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IMHO: #BlueSky isn't decentralised or federated. The outage on 2024-11-14 is obvious proof. It may *look* decentralised and they definitely love to outsource traffic/storage costs by claiming that running your own PDS (Personal Data Server) is somehow something federated, but that's all smoke and mirrors. You have to go deep on [1] to find "networking through Relays instead of server-to-server" as their current implementation choice. THEY run the relays. No one else.

[1] bsky.social/about/blog/5-5-202…

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Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

It's well hidden, but in Bluesky the Relay system, AppView and identity layer PLC are centralised parts.

The posts you see come from the AppView. The AppView gets its data from the Relay. The Relay gets its stuff rom the PDSes. So you always go through the relay. No direct connection from AppView to PDS. Yes, they promise that in future you might be able to run your own relay. But right now and since its inception, Bluesky runs the relay system you connect to. I call that centralised.

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teilten dies erneut

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

the PLC service is also centralized with no plans to allow federation afaict, which is problematic as your did:plc is your true handle and the PLC service maps handle <=> display name. There is a did:web as well but there isn't a migration path between them.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

It's extremely reminiscent of fake-decentralised cryptocurrencies where there is a semi-hidden centrally-controlled piece. Which makes sense given the personnel involved.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

When journalists call it decentralised, they mean it is free from (financially) incentivised boosting.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

And as I am experimenting with local AI and run one of the #Granite models on my laptop, I asked it about the difference between Mastodon and Bluesky. Well:

"The main difference between Mastodon and Bluesky is that Mastodon is a decentralized platform with local instances, while Bluesky is a centralized platform with a single, global network."

😀

Strypey hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

LOL

BTW what version of Granite are you using? 2b is reasonably fast on my computer, but not very useful. 8b is definitely better, but too slow on my computer. :/

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

The more I look at ATproto, the "standard" behind Bluesky, the more I see vague promises of full decentralisation and federation that "currently" are implemented in centralised ways, because "right now" they "unfortunately" have to do it that way. No clear roadmap on when these centralised elements will be removed/replaced. Now if a "standard" allows for such fundamental deviations, I cannot take it serious. That's just me, though.
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teilten dies erneut

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

I also fail to see a lot of community uptake on creating alternative implementations of ATproto. Compared to the creative chaos around ActivityPub/ActivityStreams it definitely feels more like a walled garden.

buzzdee hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

So, in conclusion and IMHO, BlueSky is a successful Twitter alternative.

The Fediverse including Mastodon is not. The fediverse is a fundamentally different and bigger thing due to its truly federated nature.

And both can have their place in the market of attention.

One ultimately is a commercial endeavour while the other is not. But for the general audience that simply is not the decisive factor. One can find that A Bad Thing, or one can shrug and move on in ones preferred direction 😀

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Maxi 10x 💉 hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

It's also Twitter alternative in the sense that there is nothing to stop it becoming similar cesspool as Twitter.
Als Antwort auf Juha Autero

@jautero Yes. But we also have quite our share of trolls, misogynists, racists and haters in the Fediverse. Most instance admins I know however care a lot about keeping them blocked and away from their users.
Als Antwort auf Justin ⏚

@JustinH @jautero Bluesky too has put a lot of thought toward moderation. Both Mastodon and Bluesky are similar in that they’re light on algorithms and when in use are voluntary. Threads on the other hand despite connecting to the #fediverse is a bigger “cesspool” in your feed magnet due to relying on Meta algorithms. I plan to drop my Threads account once they have enough ActivityPub features to allow me to fully engage desired accounts via Mastodon.
Als Antwort auf Bryan Ruby 🌤️

@bryanruby @jautero How does moderation on BlueSky work?

I agree Threads shouldn't even be in the discussion but for the same reasons BlueSky shouldn't.

