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User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

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Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#261

Post by swed420 »

slg wrote: post #172
derbOac wrote: post #18

I much prefer Bluesky to X but have had a hunch this was coming due to everything I've read about the practicality of running a Bluesky protocol service. I still think there's room for something better technically. Mastodon seems more true to the decentralized ethos but I've never quite gotten used to the server dependency experience. Nostr appeals to me technically but every time I'm on it seems swamped completely b…

It always comes back to the userbase. I don't know how many times technologists need to learn the lesson that normal people simply don't care about ideological technical principles like decentralization and often actually prefer the benefits of centralized systems like ease of use and typically stronger moderation. And when it comes to social media, businesses are naturally going to end up prioritizing the desires of…

> It always comes back to the userbase. I don't know how many times technologists need to learn the lesson that normal people simply don't care about ideological technical principles like decentralization and often actually prefer the benefits of centralized systems like ease of use and typically stronger moderation.

The choice need not be limited to the familiar corporate hellscape vs decentralized usability nightmare dichotomy. Middle grounds can exist if we want them to.

I've seen a lot of general support for the criticisms and concepts described in this article:

https://www.noemamag.com/the-last-days-of-social-media/

Anyone who builds what they describe there can expect it to take off faster than ever.

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#263

Post by gitaarik »

packetlost wrote: post #20
AlexandrB wrote: post #12

> However, as time has gone by, Bluesky’s traffic has declined (X’s has as well) and some of its users have become increasingly upset at its moderation decisions, including allowing U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and anti-trans writer Jesse Singal to remain as users of the platform. So the expectation is that the vice president of the United States should be banned because he says stuff people don't like? What's the…

When speech is violence, allowing someone a platform is akin to being party to and supporting .

What is this for kind of logic. So if you have a store, and you happen to have a client that smashes someone else's head in your shop, then that means in your logic that you as a shop owner are guilty of violence.

But I guess you say you should know the reputation of every person coming into your shop, and if their reputation is deemed inappriopriate by a certain group, they should not be allowed into the shop to prevent them from harassing any other customers.

But how are you gonna regulate that? Who is gonna decide who is inappropriate and who isn't?

I think we already have a fairly well organized system for that: law & order. If someone breaks laws, they are punished for it. So if someone is violent, whether it's inside or outside a shop, they can be punished for it.

And you as a shop owner don't have to also individually take the effort to investigate and punish the individual. Although if you want to you have the freedom to; it's your shop in the end.

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#264

Post by snuxoll »

pfraze wrote: post #123
snuxoll wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about atproto; unlike ActivityPub where your home server runs both the application as well as stores your data, atproto is build in the concept that “applications” like BlueSky store your data inside your PDS (Personal Data Store), which may or may not be hosted somewhere else. While anybody can host their own PDS, the public bsky.app instance can and will “block” users by prev…

It's not closed. There just isn't the needed ecosystem of other providers.

What are you talking about? Yes, it is closed - their PDS implementation and clients are open, but the actual service that runs on bsky.app is, at present, not open source.

Without the backend that handles all of the XRPC endpoints [1] being available, BlueSky still effectively maintains centralized control over their part of the 'atmosphere'. Somebody could, of course, make an open source implementation of the app.bsky lexicon and users would only need to update their DID to point at their preferred instance, but AFAIK none exists right now.

[1]: https://docs.bsky.app/docs/api/at-protocol-xrpc-api

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#265

Post by mpalmer »

jrm4 wrote: post #141

Mastodon is the right model. I keep saying this and I keep being surprised that it isn't more obvious to most. It's the right model because it's essentially the same model as email. Yes, there is TONS of "human" work to be done to change people's minds on this, but STRUCTURALLY it's the only one that can handle things correctly. I always found what Bluesky was "optimizing" for to be a stupid goal, and inherently a ba…

> I keep saying this and I keep being surprised that it isn't more obvious to most.

Well I read your explanation, and it's still not obvious. Nor do I appreciate the implication that anyone who disagrees with you is missing something obvious. Not the best choice, rhetorically.

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#266

Post by handoflixue »

flutas wrote: post #142
hitekker wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a good observation about position. For those curious, the original (and arguably representative) Bluesky user said: > “I want to be extremely clear I was not making a death threat or inciting violence,” he told me, saying that he had sent 12 separate examples of other people posting the same Kirk image as a reaction meme. “I don’t wish death on Jay, I wish for her and her team to grow a conscience. I disagree…

which is leaving out the full context, they specificly cited the alt-text of the image, not the image itself. The email, verbatim read: > A reply with an image; alt text reads: > 'Charlie Kirk sitting in a white T-shirt that says "Freedom." A negative consequence follows! [0]: https://bsky.app/profile/aliafonzy.blacksky.app/post/3m2jm7u...

