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Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

beige.party

81–90 of 209 posts

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#81
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And to be extra clear, "only show posts from people I follow, in chronological order" is an algorithm.

I'm sorry but your comment comes across as very pedantic. In the context of social media, people mean highly optimized algorithms for maximum retention.

I respectfully disagree, I think it makes sense to stress the distinction. Along the lines of: let's reclaim 'algorithm' from the entities that made the word into a bad thing for so many.

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#82
post #73
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The news feed in Mastodon is chronologic, it includes all posts from the accounts you follow (and have not muted).

Chronological sorting is an algorithm. You don't hear its dissenters as much, but it's not without issue. It's not always the best way to present things.

Repeating my comment here because some people are deliberately stick manning this argument:

> In the context of social media, people mean highly optimized algorithms for maximum retention.

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#83
post #67
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Being at will of a server" is always a problem, but with federation you can choose which server you are at the will of. You still need trust, but that trust can be chosen by you based off of your needs (and that trust can be placed in yourself). You're on a different part of the trust gradient. Meanwhile there's a certain quality of service that can be obtained with "mere" federation that is much tougher for many de…

We've gone from digital totalitarianism to digital feudalism. This does not seem like an improvement.

I don't think that is correct? You can spin up your own instance and do stuff on it. The fact that some people want to share their resources isn't feudalism.

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#84
post #71
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've gone from digital totalitarianism to digital feudalism. This does not seem like an improvement.

Perhaps manorialism rather than feudalism, which implies certain bidirectional duties. It may not be a huge improvement when identities and posts can't be migrated, but it's still an incremental one.

While I don't really know about posts being migrated, identities at least can be migrated in the common circumstance of someone simply wanting to change providers and the old host being willing to hold onto the "moved" record for long enough

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#86
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We never said no algorithm. I don’t know where that meme comes from. It comes from the people who don't know what an algorithm is but heard that Twitter has it and it's making them doomscroll so it's bad (which is not to defend Twitter or other social media's algorithms, but to say that some people seem to have a blind hatred of them entirely due to misconceptions)

And to be extra clear, "only show posts from people I follow, in chronological order" is an algorithm.

We're also using an algorithm right now on HN, to sort comments and posts by freshness, votes, and reply count (plus manual moderation fairy dust sprinkled by dang and friends). Some people have even criticized it or dislike it, because everyone has different criteria for things they want to see.

It's easy to forget there's a gray area between "unsorted feed of all posts" and "nothing but insane rage-bait to maximize ad views".

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#87
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (you can't actually move your posts) You can export and import, I believe, for some instances but generically re-posting them to a new instance with the old date isn't currently feasible[0], correct. You also need to re-federate them to get the "links" correct (and probably de-federate the old) which causes confusing results if your client doesn't handle backdated posts correctly (and most of the ones I was using i…

> [2] Obviously there's other problems such as people creating fake history, etc., if you're allowed to post backdated statuses. I don't think it's a problem really, but I may be mistaken about what the goal of these platforms is. I can also create a fake history on a blog or news site and backdate posts. But in the odd case where it matters, say for a copyright dispute or something, it'd be very hard to pretend that…

> I can also create a fake history on a blog or news site

Without the implied "authority" of something like Mastodon[0] or Twitter[1], or Facebook, etc. though. You can (currently) point to a post on a $BIGNETWORK and say "I posted that then" and be credibly believed. If you allow backdated (or timestamp-edited) posts, that goes out of the window, surely.

[0] Ok, not if you're running your own instance, obviously.

[1] Who resisted adding editing for years for similar reasons.

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#88
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We never said no algorithm. I don’t know where that meme comes from. It comes from the people who don't know what an algorithm is but heard that Twitter has it and it's making them doomscroll so it's bad (which is not to defend Twitter or other social media's algorithms, but to say that some people seem to have a blind hatred of them entirely due to misconceptions)

You expressed it perfectly in word which i couldn't. People's hate for algorithm is so weird . Without the algorithm they can never find quality or content they are interest in .

That seems like wilfully ignoring what people are upset about by insisting on a superficial and literal reading of their complaints.

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#89
post #69
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutey rock hard disagree. I'm old enough to remember when twitter and facebook used to both have a chronological feed without algorithmic sorting. Facebook (trash today of course) was an incredibly useful way to find out what your friends were doing on a given day by just reading the chronological feed. You could also trivially see which events were going on in your locality and which friends were attending. At t…

To quote the sibling content: "And to be extra clear, "only show posts from people I follow, in chronological order" is an algorithm." Apparently people understand different things by "algorithm". I also use the general one and not "algorithm" as a special algorithm that tries to find things I might like based on my past interactions, but mainly tailored to keep my engagement high so I watch more ads" I would like th…

Yes, algorithm (as used today) has different meaning in different contexts.

People here are wilfully ignoring the proper context and meaning of the term as used, even though no one has any trouble understanding what is meant. You even spelt it out perfectly, demonstrating that there isn't any genuine miscommunication happening:

> "algorithm" as a special algorithm that tries to find things I might like based on my past interactions, but mainly tailored to keep my engagement high so I watch more ads".

Re: Bluesky Is Not Decentralized

#90
post #40
post #3

Read this: https://atproto.com/articles/atproto-for-distsys-engineers AT Protocol works like the Web, where each user is a website and each application is a search engine. The apps crawl the network of hosts and aggregate activity. We have over 100 outside hosts and at least 3 aggregating apps out there. It’s a different model than ActivityPub, which is more akin to email. We never said no algorithm. I don’t know whe…

I don’t understand what the naysayers want? They want an app that is decentralized, completely free, uses nothing remotely related to crypto, doesn’t serve ads, and where it starts day 1 with a robust ecosystem of applications using it. These people are just winging for followers IMO.

I think you just described the fediverse. The naysayers want you use to use the fediverse instead of centralized crypto stuff.
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