Hey y’all, how’s it going? Quick question for those on Bluesky: I just started trying it out this morning, and it’s pretty cool so far. Are there any third-party apps you’d recommend that are more accessible? The official app is good, but I’m curious about other options out there. Let me know!
Here's an idea for those #fedi evangelists that want more people to show up: maybe don't hate on them for being where they are now? I see so much nastiness being flung about on my timeline about #blueSky being run by billionaire bastards/dicks/every insult in the book, that they support fascism, that they are turning a good product bad. You realize that for most people they just want a place to share cat pics and keep track of book releases, right? Like... do I need to explain that for the majority a social media is just a social media, nd they couldn't care less WHO runs it as long as the people they care about are on it? Sure, ideology is important but good god, looking from the outside in the fediverse really looks like a bunch of salty geeks arguing over semantics sometimes and that's a shame because it CAN be great. Maybe just a little more happy and a little less judgy. Can we do that?
Jako je moc fajn, že #Bluesky profily maj RSS feedy. Já jen, že #Twitter je míval taky a jak to dopadlo… 😄 Asi bych ani RSS, ani @fed.brid.gy nebral jako samozřejmost.
Mám už hodně dlouho účet na #Bluesky. Občas se tam teď podívám, ale přijde mi to jako nudnej koncept nucené zábavy: tapeta příspěvků s obrázky od cizích lidí?
Vlastně nevím, proč bych tam měl někoho hledat nebo sledovat. Je to příznak deprese, duševní vyrovnanosti, dospělosti, nastupujícího stáří?
I found over 130 people to follow on #Bluesky without much effort, but only the tiniest handful are blind. I have no objection to keeping up with the blindness community on #Mastodon, but choice is good, and I hope the development of #accessible BS clients accelerates soon.
Vor Kurzem wurde von einem US-amerikanischen FediVerse-Account eine interessante Analyse der #Bluesky #Finanzierung veröffentlicht. Ich finde sie grad nicht...
If you harbored any doubts regarding #Bluesky and their claims of decentralization, you HAVE TO read this brilliant, insightful toot by @jonny about the impossibility of multiple relays and what would happen if one tried to split off from #Bsky the corporation: neuromatch.social/@jonny/11336…
I actually recommend you read the whole thread - and follow Jonny! (Thank you for the recommendation @oblomov!)
The fediverse was created in 2008. Not 2022: 2008. Mastodon launched as part of the fediverse in 2016.
For most of the history of the fediverse, if you wanted to use a social media that was exactly like Twitter but not owned by Elon Musk, you could use Twitter. Many people did: at its peak it had around 300 million active users. That sounds like a lot, but it was less than 10% of the total number of internet users. Most people with internet access chose not to use Twitter, even before 2022. Those 90% of other internet users do not want to use a website that exactly replicates 2021 Twitter.
Where were those other internet users? Some of them were on Facebook. Some of them were on other proprietary social networks. Some of them used email but no other social networks.
But some of us were on the fediverse. We all had different reasons for being here, but I can assure you we were not using the fediverse in search of "something exactly like pre-Musk Twitter."
We don't have the same preferences for a social network as ex-Twitter users: an ex-Twitter user's idea of a good social network is very different from mine. I don't expect a social network that appeal to me to also appeal to most ex-Twitter users. That's okay! Having different preferences in entertainment is a good thing.
Many people who liked 2021 Twitter are leaving Twitter in search of an experience which replicates 2021 Twitter. Those people will be happiest on a social network designed to meet their preferences. Bluesky and Threads were both created in 2023 specifically to attract ex-Twitter users. The fediverse was not. It existed before, and its goal was not "attract users looking for a clone of 2021 Twitter."
The fact that lots of people searching for a clone of 2021 Twitter are using Bluesky and Threads but not the fediverse is not some moral failing on the part of the fediverse, nor is it a result of one social network being "better" than another. People simply have different preferences, and the fediverse was designed to appeal to people with different preferences than Bluesky and Threads.
