Laurie VossApr 27, 2023
What's that you say? Bluesky crossed a few hundred thousand users and immediately started having moderation issues? You don't say! Who could have possibly predicted? etc.
Show threadmekka okereke Apr 27, 2023

@seldo

In fairness to them, they're trying to build in public, and didn't expect this much attention yet.

They opened their invite-only private beta, where they hoped to control a tiny user list, before they'd even implemented blocks.

Sign-ups are protected by sign-up keys, but unfortunately, they didn't rate-limit their sign-up API, and the keys were quite short, so someone wrote a script to brute-force guess sign-up keys. So some nazis got in. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Blocks are being implemented this week.

Show threadSam Wronski
@mekkaokereke @seldo This feels like it's unnecessarily generous to them? They've built social networks before and done this kind of rollout before. This was a very problem that they chose to ignore, that shouldn't give them a license to ignore their responsibility for the outcome.
Apr 27, 2023 at 3:11pmWeb
Show threadmekka okereke Apr 27, 2023

@runewake2 @seldo Probably? But "they" haven't built social networks before. The BlueSky team is 5 people, lead by Jay Graber. They wasted 5 years trying to make crypto happen, then (hopefully) realized that crypto sucks, is not going to happen, and ruins lives, but that Merkle Search Trees are kinda cool, and didn't the web used to be more fun way back when. So they made BlueSky.

She has a suspect investor / board member, but Jack is not building this. All praise/criticism should go to Jay.

Show threadSam WronskiApr 27, 2023

@mekkaokereke @seldo I really think we're past the point of claiming ignorance of these issues though? Like these issues feel really well documented and the harm from moving fast and breaking things is also *very* well known. As engineers working on large scale systems there is a responsibility to consider these things and forgoing that for the sake of moving fast is an intentional choice.

What I'm saying here is that it was a business decision and choice for BlueSky to welcome these people.

Show threadGlyphApr 27, 2023
@mekkaokereke @runewake2 @seldo I think it’s fair to say that anyone who is *just now* figuring out that crypto is a bad idea is absolutely not qualified to run a social media network or design its protocol, and nobody should trust them for another decade or so. The sorts of decisions that we see here are not overtly malicious but are fully consistent with and emblematic of a sort of juvenile utopian libertarian worldview that’s wreaked plenty of havoc already.
Show threadbillheywoodApr 27, 2023
@glyph @mekkaokereke @runewake2 @seldo
They are basically all too ignorant to know what a pyramid selling scheme is. That's why they all fell for it
Show threadCharlie StrossApr 28, 2023

@glyph @mekkaokereke @runewake2 @seldo

Their motto seems to be "move fast and break things (that were built by or belong to other people, and it's those folks who'll have to pay to repair or replace what you damaged because they can't afford to sue you)".

Show threadacbApr 28, 2023
@cstross @glyph @mekkaokereke @runewake2 @seldo If you don’t break other people’s things open, how can you extract the surplus value inside (which you know you would use to its full potential, unlike them)?