Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down • Hacker News Board

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#181

Post by rakovsky89 » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

parl_match wrote: post #97

CactusBlue wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you feel about the recent communication failures from the team to the userbase? As another builder of an open-source social platform, we must all understand that it is paramount for any company to not antagonize its customers, doubly so for a SOCIAL platform. I do understand that Bluesky and ATProto has to deal with a lot of baggage from both the old userbase and the new influx from the X/Twitter exodus, but e…

> user-antagonistic communication could you provide some examples? i didn't really see this, but maybe i just missed it

[flagged]

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#182

Post by rakovsky89 » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #70

fritzo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The community has voted for convenience over privacy, and twitter and bluesky have won over mastodon. You're right, but people don't actually care about privacy

As someone who was once an avid twitter user, my sense is that Mastodon--after a somewhat hopeful start just never gained the network momentum. Bluesky came closest to Twitter's old reach but is still something of a shadow of the old Twitter (as Twitter/X is these days as well).

[dead]

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#183

Post by tekla » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC

mossTechnician wrote: post #125

parl_match wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like Jesse Singal's work or his political positions (he fucking sucks!), but this is hardly antagonistic except to maybe a small group of terminally online posters who take posting too seriously. Although, I guess that is the audience bluesky was targeting when they first started. So I guess I understand the criticism. Also, it is a very ironic demonstration of the pancakes/waffles meme. Interjecting into an…

The central complaint doesn't seem to be distaste, but rather the fact that he is uniquely privileged over other users, despite violating Bluesky's terms of service.[0] [0]: https://www.change.org/p/bluesky-must-enforce-its-community-...

Why do people keep lying about this?

He pulled a quote from a publically available affidavit.

There was no identifying information whatsoever either.

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#184

Post by jakelazaroff » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC

irishcoffee wrote: post #153

jakelazaroff wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL but no, executives are not actually legally required to increase shareholder value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.#Judgme... Allow me introduce you to the inception of enshittification

The section you linked to says the decision was non-binding, and the next section includes multiple quotes disputing the idea that such a legal requirement exists.

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#185

Post by dbbk » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:36 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

DiabloD3 wrote: post #13

Huh, I guess betting on Mastodon winning was the right bet.

Mastodon already won, by being used by people. Bluesky also won, by also being used by people. Not sure if this is a "winner takes it all" scenario? As long as you can host it yourself, I don't really mind where people are, both seem to work and have "won" for what they set out to do.

"Mastodon already won, by being used by people" I'm sorry what

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#186

Post by guywithahat » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

This makes sense, they've had a lot of issues with cp and have generally developed a poor reputation for their user-base and bans. It seems more like a systemic issue to me rather than a CEO issue, but I suppose all issues start at the CEO level in some regard

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#187

Post by fritzo » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

jrm4 wrote: post #167

fritzo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The community has voted for convenience over privacy, and twitter and bluesky have won over mastodon. You're right, but people don't actually care about privacy

I mostly don't like this take because it presumes a precise definition of privacy that we all agree on. And it's not even remotely close to that, which is why I think the Bluesky model is perhaps insidious.

Good point. For sake of argument, how about this stratification of privacy levels:

twitter/x/bluesky - a big tech company owns your data

mastodon - a grassroots community organization owns your data

zulip - someone you've met personally owns the data

your blog - you own the data

(and yes these are a bit of a category error, but to achieve privacy maybe we should broaden the category and sacrifice reach)

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#188

Post by ValentineC » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

pron wrote: post #114

mjr00 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultimately the goal "build a nice community where people can enjoy social interactions" is fully incompatible with "build the next Everything For Everyone Social Website like twitter/facebook/instagram/youtube/tiktok/etc so that we can get 5 billion users and start pushing ads at people". Unfortunately once you take VC funding, you no longer have the option of doing the former. From an actual content perspective Blue…

Another problem is that Twitter's demise left people who liked the format disenchanted and suspicious (and rightly so), and because of that, trying to recreate Twitter is bound to fail, at least until some more time passes.

Twitter's main problem wasn't the network, but fElon Musk running amok.

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#189

Post by carefree-bob » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

lich_king wrote: post #40

embedding-shape wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mastodon already won, by being used by people. Bluesky also won, by also being used by people. Not sure if this is a "winner takes it all" scenario? As long as you can host it yourself, I don't really mind where people are, both seem to work and have "won" for what they set out to do.

It is a zero-sum game in some sense, because you go where your friends or "influencers" are. Mastodon ended up losing its user base to Bluesky during the early Twitter exodus because many influencers and journalists wanted to have an "elite" status and a special relationship with the platform, so they preferred a platform owned by Dorsey to some hippie open-source thing. Bluesky, in turn, ended up losing back to Twit…

Curious, how many people do you need on a social network before you can find someone to talk to or before it is engaging enough for you?

I certainly don't need a billion users. I think I'd be happy with 100,000 users -- what is your number?

I think this is related to the question of how big of a city do you need to live in before you can find something to do and are not bored living there. I'm fine with a city of, say, 50,000-100,000. That is more than sufficient for me to find an appropriate number of likeminded friends and neighbors as well as interesting pursuits.

Re: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down

#190

Post by zdragnar » Mon, Mar 09, 2026, 9:41 PM UTC

mossTechnician wrote: post #179

Levitz wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The central complaint isn't "distaste" because you can't call for someone to be banned because of a "distaste". "Jesse Singal has distributed private medical information on Bluesky without the consent of the patient" translates to publishing a quote from a patient included in a therapist's letter of support for hormones. The problem in this situation is that the complaint itself as well as the whole drama surrounding…

Distributing private medical information without consent is a violation of Bluesky's terms. And to me, that sounds like a much more concrete example of someone being a bully.

Is it private if it is in a public affidavit?