Elena Rossini ⁂6d ago

RE: https://mas.to/@Aubreader/116330793703168577

This article is a must read.

An excerpt: “Why would anyone fund an Atmosphere project if #Bluesky, with $100 million in the bank, might ship a competing feature at any moment? Why would a founder bet their career on this ecosystem? The presentation didn't just hurt Graze. It made the entire ecosystem look unfundable.”

Why do I keep bringing up this topic?

Because #ATproto is often put in the same category as #ActivityPub (“open protocols yay”) but I strongly disagree with that stance

Show threadLumiWorx6d ago

@_elena

After reading, it leaves me with concerns that are not dev related.

1. If there's xlarge $ infusions involved, it means profit will always be 1st, and fuck the tech. They will never care.

2. If they'll eat their young once - and don't wince about it - they WILL do it again and enjoy it more aggressively every time.

3. Once they have a taste of their own, they'll feed on other's 'outside the family'.

They want performing monkeys, not projects with merit.

Show threadElena Rossini ⁂5d ago
@lumiworx I sometimes feel like I'm not a good "team player" when I point out weaknesses in the ATproto world. Big elephant in the room: the 100 million dollars in VC money by crypto bros. A lot of people I cherish are all for promoting both protocols (ATproto and ActivityPub), but I remain highly skeptical. And afraid. ATproto gives me big EEE vibes
Show threadEugen Rochko5d ago
@_elena @lumiworx I for one am not one of those people. For me it's ActivityPub only.
Show threadoccult5d ago

@Gargron @_elena @lumiworx

Company with +$100m in VC says one thing but does another. They're just doing the Apple "Sherlock" / Amazon "undercut and put the competition out of business" playbook.

Who's going to stop them?

I always hear about how BlueSky isn't the ATMosphere yet, time and again I see this bad behavior. They will dictate the path forward with their deep pockets.

They are incentivized to clone the good community ideas to increase their own value to pay back those VCs.

Show threadLumiWorx

@occult @Gargron @_elena

Exactly. I'm certainly not against new protocols, and would much prefer them to be open and standardized.

My issue(s) are absolutely with puppetmastering devs, and using bait-and-switch logic to 'grow' a project that was designed at the outset to run counter to the 'solution' it was meant to solve. Lull a few hundred hopefuls into coding this sticky social concept into something glorious, only to walk away with the fruits of someone elses work, without remorse.

Apr 3 at 1:41pmMastodon for Android
Show threadoccult5d ago

@lumiworx @Gargron @_elena this is literally how it works in Silicon Valley. Amazon, Apple, Google have all done this via feature cloning, acquisition to kill a project. You name it, they've done it.

VC funded BlueSky would not be doing their jobs to increase shareholder value if they did not do all of the above and more. They have to, someone at the VCs funding this will instruct them to do so if it meant getting an ROI sooner.

Anyone who thinks they won't is being naive. I've seen it myself.

Show threadElena Rossini ⁂5d ago
@occult I know and it makes me sad to see so many of my friends being blueSKY-pilled
Show threadoccult5d ago

@_elena but that is just it, why? What is their goal? I see folks talking about how hard it is to get "exposure" on Mastodon, but I ask, do we really care about that? I do not.

Everyone is using these networks for different reasons. I (thankfully) do not have to care about an audience.

Everyone saw how Instagram ended up with clout-chasing influencers, and BlueSky may be heading in that same direction of placating the audience above all else.

Show threadoccult5d ago

@_elena I do not want to be surrounded by 1000 versions of the same clout chasing hot take political influencers. Instagram became the defacto place to go for "exposure and audience" because of the same VC funded, feature cloning BlueSky is about to pursue.

Instagram is intolerable but necessary for many of these folks who put all their eggs in that basket, and that is very sad.

I will not earn another "fell for it again" award this time around.

I am content here on Mastodon with my friends.