Dan GillmorApr 30, 2023
@mmasnick done by far the best job of chronicling the Twitter/Musk follies and the resulting social media diaspora. His 6-months-later piece, on where we stand in what I hope will be a massive move to decentralized networking, is a must-read: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-on-the-current-post-twitter-diaspora-options/
Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

Today is six months since Elon took over Twitter and began this bizarre speedrun of the content moderation learning curve in which he seems to repeatedly… not learn a damn thing. Over and over agai…

Techdirt
Show threadMax KennerlyApr 30, 2023

@dangillmor @mmasnick I know it makes me finicky, but:

1) boilerplate EULA terms
2) minimal moderation capability
3) no block feature, then rushed out block feature

Suggest to me that Bluesky really is ill-prepared to run a social network. They're going down the usual techbro path of putting 45% effort into engineering, 45% effort into looking cool for a handful of investors, 10% effort into solving known difficult problems of products like theirs.

Show threadMike Masnick ✅Apr 30, 2023
@maxkennerly @dangillmor that's incorrect. If they didn't have plans to fix all that you'd have a point. But they did all this with plans to fix things. It's a question of timing. They haven't launched yet (only beta testing) because they knew all along that they need these things for launch. Very different from "tech bros" who just don't know any better. The Bluesky team actually understands this stuff.
Show threadjoel bApr 30, 2023
@mmasnick @maxkennerly @dangillmor Are you saying that leaking block lists over the API was all part of their plan?

Furthermore, federation is so vital it really makes me wonder why they think they can work on other features while it pinning a TODO on the most important. I predict when they finally implement it there will be all sorts of edge cases that will lead to poor adoption. The endgame being abandoning the feature due to lack of user interest.

Once you are in their walled garden, why would they ever choose to let you out?
Show threadMike Masnick ✅

@skotchygut @dangillmor @maxkennerly they WANT to let people out. They have said all along that their ultimate focus is on the protocol. Bluesky, the service, is just supposed to be a reference example to test the protocol.

There's a chicken and egg problem in developing federation AND other features (remember, Mastodon implemented blocks 7 months after launching).

This is why Mastodon has *not* launched. They know what they need.

Apr 30, 2023 at 4:03pmWeb
Show threadnixApr 30, 2023

@mmasnick @skotchygut @dangillmor @maxkennerly

Last line supposed to say *Bluesky I think?

I guess I'm inherently more skeptical of corporate entities. They can say they're planning it all the want but it doesn't mean much to me until they do it. I wouldn't have recommended Mastodon to anyone when it didn't have blocks, I wouldn't recommend BlueSky to anyone when it doesn't have federation.

Show threadCubeThoughtsApr 30, 2023
@mmasnick @skotchygut @dangillmor @maxkennerly Is there a monetization strategy for AT/Bluesky, to develop the protocol and the reference implementation? Even a public benefit needs revenue.