21–30 of 292 posts
I think this compares AT proto PDSes to Fediverse instances. In many ways this actually underplays just how grossly centralized AT proto currently is, since some of the components are 100% centralized still. (Whereas Fediverse instances, all downsides considered, are at least self-contained fully-independent instances.)
Keep the needle pointing north. Towards the center of that dial. Too decentralized, and you can't find anything. Nobody uses it. Too centralized, and censorship takes over. Nobody can speak freely.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook tries to eventually capture that data with Threads.
Keep the needle pointing north. Towards the center of that dial. Too decentralized, and you can't find anything. Nobody uses it. Too centralized, and censorship takes over. Nobody can speak freely.
You're presupposing that discoverability requires some degree of centralization.
It's not impossible, but each distributed component would have to be at least a small data center.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ATProto also has the downside of being supported by a corporation and investors with various backgrounds that will eventually want to earn something out of it all and there is no telling how this will happen.
There are lots of ways they could make a sustainable income without disrupting Bluesky's current status quo and be comfortably rich for the rest of their lives... but that's completely out of character for them and will never happen. I do think the geeks currently running Bluesky are sincere in keeping it decentralized, but the money people will someday probably force them out and squeeze the user base for a quick bu…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ATProto also has the downside of being supported by a corporation and investors with various backgrounds that will eventually want to earn something out of it all and there is no telling how this will happen.
There are lots of ways they could make a sustainable income without disrupting Bluesky's current status quo and be comfortably rich for the rest of their lives... but that's completely out of character for them and will never happen. I do think the geeks currently running Bluesky are sincere in keeping it decentralized, but the money people will someday probably force them out and squeeze the user base for a quick bu…
Like what?
1. How hard is it to censor the network.
2. How hard would it be for some major player to enshittify the network.
Furthermore, while the fediverse has a single axis for decentralization, BlueSky has 3: number of "big index servers", number of PDSs, number of domain names (how many people own their handle):
1. Increasing the number of PDSs doesn't make it harder to censor the network when everyone still uses the same big index node.
2. BlueSky's primary defense against enshittification is user account portability. I'd love to see metrics on how many users have their own domain names. Having many PDSs is also a good defense here because it reduces the impact of BlueSky (the company) shutting off the firehose, but I still think account portability is the primary defense here.
I think this compares AT proto PDSes to Fediverse instances. In many ways this actually underplays just how grossly centralized AT proto currently is, since some of the components are 100% centralized still. (Whereas Fediverse instances, all downsides considered, are at least self-contained fully-independent instances.)
Which components are you referring to?
Keep the needle pointing north. Towards the center of that dial. Too decentralized, and you can't find anything. Nobody uses it. Too centralized, and censorship takes over. Nobody can speak freely.
“Too decentralized” critics should form a non-profit where public hosts can register and build an opt-in index for all the decentralized content. Then there is no discoverability issue. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook tries to eventually capture that data with Threads.
Neat! I'm not surprised at the findings here. BlueSky (for the average user) is pretty much a drop in replacement for Twitter. Despite the smaller total numbers in Mastadon, it's great to see that the ecosystem seems to be successfully avoiding centralization like we've seen in the AT-Proto ecosystem. I suspect that the cost of running AT proto servers/relays is prohibitive for smaller players compared to a Mastadon…
ATProto also has the downside of being supported by a corporation and investors with various backgrounds that will eventually want to earn something out of it all and there is no telling how this will happen.
"Decentralization" isn't the end-goal so measuring it here isn't all that meaningful. Personally, I care about: 1. How hard is it to censor the network. 2. How hard would it be for some major player to enshittify the network. Furthermore, while the fediverse has a single axis for decentralization, BlueSky has 3: number of "big index servers", number of PDSs, number of domain names (how many people own their handle):…
I wonder if people would actually migrate or if they'd just get boiled.