapse

Well obviously it’s not everything because you’re going to want to look at this, this, and this.

felixwhynot@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 15:43 collapse

It doesn’t come with a front end, seems like?

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 18:46 collapse

here & here, you don’t really need a front end if you’re just running a server though.

noodlejetski@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 06:21 collapse

rys.io/en/167.html

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:34 collapse

That’s outdated.

Corgana@startrek.website on 15 Feb 2024 16:07 collapse

Go on…

Rustmilian@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 18:49 collapse

here, this, this, and this, here & here.

deweydecibel@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 11:53 collapse

…how? What’s wrong with it?

squid_slime@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 04:10 next collapse

<img alt="1000001637" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/47edf604-68b8-4415-9469-c937e71f47ed.jpeg">

Weird blip…

swab148@startrek.website on 15 Feb 2024 08:53 collapse

Looks like NCD is literally leaking

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 04:39 next collapse

Why would you ever trust a Jack Dorsey thing of any kind?

jaemo@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 07:48 next collapse

“From the good people who brought you twitter…” reads like a threat.

ItsAFake@lemmus.org on 15 Feb 2024 08:20 next collapse

It’s just like twitter back when he ran things, it’s alright, but it’s still just late 2010s twitter with a different logo.

moonleay@feddit.de on 15 Feb 2024 17:09 next collapse

I still don’t get, why ppl go to blue sky.

Like, he sold his platform before, what says that he would not sell out again?

kurcatovium@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 19:51 next collapse

“I’m now billionaire, I don’t need the money anymore…”

…said no billionaire ever, yet people still choose to believe this crap.

kelvie@lemmy.ca on 16 Feb 2024 23:55 collapse

I don’t know all the details, but isn’t it set up to be some type of not for profit corporation to prevent that? Though I guess OpenAI is also not profit, but I was hoping it’d be more like Signal to stave off enshittification

BreakDecks@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 17:22 collapse

Why does everyone think Jack Dorsey owns Bluesky? He’s a largely inactive member of Bluesky’s board, because he invested in early development of the AT Protocol. He doesn’t even have an account. He’s posting about Bitcoin on Nostr every day though, so it doesn’t seem that he believes in Bluesky.

ekZepp@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:08 next collapse

<img alt="b07d7fdc2e43e15a" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e987574e-f508-44ba-99f9-236405c0ecdb.jpeg">

This is a fight only if you approach it as one.

LesserAbe@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 11:43 next collapse

I don’t understand getting mad about the bridge since it’s already possible for any random person to read your public posts on mastodon. The difference is this developer is public about his work. There are probably already private projects that are scraping/indexing mastodon.

squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 15 Feb 2024 13:37 collapse

Yeah, I am in the same boat: I really don’t understand what the outrage is all about. First off, because Mastodon is built on open standards which are 100% intended to be interoperable. Second because everyone can read a Mastodon feed that isn’t private and the same goes for BlueSky accounts. Hell, BlueSky supports RSS for its feeds, so people with an RSS reader can follow BlueSky accounts without the user knowing about it.

Personally I do not trust the people behind BlueSky, but neither do I trust all the admins of Mastodon servers. There are a ton of questionable Mastodon servers out there, operated by people with very dubious motives, if not outright malicious intent.

ikidd@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 14:10 next collapse

I just do not understand using a corpo solution over a better OSS solution. You know where it’s going to go in your bones, yet you sign right up for another 10 year run before you change all over again. Like these people were just waiting for another terrible option to show up before they switched.

Fuck, just sign up with Mastodon and get it over with, you putzes. What is your issue with free software?

Corgana@startrek.website on 15 Feb 2024 16:10 next collapse

It’s astonishing! I get why dril or some celebrity would go with BlueSky, but journalists seem to be trying to make it a thing too! It’s like did you learn nothing?

