I've had a lot of people ask how BlueSky compares to Mastodon and the Fediverse.

Fedi.Tips

BlueSky is not a non-profit, it is owned by Bluesky Social PBC which is a for-profit corporation.

In October it announced that it had partially sold itself to Blockchain Capital, and the same announcement said they had appointed a blockchain/cryptocurrency expert to their board:

Fedi.Tips (@[email protected])

This is why I have been trying to warn about #BlueSky. BlueSky has just been partially bought by a cryptocurrency company "Blockchain Capital" and appointed a blockchain / cryptocurrency expert to their board: https://bsky.social/about/blog/10-24-2024-series-a The board member is a bitcoin researcher involved with NFT analytics. BlueSky describe the tie-up with Blockchain Capital as a "natural partnership" and says the blockchain company has "a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation". (via @[email protected])

social.growyourown.services (social.growyourown.services)

This is in addition to their CEO being a blockchain/cryptocurrency person:

Jay Graber - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

AFAIK the board only has three people, so a majority are from blockchain.

Fedi.Tips

@kryptec @maple

There are various ways to make any Fediverse server see a lot more of the Fediverse:

Using relays, groups, directories and scripts to quickly expand a server’s view of the Fediverse | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

(fedi.tips)

Fedi.Tips

@Mik3y

If you use a managed hosting service you can do it for a few dollars a month including someone doing all the technical stuff for you:

Pricing | Masto.host

Pricing for Masto.host fully managed Mastodon hosting plans. Starting at $6/month.

Masto.host (masto.host)

Fedi.Tips

@doc

You might not care about the workings of something, but you might care about the effects of something. No one cares about how a medicine works, but they care if it stops them being sick.

The structure Bluesky has chosen for its tech and its business is very likely to repeat all the problems that Twitter, Facebook etc suffer from.

The things that make people leave Twitter & Facebook now are going to get repeated on Bluesky with its current structure. Then they'll have to move again.

Massimiliano Musina

@maple @FediTips ok, but having all the data stored in a single, owned, instance (like BlueSky) would potentially expose users to an unknown future... as it happened with the current "big tech". I rather prefer fix and improve what is not working in the fedivese, which is the real alternative. I wish a future were we always own data, regardless of the app/technology we use

#fediverse

maple

@FediTips @kryptec Right, but as a USER I have no way of knowing if the instance I am using has implemented any of those. How about publishing a list of such servers? And if you have no way of knowing which servers are using any of those various ways, then how is the user supposed to know? A solution that few instances are using and/or where users have no way of knowing if their instance (or any other) is using that solution adds a level of complication and annoyance that you don't have with the big corporate platform.

Fedi.Tips

@maple

The idea isn't to have a listed set of features, it's just to provide more posts visible to the instance.

Also, the user themselves can implement things like following groups which totally bypass whatever their instance can see. If you follow a group, you will see the same posts no matter which instance you are on. It's the same if you follow a particular set of accounts, the act of a user following an account changes which posts are visible to the user's instance.

Fedi.Tips

@skamu @maple

Yeah, this is another worry. BlueSky's valuation is approaching 1 billion dollars, and part of that will be the user data they expect to hoard.

"I wish a future were we always own data, regardless of the app/technology we use"

I think @timbl has been working on something like this for some time with the Solid project?

maple

@skamu @FediTips That is great and I hope you are able to fix and improve what is not working, but right now this is still a problem and it is something that would cause ordinary users (like me) to consider switching to Bluesky (or to just start with Blueskay in the first place). You have to realize that most users just don't care if they own data (probably better than half don't even seem to care about privacy, which totally blows my mind) so saying that they should use the Fediverse because of some philosophical argument about ownership isn't going to carry much weight, if they can receive most or all of the posts they want to see on another platform.

maple

@FediTips Well the problem with groups is that you first have to know that a group you are interested in exists, and then chances are if you do find one it's not specific enough. Say I am running some piece of software that is giving me trouble, I can subscribe to a hashtag with the name of that piece of software, which (hopefully) will only show me posts related to that software, although that is not always the case, for example if I want to see posts about Joplin (the note taking application) I could use (hashtag)Joplin and hopefully I would get mostly posts about that software and not Joplin, Missouri or Scott Joplin the composer.