We can improve many things about the fediverse. But the measure of improvement is not "how many ex-Twitter users can we convince to join."
As masses of people leave Twitter due to Musk's decisions, a lot of them are turning to Bluesky or Threads due to those platforms imitating 2021 Twitter. But you notice where they aren't moving? Signal.
Clearly, this is a failure of the Signal developers and moderators.
I first heard of Signal in 2022, and everyone told me it was a brand new app meant to replace Twitter, and appealing to people who wanted pre-Musk Twitter back. Yet the Signal devs have failed to make their Twitter clone appeal to people who want a Twitter clone.
Meanwhile, the few of us who did come to Signal were met with hostility from the self-appointed HOA of Signal. They say nonsense like "We don't want this place to turn into a Twitter clone!" Some of them even make the preposterous assertion that they already disliked Twitter or weren't using Twitter before 2022. Impossible: everyone loved and used Twitter in 2021. I know because everyone I followed on Twitter said so.
The HOA accuse me of invading "their" community and trying to change it to be more like Twitter/Bluesky/Threads. They claim they like Signal more than pre-Musk Twitter. But if Signal is so much better, then why is it failing to attract former Twitter users looking for a Twitter clone? Don't the HOA understand that if they don't start preparing now, then, when Bluesky inevitably fails, the people looking for another Twitter clone might not come to Signal?
Signed up at #BlueSky, just in case. And guess what? I had to ask my wife to help me dealing with gods damned #HateCaptcha. I wish the person who designed such pseudo-accessibility at #HCaptcha was obliged to work without a monitor and without a mouse for a whole month, just for justice.
yikes, bsky removing or labeling Palestinian accounts as spam, ostensibly because they are following too many people or posting gofundmes, but according to these threads the problem looks too widespread to just be a coincidence from e.g. automated flagging. Can't find any response from their mod team. Composable moderation is good but i am not sure how the atproto labeling model addresses the baseline problem of scaling suspensions/bans - either they take a very light touch and you get a flood of nazis, or you need to lean on automated tools or overworked mods without enough context which has (hopefully accidentally, but still really bad) impacts like this.
@Friendica Support @Libranet Support Can I follow friends on #BlueSky from #Friendica (and specifically from Libranet)? I haven't managed so far. I tried searching for their profile URL with /rss at the end, but nothing is found. I've seen some conversations about this, but couldn't find a way to make it work.
Yikes, the FOMO is certainly not worth the accessibility nightmare this Bluesky website is.
It's a perfect example of usable, but not accessible.
It's a bunch of labeled elements with no structure whatsoever so you're tabbing through endless links, buttons, and links, and buttons, and links, and buttons, to get somewhere. Forget reading a thread with replies, that will take you forever because there is no structure, at all, to aid in navigation. No landmarks, no heading structure, no headings at all, just links and buttons, links and buttons, and the search is on some different page so I can't even get back to the top quickly. Blind people can have Bluesky because I don't have FOMO.
For some reason people fleeing the sinking #Twitter / #X ship for #BlueSky don't seem to be aware of the fact that crypto bros at #BlockchainCapital bought a huge stake in the company just a few weeks ago. Like these are basically the same crypto bros who just helped #ElonMusk buy Twitter. They might even be literally the same people (I strongly suspect they are but I'm too lazy to check). Either way #BlockchainCapital was co-founded by #BrockPierce, who also brought you #Tether, AKA the company that Trump's transition team chairman manages $120 billion for. Pierce is also a friend of the #Netanyahu family.
Moving to BlueSky is not an escape. Growing a base there is just putting in a bunch of work to create a platform that will be co-opted by crypto bros as soon as X breaks in half.
New: A Conceptual Model of ATProto and ActivityPub
You might want to know a little bit more about how #Bluesky and #atproto works, without needing to know all the technical details. This is a high level overview of how to think about how atproto works, and how it differs from #ActivityPub.