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 16:29 collapse

dril and journos are just going where the numbers are. Simple as. Its not about what platform is best, they want exposure and reach. Mastodon’s design makes it difficult to get both of those things, and that’s why I prefer it. I want smaller, manageable groups. If I wanted to hear about “corncobbing from hte master” i’d use Bluesky.

corbin@infosec.pub on 15 Feb 2024 16:23 next collapse

I mostly use Mastodon, but I 100% get it. The onboarding process is much easier with centralized services (no need for analogies to email), and more importantly, you’re not at risk of losing half your follows/followers when server admins have a pissing match. As long as those friction points exist, there will be a market for centralized platforms.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 16:33 next collapse

I was impacted by the closing of mastodon.lol and I never recovered either my follow count, or frankly my interest and engagement in the platform since. I’m not alone, either. The ‘migration’ behavior was half baked at best, giving me what equates to a 301, not much else. There’s a lot of work to be done here.

I am the most active on Threads for my brand account, and my personal account on Mastodon is a distant second. I know the people here are gonna throw shoes at me, but my activity is on Threads because that’s clearly where the numbers are for my field and the market outside of the total loss that is Xitter.

Mastodon is probably not going to be any bigger than it is now. But you can self host and dictate your fate. In a time of protocols, not products, existing is a great place to be in. Make your own fate.

aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 17:23 next collapse

If you are running a business account you really should be using your own mastodon server.

jsh@sh.itjust.works on 16 Feb 2024 03:38 next collapse

And poof! There goes the appeal.

aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works on 16 Feb 2024 06:56 collapse

Yeah, sure, being the absolute authority on moderation for your content is real unappealing to businesses

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 16 Feb 2024 13:56 collapse

Agreed, but it is a cost.

udon@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 13:50 collapse

👟👟 Here, hope they fit!

T156@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 18:56 next collapse

There’s also less complexity for a centralised system, since you don’t have a big confusing mess having to learn which server you want to sign up with, how that impacts what you see, and how you connect with other servers.

It’s one of the downsides of Lemmy, since people get completely boggled over their heads, and either jump to the biggest Instances that they can find (assuming that the servers are basically completely separate), or give up on it entirely because it’s too confusing when you just want something simple and straightforward.

Virulent@reddthat.com on 17 Feb 2024 16:48 collapse

The admin politics is exactly what turned me off to mastodon. It’s like the worst people are in charge of everything

dumpsterlid@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 16:30 next collapse

Fuck, just sign up with Mastodon and get it over with, you putzes. What is your issue with free software?

What you are partially seeing here is the fact that there is friction to the very idea of Mastodon not being owned by a massive corporation. People have been trained so well to expect their social media to be run by a massive corporation that even if an alternative social network like Mastodon did onboarding perfectly people are still going to get tripped up and feel confused about Mastodon simply because a bunch of rich people don’t own it.

It is maddening and there isn’t much we can do about it other than treat that friction as an opportunity to help radicalize people into being more open in a broader sense to taking back aspects of their life from the control of rich people/massive corps.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world on 18 Feb 2024 06:03 collapse

People don’t care that it’s not owned by a millionaire. What they care about is it being simple and easy to understand. One choice is as simple as it gets.

dumpsterlid@lemmy.world on 18 Feb 2024 17:14 collapse

People most definitely do care about that, and every single day more and more people are realizing how much ownership over their digital community spaces matters.

That process happens slowly most of the time but occasionally it happens in huge bursts that in a short time change the longterm growth trajectory overnight of the Fediverse. We can’t foresee when events will trigger that but the potential is always there.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world on 18 Feb 2024 20:00 collapse

Yes people will not use a service because a billionaire owns it. But nobody is using a service simply because a billionaire owns it. People might choose bluesky over mastadon because the owner created twitter originally. But nobody is choosing it because Jack Dorsey has a fuck ton of money.

Elon’s rabid fanbase not withstanding. That’s more the exception though, not the rule.

dumpsterlid@lemmy.world on 18 Feb 2024 21:00 collapse

Yes people will not use a service because a billionaire owns it. But nobody is using a service simply because a billionaire owns it. People might choose bluesky over mastadon because the owner created twitter originally. But nobody is choosing it because Jack Dorsey has a fuck ton of money.

I get what you are saying but my point is I actually think subconsciously (and sometimes even consciously) this is how people think. The collective organism of (at least US) society desperately wants a businessman (especially a techy one) to tell us what the future of social media is. People aren’t actually able to comprehend NOT needing a tech businessman to own their social media in a lot of ways. It is weird, but it is really just a natural consequence of how utterly obsessed US culture is with seeing all of society through capitalism and rugged individualism.