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Als Antwort auf Justin ⏚

@JustinH @jautero

Bluesky has basic tools moderation tools you would expect (block, mute, warn, etc) you would come to expect. But they also have a labeling system (both official and allows for third-party) that allows users to report on users/posts. For instance I can use a third-party labeler to block Broncos fans (for real). All of this is voluntary for the user to use or not use. Basic image below. An example of “advanced” is Bluesky’s own:
bsky.app/profile/moderation.bs…

Als Antwort auf Bryan Ruby 🌤️

@JustinH @jautero

Additional information can be found at Bluesky. The second link is a recent Verge article that talks about the “extras” you can do within Bluesky.

bsky.social/about/support/comm…

theverge.com/24295933/bluesky-…

Als Antwort auf Bryan Ruby 🌤️

@bryanruby @JustinH @jautero the only people we hate more than the judean people's front is...

why is decentralisation and federation a Good Thing? what happens when my server goes down... for good?

this place is complex. servers? what the hell are they? why do i need to choose one? which one should i choose? is this a safe one to choose? what are they doing? recording? selling?

bluesky *is* twitter. the good old days. when it was safe, moderated, ad free.

nobody ever makes the case for federation. it is always why a non federated model is wrong. the post below... who the hell cares? that's such a technical complaint. that's supposed to make me think "ooh... mastodon" as a non techie?

what, in terms of simply being able to interact with people, is the actual advantage of mastodon? i am a techie in my day job. on social media i simply want to post stuff, read stuff, and interact with stuff.

federation? what is that and why do i care? make the case for decentralisation.

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

I would say BlueSky is a true successor to Twitter, it's what Twitter once was at its best as a parasocial platform. And Fediverse, as @drewdevault puts it, it is a true social media. Both have their own places, but I realized parasocial media isn't for me, so I prefer a platform like Mastodon that has a more social media experience 😀
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Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

I feel like it's more common now to use active users as a measure of success, but I think reality is quite different, maybe only through my narrow scope. For the life of me, I'll never get >10% of my contacts on Signal, but it is an overwhelming success. Mastodon is much the same; when Bluesky goes away in years or decades, as all corporations generally do, Mastodon (or whatever Ideological fork presents itself) will be an amazing success for me.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Now also part of a blogpost at jan.wildeboer.net/2024/11/My-D…
Als Antwort auf Kuba Suder • @mackuba.eu on 🦋

@mackuba Sure. At some point in the future all of Bluesky will be fully decentralised and reach federation levels that the ActivityStream already has ;) And that point is a moving target since years.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

I won't argue that it isn't as decentralized in practice as AP right now, I'm just saying that "they promise that in future you might be able to run your own relay" is misleading, because you can do that today
Als Antwort auf Kuba Suder • @mackuba.eu on 🦋

And, as you said, that is for testing ATM. And the other argument with the did:plc still stands. Anyway, right now Bluesky is by all practical means centralised and I am not convinced that will really change. ATProto stays a proprietary, non-open standard, owned by a non-open organisation, not a community or SSO (Standard Setting Organisation) IMHO.
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Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@mackuba "The author mentions that setting up a Relay requires around 4.5 TB of disk space, and that it’s growing by around 18 GB a day. However, that was said before the most recent bump in growth. The data and processing requirements will only accelerate as more people use the service." - anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/maybe-b…
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

I've been getting the impression that the relay does all the heavy lifting and that PDSs are set up just to serve the relay. If the relay goes down I don't think most PDSs can suddenly handle all the traffic in that kind of decentralized environment.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

And yesterday I read that DM are even more centralized, bypassing the whole rest of the architecture.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

This is a question from someone who uses a host service for my Mastodon node.

I tried setting up a relay on my tiny instance and the server instantly had issues. So, in practice, Mastodon relays don't work for me. To that end, I believe my Mastodon setup is close to this diagram. No?

Als Antwort auf Rob

I understand that. But what is the architectural difference?

You highlighted the Relay in your post. And I am saying, "I don't have access to Mastodon relays." So why is Mastodon better?

Trying to understand your objection.

Als Antwort auf Rob

Is it that BlueSky *REQUIRES* a relay and Mastodon does not?
Als Antwort auf Rob

@rob ActivityPub relays are specifically to exchange large number of posts between many different instances. That requires a good bit of horsepower and Internet bandwidth; and connecting to one means your instance is suddenly getting a lot more traffic. That's good for some things, bad for others.

