OK, that's a lot. Let's back up a bit.

Social media platforms are influence engines. All of them are. The state of media today is that most communication is not simply to inform, but to influence others to behave and take desired actions. The deal with social media platforms is that they provide technology to enable these communications, but most are not neutral.

And, this is important, the monetary valuation of a platform is directly related to the degree of outsized influence it wields.

2/

So, back to Kirus' thread. It's pretty technical, but the criticism basically boils down to his analysis that they are herding users into "clusters" where they are "close" to each other, and in particular, to specific users (influencers) promoted by their algorithm. This methodology is superchanged by Bluesky Starter Packs which provide ready made clusters.

This network topology is ripe for wielding influence because the network operator has control over what is algorithmically promoted.

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The critical thing here is that platform architecture itself is the problem. It doesn't particularly matter whether the influence being asserted by the operator is good, evil or benign. This can change, as we saw when Musk bought Twitter. What matters is that the platform is designed to enable the operator to assert maximal influence, and it does so by clustering users and fostering algorithmic "virality".

4/

Quoting Kirus: "They're creating a system where everyone orbits nodes with a high amount of influence."

Contrast this with Mastodon. "Bad ideas spread like viruses. It's called memetics. #Mastodon is too open, and the people aren't clustered. Bluesky is making sure you're clustered together." And again, once clustered, vulnerable to algorithmic manipulation.

5/

So, now back to why decentralization matters. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber expressed it well in her "No Caesars" charm offensive. If #Bluesky were to become evil, you can fork off. That is, go to another node in the network. Well, you can't because there is no place to go. But, more importantly, as a Bluesky user you are ensconced in a sophisticated influence engine. You are along for the ride, and have no perspective on your experience versus that of other users of the network on other nodes.

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