BlueskyUnfortunately, Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users.
While intended for child safety, we think this law poses broader challenges & creates significant barriers that limit free speech & harm smaller platforms like ours.
Eugen Rochko@bsky.app And this is why real decentralization matters. There is nobody that can decide for the fediverse to block Mississippi.
Mike MasnickI feel like this is potentially misleading, Eugen? Both because others can host their own views of the network, but also will the largest instances, which you run, be willing to pay the $10k/user fines in Mississippi?
Because the state can still go after instances, no?
Nemes ContentIt's really not meant to be a gotcha kinda thing. I'm just trying to understand the actual complaint.
Fair point, and I believe you but I've see how conversations between fedi and bluesky usually goes.
Many people still think atproto is centralized and corporate controlled on the fedi side.
I am curious how eugene will respond since fedi runs tge whole instance as a site that talks to other sites.
My larger point is simply that this is a bad law that impacts both Mastodon and Bluesky (and the wider Fediverse/Atmosphere) and it seems like a reason to work together to fix the law (i.e., with @gargron.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy) than to use it to take potshots at each other. The law is bad.
@[email protected] The law is bad, nobody said otherwise. But decentralized systems are supposed to be resilient. If the US makes a law banning all mentions of LGBT from social media, which sounds less unlikely by the minute, what will Bluesky do? All of your infrastructure is controlled by one US company…
Your final point is incorrect. Please don't spread misinfo about stuff like that.
Glyph@[email protected] @Gargron wait, what infrastructure is beyond Bluesky Social PBC's control?
A lot? There are independent instances of ATproto infrastructure that are not controlled by Bluesky. There are totally independent PDS's, relays, and appviews.
Folker@[email protected] @glyph @Gargron
Only a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny fraction of #atproto users is not dependent on #bluesky infrastructure. Basically all #atproto users - and literally all #bluesky users - are dependent on #bluesky and their decisions. That's a simple reality which cannot be taken away by all the tech talk how cool #atproto is in theory.
Only a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny fraction of #atproto users is not dependent on #bluesky infrastructure. Basically all #atproto users - and literally all #bluesky users - are dependent on #bluesky and their decisions. That's a simple reality which cannot be taken away by all the tech talk how cool #atproto is in theory.
@folkerschamel @[email protected] @Gargron what fraction is this? What software are they using? I would really like to even understand how this *might* work. (the fediverse is also, after all, still relatively centralized in practice, with a substantial majority of users still on mastodon ggmbh infrastructure. But other active independent instances do point a way to a less central future)
ikuturso 🇪🇺@glyph @folkerschamel @[email protected] @Gargron one datapoint is that I believe there's s less than six thousand users on a third party PDS out of the 30+ million registered users total. So roughly 1 out of like 5,000 or 0.02%... For the other services like third party web apps it's almost certainly even worse since you can count them with one hand and they're tiny or just experimentation by some dev. It's just not at all comparable to Mastodon.
edit: revised to more accurate
What you believe and what reality may be are two different things. It's pretty silly to make your arguments based on false info someone told you.
@[email protected] @glyph @folkerschamel @Gargron maybe actually say what you think is disinformation and why? not very convincing when you just accuse people of spreading it without being able to give any specifics.
It's disinformation to say that the the ATmosphere, powered by ATproto, is entirely centralized and controlled by one company.
@[email protected] @ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel I said it about Bluesky, not the "ATmosphere". As you have described to me, "Bluesky" as people know and use it, is a stack controlled by Bluesky PBC. And for what it's worth, I don't think pointing out the importance of decentralization is a "potshot" either.
If we're comparing to Bluesky alone then the very same thing applies to Mastodon GMBH. You're comparing apples to oranges.
Also does this mean that mastodon.social intends to not comply with Mississippi's law?
Nathan A. Stine@[email protected] @Gargron @ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel I think the point here is that of course both ActivityPub and AT are decentralized protocols. However, in practice AT almost wholly consists of traffic controlled by Bluesky Social PBC. It seems that's changing for the better every day. But right now "Bluesky" is more centralized *in practice* than "Mastodon."