You can run a single-user Fediverse instance *just fine* without ever touching an ActivityPub relay, in which case you'll see (and basically only see) posts from those you follow.

@jwildeboer

Als Antwort auf mkj

@mkj
I ported my Twitter account to Mastodon to one of the larger servers (techhub.social) which likely has a relay. Then I moved to my own instance. Those 2 hops gave me some people to follow. That’s likely why others on my server don’t post much.

Circling back to the #bluesky discussion. What good are distributed relays if they aren’t available to everyone (because of the costs)?

Als Antwort auf Aral Balkan

@aral ATproto exists specifically because the existing open protocols were design against chokepoint capitalism. It's literally designed around the existence of a chokepoint (multiple ones, in fact, when you add PLC DIDs)
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

It's also not running on thin air, but uses VC money and that money will request a profit at some point.

They can't make profit on a free service, so at some point they will sell it or implement some of the shitty tactics of crypto boys (CEO, Dorsey) or they will skim the data themselves and sell it to the highest bidder.

Nothing on the Internet is free. I'm amazed people fall for it again and again... :nkoFacepalm:

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Two links that might interest you
1 BlueSky is Cosplaying Decentralisation
rys.io/en/167.html
2 some dude ranting about how the protocol works
layer8.space/@sam@urbanists.so…
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Indeed. I’m not going read that again but when I had a look at the protocol a couple of years ago it was obvious, to me back then, that the entire platform was all geared up for monetization. It’s distributed claims are geared more to the processing of user data rather than distributed in the Fedi sense. For processing ID, content, advertising markers etc. All disastrous for privacy etc.

However. All that aside. The onboarding is slick. Finding people is easy. Starter packs are inspired. It’s a direct replacement for Twitter. It looks and feels how Twitter used to be a decade ago. Without ads too.

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Maxi 10x 💉
@PattyHanson Twitter truly was better a decade ago for small and personal accounts. It all changed with the introduction of the algorithm in 2015.

Maxi 10x 💉 hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Exactly.

Of course, they'd probably be quite happy for you to volunteer your free labour and storage for them to control.

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Bryan Ruby 🌤️
@JustinH @jautero Looks like the “German version” is doing nothing at the moment. It would have labels on that page if it did something. As far as I can tell..not an expert.
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Bryan Ruby 🌤️
@JustinH @jautero Yes, it’s interesting to see Bluesky take a hybrid approach over centralization-decentralization. They have the potential of utilizing the best of both systems as well as the worst of both systems. At this time, Bluesky’s future is highly dependent on who or what group is in control of the wheel.
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Justin ⏚

@bryanruby @jautero Eh, if every individual has to do the work of moderating every single little thing that comes their way it becomes exhausting really fast.

Putting the onus on the people being harassed to stop the harassment is a surefire way to discourage those people from participating (which knowing Dorsey & co I suspect might be part of the point!).

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

mastodon - Link zum Originalbeitrag
Justin ⏚
@bryanruby @jautero Right exactly, but I've seen no evidence that BlueSky is actually taking on (or is capable of taking on) any of the burden of moderating. Threads is good example of a quadrillion dollar company that *still* can't moderate as effectively as fediverse volunteers.
Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

You *can* run your own relay, it's just complicated and expensive and most people don't care. (Look at how many people just make an account on mastodon.social vs set up their own.) If Bluesky started to go the way of Twitter, it would be (almost) possible to migrate without losing everything, like you do when leaving Twitter. Let's see if that almost becomes an issue.
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Paul McO'Smith III

@bryanruby @JustinH @jautero the arguments are all... singularly... about federation. the argument is simple:

federation is better because federation is better.

i am on all 3, and will remain there for some time. i can, though, see why people will go to bsky before here. very simple. conversations like this don't exist.

follow. post. respond. read. that's all.

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

Als Antwort auf Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Here :
alice.bsky.sh/post/3laega7icmi…
I was pointed to the fact that installing your own gateway AND plc directory mirror is possible.
Who's right then?
(I'd really like to know since some friends are pretending bsky is really fully decentralis-able)