It is also a reflection on the concepts of decentralisation and federation, and what they bring to both the #fediverse and the #atmosphere
If you were to design an open social networking protocol, what would that look like? Which metaphors and comparisons would you use to get a general idea of how the network functions? And what would you answer if people ask if your network is decentra…
i do think the degree to which bluesky is stressing that they do not use blockchains really underscores how toxic even a faint whiff of blockchain has become to any normal platform
This is why I have been trying to warn about #BlueSky.
BlueSky has just been partially bought by a cryptocurrency company "Blockchain Capital" and appointed a blockchain / cryptocurrency expert to their board:
The board member is a bitcoin researcher involved with NFT analytics.
BlueSky describe the tie-up with Blockchain Capital as a "natural partnership" and says the blockchain company has "a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation".
Bluesky now exceeds 13 million users, the AT Protocol developer ecosystem continues to grow, and we’ve shipped highly requested features like direct messages and video.
@Tusky About that "bug" when #tusky hangs up while writing a shared post: now I gut that very same issue with a post shared from #bluesky towards #pachli.
@helpers Has anyone ever successfully added a rss feed from a bluesky account to their friendica account? What does it look like? I tried to do with a friendica account, but it broke all the timelines. I can't read any posts from anyone I follow now on friendica. #Friendica#Bluesky#NewHere#Friendica#Bluesky#NewHere
So I don’t really understand why people are still trying to educate others about the problems of closed platforms, algorithms and how they work with silos like threads and blue sky. It’s very clear that people just want to talk to their friends and they don’t care about close platforms versus open platforms, algorithms, or who controls it or any thing of the sort. My advice, rather than try and convince people to move over to an open activity pub enabled platform, just let them do their thing and continue to improve the open social network. When their beloved social media platform goes through the #Enshitification cycle and they’re looking for an alternative because they realized that their platform was out of their control, that’s when you show them your much more mature open social media then it was years ago. In short, if they want algorithms, let them have it over there in a closed platform. Let them go over there. Let’s just continue to improve the space and cultivate this space into something people wanna actually join. #BlueSky #Threads
Bisher habe ich nur Beiträge inkludiert, die 'rp24' im Text enthielten. Für diesen Post habe ich alles gezählt, was in der jeweiligen Suche auftaucht. Dadurch steigen vor allem die Zahlen von #Bluesky (+230), weil der dortige rp24-Feed mehrere #rp24 Suchbegriffe enthält. Bei #XCorp kommen ein paar (+28) false positives über Matches in Usernames dazu. #Threads ist jetzt auch dabei und überholt Bluesky knapp.
Zusammenfassung der Posts zur #rp24 über die drei Tage. Fediverse mit einem klaren Vorsprung vor #Xcorp, #Bluesky und #Threads sind quasi gleichauf. #Linkedin konnte ich nur unvollständig erfassen, weil sie Suche dort nur einen eingeschränkten Zeitraum zurückgeht (und Posts haben keinen Veröffentlichungszeitpunkt, nur einen Veröffentlichungstag). #Facebook abgeschlagen am letzten Platz. #Instagram kann ich gar nicht mehr vergleichen, weil die Suche nur noch Top-Beiträge anzeigt, nicht mehr die aktuellsten. #TikTok Suche ist ebenfalls ungeeignet, weil Hashtags nicht exakt gematcht werden und deshalb die Ergebnisse statt mit re:publica mit RetourenPrinz24 voll sind. Solltet ihr Vorschläge für andere Plattformen haben, wo öffentliche Kommunikation zur Veranstaltung stattgefunden hat, lasst es mich wissen.
Plattform | Posts im Zeitraum (posts gesamt gefunden) von wie vielen unterschiedlichen Accounts Fediverse 1747 (2288) von 400 X Corp 1284 (1723) von 485 Bluesky 942 (1125) von 332 Threads 936 (1208) von 196 Linkedin 587 (597) von 467 Facebook 286 (481) von 151
Vielleicht schaue ich mir noch irgendwann Reposts und Engagement an.
