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Bluesky adds direct messages

bsky.social

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Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#101

Post by fragmede »

mjg59 wrote: post #39
gary_0 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't the early versions of Skype, which was coded by like 4 guys, do decentralized end-to-end encrypted messaging like 20 years ago? Before MS bought it and removed all the security at the behest of the government[0], I mean. So two decades later, when we now have so many widely available open source libraries for networking and encryption, that job is somehow too hard for a well-funded organization like Bluesky? T…

End to end encryption is not a hard problem from a cryptography perspective. It's a hard problem for key management (eg, how do you handle multiple devices?) and recovery (how do you handle someone losing their phone and wanting to recover their previous messages?). Twitter tried this and half-assed it, and Bluesky apparently want to do a better job.

apparently they didn't.

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#102

Post by [deleted] »

snapcaster wrote: post #12
shadowfacts wrote: post #7

Not only are they not end-to-end encrypted, Bluesky's DMs seem like they're entirely centralized. From their 2024 roadmap: > We looked closely at alternatives like linking to external services, re-using an existing protocol like Matrix, or rushing out on-protocol encrypted DMs, but ultimately decided to launch a basic centralized system to take the time pressure off our team and make our user community happy. https:/…

I feel for them, because even if they (and weirdos like us on this site) value decentralization and other related values the average customer just DOES NOT CARE. They're trying to compete with other platforms without this handicap and very people people are willing to give them any "credit" for it

[deleted]

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#103

Post by bbx »

shadowfacts wrote: post #7

Not only are they not end-to-end encrypted, Bluesky's DMs seem like they're entirely centralized. From their 2024 roadmap: > We looked closely at alternatives like linking to external services, re-using an existing protocol like Matrix, or rushing out on-protocol encrypted DMs, but ultimately decided to launch a basic centralized system to take the time pressure off our team and make our user community happy. https:/…

Probably a noob question but: why is E2E encryption hard to implement? It took WhatsApp a long time to implement as well. Is there a particular reason?

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#104

Post by adparadox »

monknomo wrote: post #95
anigbrowl wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go to https://joinmastodon.org/ , click on "join" (or pick another server if you are adventurous) Regular consumers hate this because they don't know what they're getting into, and it feels like the social media equivalent of a crypto scam where you're invited to buy a coin, any coin. It was probably intended to resemble arriving at college during rush week and pick a social/activity club to join, except you have…

heck, I'm not a regular user, and I find it annoying to pick a server without knowing what the vibe is. I want to lurk without any transaction costs before I sign up for something

You can see posts on any server to "find out what the vibe is" without registering. For example: https://fosstodon.org/public/local. What are the transactional costs here?

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#105

Post by djur »

bachmeier wrote: post #85
snapcaster wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel for them, because even if they (and weirdos like us on this site) value decentralization and other related values the average customer just DOES NOT CARE. They're trying to compete with other platforms without this handicap and very people people are willing to give them any "credit" for it

> the average customer just DOES NOT CARE They're not targeting the average customer (by whatever metric you measure an average customer). They're targeting people that value decentralization.

Kind of, sort of, but not so much? They're also targeting people who left Twitter because of the moderation policies, ownership, and/or user base. Among Bluesky users, Twitter migrants easily outnumber decentralization enthusiasts 10 to 1 at this point.

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#106

Post by djur »

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #89
snapcaster wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel for them, because even if they (and weirdos like us on this site) value decentralization and other related values the average customer just DOES NOT CARE. They're trying to compete with other platforms without this handicap and very people people are willing to give them any "credit" for it

This is spot on. BlueSky and Threads have just become "left-wing Twitter", intentionally in quotes because it's actually a very small subset of users that left to found their own hug-box, due to some irrational hate of Musk, or that people they don't like at the old place are allowed to have opinions again. Nobody cares about protocols, except maybe the handful of infosec nerds on Mastodon. It's about a middle school…

Why is hating Elon Musk irrational? Regardless of politics or business practices, his personal conduct is revolting.

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#108

Post by djur »

fragmede wrote: post #101
mjg59 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

End to end encryption is not a hard problem from a cryptography perspective. It's a hard problem for key management (eg, how do you handle multiple devices?) and recovery (how do you handle someone losing their phone and wanting to recover their previous messages?). Twitter tried this and half-assed it, and Bluesky apparently want to do a better job.

apparently they didn't.

Not having done something yet doesn't mean you've failed to do it.

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#109

Post by fragmede »

ramesh31 wrote: post #45
Barrin92 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I as a developer have yet to even figure out how it's supposed to work You go to https://joinmastodon.org/ , click on "join" (or pick another server if you are adventurous), fill in your username and email and you're good to go. Why do people invent fictional horror stories about a service that's at this point functionally as easy to use as any bog standard website?

>You go to https://joinmastodon.org/ , click on "join" (or pick another server if you are adventurous), fill in your username and email and you're good to go. And that gives me access to the entire service? Or just bits and pieces of it? And how do I find other services? Asking around? Who's seeing my data if I sign up on another server? What are the anonymous operators of said server doing with my password and email…

the masses don't ask questions at that granularity though, it either works or it doesn't.

Re: Bluesky adds direct messages

#110

Post by CobrastanJorji »

pipeline_peak wrote: post #82

Wake me up when the non tech people are using it.

I went to Bluesky because some of my personal favorite non-tech Twitter personalties ended up there. I'm a fan of @Popehat, who has a lot of informed political legal commentary. There are also a number of fiction writers and artists I like there. Surprisingly full of the people I happen to want to subscribe to. And surprisingly large gardening and astronomy communities.

Less my thing, but if your interests include trans rights, furry porn, or romance authors, Bluesky's definitely the place for you.

Signing up went really well. Mastodon absolutely fumbled the Twitter disaster because it was difficult for non-technical people to figure out what to do. Bluesky just looks like Twitter unless you're actively looking for options to be on another server.

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