I compared the architectures of AT Protocol (Bluesky) and ActivityPub (Mastodon, etc.)You can see the tradeoffs between complexity and: - The ability to get a global view of the network.
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Kuba Suder • @mackuba.eu on 🦋replied to ⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online) last edited by
@JustinH @santisbon @boris PDS moderates its own users, but not the content that these users can see - PDSes don't interact directly with other PDSes, so there isn't really such thing as defederation of other PDSes or blocking users PDS-wide. This is mostly the role of labellers (moderation services). Someone running a PDS could also run one, but this is generally a completely separate role. So you could entrust your data hosting to one team, and your safety from trolls and haters to another.
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⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online)replied to Kuba Suder • @mackuba.eu on 🦋 last edited by
@mackuba @santisbon @boris Ok thanks, another possibly dumb question... what's the incentive of paying for a PDS? If you don't control the content, it's just free hosting for BlieSky inc?
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Armando :rick:replied to ⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online) last edited by [email protected]
@JustinH @mackuba @boris in the diagram you can find a good summary of what you get out of having your own PDS: All your data (including your private signing key) is there, under your control. No instance can decide to nuke your account by banning you or shutting down unexpectedly. This benefit applies even if you use someone else's PDS, of course. It comes with the fact that it's decoupled from any App View.
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Armando :rick:replied to Armando :rick: last edited by
@JustinH @mackuba @boris something really cool is that if you keep a local copy of your data along with your private recovery key and the PDS you use shuts down or suspends you, you can set up your own PDS and use your recovery key to update the DID registry to point to your new PDS in addition to uploading your data to it. No cooperation from your old PDS needed.
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⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online)replied to Armando :rick: last edited by
@santisbon @mackuba @boris Mastodon works that way too. Your account can't be deleted if you own the instance. I'm still struggling to understand, if PDS owners aren't responsible for moderate the content they are hosting (although someone else told me they are) what's the appeal of running a PDS vs Mastodon instance?
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Armando :rick:replied to ⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online) last edited by [email protected]
@JustinH @mackuba @boris no, Mastodon doesn’t work that way. If your instance shuts down or suspends your account then your account is gone. If you use Bluesky with your own PDS and Bluesky shuts down you still have your account and data. Also, you don’t need to host your own App View to host your own PDS.
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⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online)replied to Armando :rick: last edited by
@santisbon @mackuba @boris If you own your own Mastodon instance it cannot be shut down by anyone but you, same as the PDS right?
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Armando :rick:replied to ⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online) last edited by
@JustinH @mackuba @boris they're two different things. In AP the instance is both your Appview and your data repo. If you lose one you lose the other e.g. your instance has a catastrophic failure and you can't recover the database (it's happened to many Mastodon admins).
In atproto the Appview and the data repo are two different things, possibly hosted by different parties, including yourself. This decoupling has many advantages, already covered in this thread. For more info please refer to the documentation on each protocol and for a deeper dive feel free to consult the existing literature on Kappa architecture. -
Armando :rick:replied to Armando :rick: last edited by
I’m now convinced that it’s a good thing that we have both #ActivityPub and #ATProto. Competition and cross-pollination will make both better and bridges are essential. Mastodon’s Fediscovery and W3C LOLA portability are clear examples.
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Lutin Discretreplied to Armando :rick: last edited by
@santisbon so now do #nostr and get excited for three
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Jeff Sikesreplied to ⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online) last edited by
@JustinH As someone who has setup both, I can say a PDS is far easier to setup and maintain, at least for a single user instance.
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⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online)replied to Jeff Sikes last edited by
@box464 Ok nice, so what's the advantage of running your own PDS? Can you shape your local community in any unique way or enforce PDS-specific rules?
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Jeff Sikesreplied to ⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online) last edited by
@JustinH As a single user instance there is no local community. The only advantage is what everyone else has said. You have more control over your own data, including post migration.
Bluesky Personal Data Servers - Important, well constructed and boring as hell
What follows are my notes about setting up a new Bluesky Personal Data Server (PDS). Here’s a helpful What is BlueSky and how does it work? primer that summarizes the core concepts.
Jeff Sikes (box464.com)