Yes but also AT is newer. Give it time. And all this feels like is a pointless wasteful purity battle when what we should be doing is working together to push back on bad laws. At no point in this convo has anyone insulted AP yet it feels like many AP people can't wait to attack AT.
@[email protected] @stinerman @ikuturso @glyph @folkerschamel It is interesting that you are characterizing this discussion about decentralization of power as an attack on AT Proto, and it is interesting that this is the only context in which I hear about working together since Bluesky launched nearly two years ago. Well, I believe you have my e-mail address.
The reason I claim it's an attack on AT Proto is because (if you scroll up) you responded implying that Mastodon was somehow better positioned to weather this law, and I don't see how that's true, other than if the hope is that it's so small no one in Mississippi decides to sue?
@[email protected] @Gargron @stinerman @ikuturso @glyph
Of course #mastadon is better positioned to wheather this mississippi law, because a) different #mastodon instances can decide differently (e.g. implementing some kind of age verification instead of blocking, giving users choices instead of #bluesky forcing down their decision to everyone's throat), and b) most instances are outside the us jurisdiction anyway and therefore don't have to worry about the mississippi law.
@[email protected] @Gargron @stinerman @ikuturso @glyph
Unlike #bluesky, #mastodon is not blocked centrally in Mississippi.
Glad to hear it.
It wouldn't have been technically possible anyway, since #mastodon is decentralized.
(Posting reply https://mastodon.social/@folkerschamel/115113652757352708, which wasn't bridged, again, but this time as reply to myself to see if bridging is working then.)
#decentralization #activitypub #atproto #decentralizationwashing
You're misrepresenting again. Why? ATproto is not blocked. Other ATproto providers are still available in Mississippi. The fact that Mastodon GMBH is choosing to ignore the law is not about decentralization. If it obeyed the law then yes some Mastodon instances would be centrally blocked.
@[email protected] @folkerschamel @Gargron @stinerman @glyph Seems like he's not the one misrepresenting... it's quite obviously about decentralization since "some Mastodon instances" would cause only a minority of users in Mississippi to lose access whereas Bluesky was able to block very close to every single one of their users in Mississippi.
Whether the protocol is blocked or not isn't the sole determining factor on decentralization.
It amazes me how little the Mastodon people in this thread understand the tech they are talking about. Please stop misrepresenting how ATproto works as compared to Mastodon.
@[email protected] @folkerschamel @Gargron @stinerman @glyph I know that is a popular Bluesky cope and to be fair it has at times been true (outdated understanding of Jack Dorsey's role etc.)
In this particular case I'd say you just refuse to understand what the criticism is here like your paycheck depended on it though.
R1AirportBluesky will never be decentralized by your standards simply because no one will ever convince a majority of Bluesky users to switch to a different PDS.
All they can do is make it easy to switch appviews/feeds/moderation services/PDSs. That's good enough for me.
@[email protected] @[email protected] @folkerschamel @Gargron @stinerman @glyph I hope you're wrong because if that's really all they can do then it's going to be just an illusion that will break the moment the they decide it is no longer in their interests
Most people on here don't have the illusion that Bluesky is decentralized because they don't know what decentralization is.
If they ever have to learn how it works so they can abandon ship, the switching cost should be minimal. It's why the idea of "credible exit" is so important.
@[email protected] @[email protected] @folkerschamel @Gargron I just wish more people would admit it is what they are really shooting for.
FWIW haven't been convinced that the credible exit is actually credible but at least discussing it would be more fruitful
Arguably credible exit is more important than the distribution of users across the network.
I’m just glad that we’ve moved on from debating whether Bluesky is federated.
@[email protected] @ikuturso @[email protected] @Gargron
Which percentage of people blocked by #bluesky in Mississippi, especially of the Mississippi Free Press, have used this "credible exit" successfully?
It depends what you mean. How many users signed into blacksky.community instead of bsky.app is unclear.
Considering Bluesky isn't deleting Missisipi-based accounts off of bsky.social, and considering the processing of switching to another PDS is currently not user-friendly, I'd guess not many.
Blacksky
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