Tattorack@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 17:00 next collapse

Mastodon is a maze, or to put it differently, a mess. The one thing putting me off is needing to find an instance with the right collection of policies and rules, and I just can’t be bothered.

Hadriscus@lemm.ee on 16 Feb 2024 12:46 collapse

The entire point is you have a choice, though

Tattorack@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 13:42 next collapse

That’s fine until making that choice feels like sifting through a massive stack of paperwork.

Hadriscus@lemm.ee on 16 Feb 2024 16:53 collapse

My experience is signing up to a Mastodon instance a while ago then switching instances about two months ago, and all of it was exemplarily straightforward

Admittedly those are both pretty big instances so it’s not like I worried about either of them shutting down without notice or anything

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world on 18 Feb 2024 06:02 collapse

Choice is sometimes a bad thing.

Choice paralysis + the the fact that this random shitty instance that hosts maybe 300 people could go down at any moment + the admin could boot you for no seemingly no reason + the various issues with federation make it extremely unappealing for the average Joe. And if you want actual content and adoption you have to make concessions for them or else you’ll forever be irrelevant.

___@lemm.ee on 17 Feb 2024 10:47 collapse

It’s the capitalist system we’re born into. It’s time living in a cocoon where these magic products appear to guide you. Then one day you wake up realizing they’ve been drinking your blood all this time. Open source might not lead to your perfect product, but it will be close, and mandatory profit seeking won’t turn the ecosystem hostile against the users. We leave that to the mods and server operators.

ByGourou@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 14:13 next collapse

And still we all know it’s blue sky that will win, and we will be at it again in 5 years after its enshitification…

Tattorack@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 17:09 next collapse

Well, 5 years isn’t too bad.

airportline@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 23:23 collapse

Maybe. Meta and Automattic (WordPress.com and Tumblr) are betting on ActivityPub over ATProtocol.

ByGourou@sh.itjust.works on 16 Feb 2024 12:23 collapse

I would love to be wrong, we’ll see in ~1 year.

nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Feb 2024 15:53 next collapse

What if I tell you I don’t give a fuck

EatATaco@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 16:57 collapse

I wouldn’t believe you because people who don’t give a fuck dont feel the need to go into the comments and tell everyone they don’t give a fuck.

nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Feb 2024 18:26 collapse

About The subjects, I don’t give a fuck. Letting know I give a fuck about this subject, yes.

Snowpix@lemmy.ca on 15 Feb 2024 19:21 collapse

I don’t even give a fuck about not giving a fuck, so I do give a fuck… wait what?

kurcatovium@lemm.ee on 15 Feb 2024 19:49 collapse

You’re not fucking around my friend, well done.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 15 Feb 2024 16:27 next collapse

The decision was made the moment Bluesky chose to deliberately be incompatible with ActivityPub. They want the AT protocol to exist in their own domain because they know the moment they put the screws to monetize, users will flock to an instance where they don’t.

Kushia@lemmy.ml on 16 Feb 2024 02:26 next collapse

I’m perfectly fine with the unwashed masses flocking to non-federated services, it means things will remain sane a while longer over here.

wall_inhabiter@lemdro.id on 16 Feb 2024 04:19 next collapse

People wouldn’t have to flock anywhere if things were more connected ;_;

stoly@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 17:17 collapse

We did learn a lesson from Facebook. It was fine until the Boomers got involved. Once the masses get in, we’re toast.

smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de on 16 Feb 2024 07:22 collapse

Bluesky:

  • Protocol is maintained by the same people who make the app and is developed on GitHub.
  • Instance that was the only one for such amount of time is hosted on Amazon AWS, with domain bought on Google Domains. Does not support IPv6.
  • Mobile app is not distributed on any of the open app stores, just Google Play and Apple AppStore.
  • Weak non-copyleft license not protecting the software from turning closed source and not making users sure they actually use open source version.

Wow, such decentralization.

dessalines@lemmy.ml on 16 Feb 2024 19:21 collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/a60048c1-3522-44c9-9487-47397229eaeb.jpeg">