Thank you for confirming it was in no way a death threat

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#267

Post by optimalquiet »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #239
EA-3167 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d argue that people lose the moment they sign up for an account, deluding themselves into believing that the problem with the last nth iteration of the same thing isn’t them. The format is the problem. The medium is the problem. Poorly moderated groups of anonymous people voidscreaming as some “this will be monetized once we hit critical mass” exercise is the problem. I believe that eventually people will sort ours…

Sure there's bad uses, but putting yourself out there, on the public record, and cherishing those others around us doing the same is, in my view, divine. I can't imagine the mindset that wouldn't want to be capturing some of the amazing wonderful world about them & the thoughts in their head & sharing them with others. I find these views about walking away from putting yourself online, seeing only the harm, as being…

You’re entitled to your experience and spirituality, but nothing about Twitter or Bluesky has ever struck me as ‘divine.’ Rather than being a nihilistic flight from value, I think there’s far more value to be found in cultivating friendships and companions in the real world. There’s more divinity in a single hug from my wife than in everything I’ve ever read on the internet. Words have to bend to flesh at some point; we are embodied creatures. I’ve found my mental health improving massively when I take a step back from the firehose of social media and focus instead projects where I can use my hands and spending time with people I can eat with and hug.

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#268

Post by itake »

neilv wrote: post #198

> While the ATProto system has been criticized as overly complicated compared to the ActivityPub system that powers the Fediverse, it has one key feature that ActivityPub lacks: the ability to transfer servers while keeping all of your followers and posts. FWIW, it looks like Mastodon software has some features for moving servers, including bringing your followers, but not your posts: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/us…

My understanding is Mastodon requires the server to be complicit with the transfer (online and redirecting requests to the new destination). If your host server is offline or not willing to migrate your data, you can't move.

In the AT protocol, your identity isn't tied to a server. You don't need the older server's consent or support to have a new identity somewhere else.

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#269

Post by TimorousBestie »

Manuel_D wrote: post #247
TimorousBestie wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example his claim that Singal's writing "endangers trans lives" is hyperbolic and unsupported. Partially due to Singal’s sensationalist journalism, trans people in the United States are about to lose access to some forms of healthcare—treatments that will remain accessible to cis people, like hormone replacement therapy. So I think history has vindicated this particular claim. I don’t expect you to agree, howev…

Couldn't it be possible that chemically altering minors isn't be best course of treatment? The UK, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have all stopped routine prescription of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria on the grounds that their efficacy is not clear but the negative side effects are. It's extremely hard to claim the science is settled at this point. The allegations of harm seem to come from a…

I welcome any novel, high-quality scientific research on better treatments for gender dysphoric children.

But, in the States at least, there is no longer any funding for that. They cut all of it by grepping the NIH and NSF databases for “gender”, more or less.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/nih-terminating-active-researc...

What there soon will be in the States, assuming SCOTUS overturns the Colorado ban this term, is a renaissance of conversion therapy. If you abuse the child hard enough and long enough, they’ll have bigger problems than gender dysphoria or—coming up in the next wave of manufactured outrage—same-sex attraction.

Hard to say that the “just asking questions” club has the child’s best interests at heart.

Re: User ban controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality

#270

Post by bryceneal »

LikesPwsh wrote: post #218
tshaddox wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of criticisms of Web3, but this doesn't seems like a particularly valid one. What could the people who designed the relevant blockchains and smart contracts have done differently to prevent one marketplace from becoming dominant?

The users could reject exchanges and trade entirely on-chain, but that's expensive/complicated/risky. It is a serious concern for cryptocurrency that most users don't even get the touted benefits because of reliance on exchanges.

OpenSea is very nearly "entirely on-chain" if I'm understanding your point correctly. It's powered by smart contracts. It's not custodial like Coinbase or Robinhood. Users custody their assets in their own wallets. They trade by submitting transactions directly from their wallet to a smart contract address on-chain which facilitates fulfillment of the trade. The code for these smart contracts is open source and verifiable.

It may not be obvious to more casual observers, but there is a lot of trading volume happening on on-chain exchanges these days (as in easily 10B+ in trading volume per day with most of this coming from futures).

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