#Mastodon and #Bluesky are both federated, but they use different federation protocols and don't yet work well together. Here's some good news that Bluesky (the only member of its #ATProtocol federation) is taking steps toward interoperability with #Mastodon and the many members of the #ActivityPub federation, aka the #Fediverse. techcrunch.com/2024/04/25/blue…
Fediverse! I’ve been building a bridge to Bluesky, and they’re turning on federation soon, which means my bridge will be available soon too. You’ll be able to follow people on Blu…
Checking in on whether #bluesky / #atproto has become any more like a communication medium, and... nope. almost unchanged since i looked at it last in June. Bluesky is a spectator platform where a small number of accounts receive most of the visibility and smaller accounts are effectively invisible. The introduction of new feed algorithms (to the degree that happened, there aren't really many that I can find in wide use) did not change that. This is a non-normative analysis: in some cases, it is good to have a medium that promotes some very small number of posts and accounts, eg. to surface singular events, etc.
From a 25h sample of the firehose... - 600k posts, 2.4m likes, 250k boosts, 350k follows - 40% of posts receive 0 likes, 70% receive <= 1 - accounts in the 99th percentile of likes received 44% of likes, accounts in the 95th percentile received 74% - 40% of posts were from accounts within the top 95th percentile of accounts by likes received. - the maximum number of likes for a post by an account not in the top 95% is 32.
The first plot below shows the cumulative sum of likes received on the y axis against each account in the sample on the x axis - this includes accounts that didnt' post during the sample (but would still have posts that could be liked, so this also shows the extreme recency bias). The second plot is a hockeystick showing the number of likes (*not* cumulative sum) received on the y axis per post on the x axis.
For background, the default algorithm only cares about likes, boosts don't matter, which is why i am calculating things by likes here - they are the primary algorithmic signal.
These are the same calculations that I did back in June, but this time i'm leaving the firehose open to do a longer sample to be able to parse momentary virality from persistent effects.
It seems that #Bluesky is getting some traction, so it's good to summarize the facts: - it's centralized (99% of users on one instance), - it has insufficient moderation, - it's not easily publicly browsable, - it has terrible terms of service (you grant them broad rights to all your content).
The only thing that makes it different from X in principle is that it's not run by a mad man (yet)... Ah, I forgot it's Jack Dorsey's project, nevermind.
Mám tu další pozvánku do sociální sítě #Bluesky od zakladatele Twitteru. 😊
ℹ️ Stačí si v Obchodě Play a Apple App Store stáhnout aplikaci a při registraci pozvánku vložit. Pokud pozvánka nefunguje, někdo byl rychlejší a použil ji před vámi.
An update on #BlueSky and #AI. They have answered to questions and revealed that their deal with hive.ai specifically forbids the latter from training their models on user data. BlueSky have also updated their TOS to be more clear.
See the linked toot from @growlbeast for more details.
I’d still avoid it personally, their “moderation” is nonexistent and I wouldn’t touch anything backed by cryptobros, but for now this is good news :)
Bsky does have say in how Hive uses the data Hive gets from Bsky as it's part of the agreement they have with Hive and It would have to be disclosed in our user end ToS.(The ToS states our data is NOT used beyond moderation models, meaning it does not go to the image gen model.)
BSky has been updating their ToS to be more clear about it apparently too.
here's an email sent from the team to my friend regarding some of this:
To anyone thinking about joining BlueSky, especially artists: everything you post is used to train generative AI models.
BlueSky uses AI to label content for moderation, and to do that they use a company called thehive.ai. If you look through their privacy policy, you will see that they use all content sent to them to train models for all their services, which include generative AI for both text and images.
Hive's APIs enable developers to integrate pre-trained AI models that address technically challenging content understanding needs into their applications.
An update on #BlueSky and #AI. They have answered to questions and revealed that their deal with hive.ai specifically forbids the latter from training their models on user data. BlueSky have also updated their TOS to be more clear.
See the linked toot from @growlbeast for more details.
I’d still avoid it personally, their “moderation” is nonexistent and I wouldn’t touch anything backed by cryptobros, but for now this is good news :)