But will there be a group about Joplin? Probably not. And also, as I understand it, groups follow users, not hashtags. And in that case you can get inundated with posts that are not about the topic of interest. I have tried to follow groups a few times and generally speaking I've had to turn them off almost immediately because they flooded my timeline with uninteresting and irrelevant posts.

Chao-c'

@FediTips @mackuba @janxdevil All I said is that many Bluesky users are quite nice and they have chosen the platform because lot of people went there and because it was straightforward to use.

I did my best, but Mastodon is simply not user friendly enough for most people. It offers some quit advance features for power users, but at the same time, it lacks certain basics, which newbies would take for granted. The don't care about the architecture of the network, as long as they don't have to think about it.

We need to keep on trying and one day, Bluesky may seem boring to some and they will move here...

Fedi.Tips

@xChaos @mackuba @janxdevil

Ordinary users are attracted to a well-funded simple platform.

The trouble is this simplicity is what makes it easy for Musk etc to buy it out. And the massive amount of funding is what will eventually force it to start exploiting and manipulating its users, because the funding comes from selling itself to the funders.

There is no perfect solution, there are just a range of most or least worst options. It's up to each person to decide what is least worst for them.

Massimiliano Musina

@maple @FediTips Hi Maple, yeah I get your point and I agree that most of the users don't care, and it is really sad.

I am also an "ordinary user" anyway, I am just tired of directly supporting huge corporation with my personal data. I have opened my eyes and I do believe that the rest of "ordinary users" (like us) will do the same in a point.

It will probably take time, but I really believe that the "fediverse approach" will be the future.

Fedi.Tips

@maple

I think we might be talking about different kinds of groups? A lot of different services on here have used the name "group".

Groups from services like Guppe are basically just "super hashtags". If you mention the group, the post is distributed to everyone that follows the group on any server. You can make a new group just by mentioning it.

If someone spams the group with irrelevant content, they can be reported for spamming (just like they can be with hashtag spamming).

maple

@skamu @FediTips I hope you are right, but it will take a lot longer if people think that you shouldn't even try the Fediverse because any posts you make will only be seen by a limited subset of users, even if you include hashtags they are following. People who are frequent posters often desire that what they write will be seen by the highest number of users (or at least users interested enough to follow whatever hashtags they include), so they may not have much interest in platforms that limit their exposure. And factors such as who "owns" the post content may not matter at all to them.

Fedi.Tips

@maple @skamu

I am on a single user server and have over 200k followers. My other accounts on this server have 70k, 8k, 5k and 3k followers. It is possible to build a mass following without being on a large server.

"they may not have much interest in platforms that limit their exposure."

...if exposure is all they care about, why would they leave Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc? (Genuine question.)

maple

@FediTips @skamu You're in kind of a unique position because you are very well known, so people follow you directly.

"...if exposure is all they care about, why would they leave Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc? (Genuine question.)"

Well, I can think of two reasons, one is that they don't want some big corporation (or the evil owner thereof) owning or controlling or censoring their posts, and the other is that they don't want to share a platform with Nazis/fascists/anti-science types. But if they don't fall into either of those categories, I can't think of any reason they would want to leave one of those platforms. And right now, for the most part those things would not apply to Bluesky users (yet) so the case for leaving to come to the Fediverse is even weaker for them.

Fedi.Tips

@maple

"You're in kind of a unique position because you are very well known, so people follow you directly."

I'm not though? No one knows me outside of these accounts.

"...one is that they don't want some big corporation (or the evil owner thereof) owning or controlling or censoring their posts, "

They already have a big corporation owning/controlling their posts. Bluesky is a for-profit corporation valued at nearly a billion dollars now.

Kuba Suder • @mackuba.eu on 🦋

@xChaos @FediTips @janxdevil Tbh, power users also like having certain basics like working search or seeing complete threads (power user here)

Fedi.Tips

@mackuba @xChaos @janxdevil

You can see complete threads and complete search results on Mastodon if you have just one instance without any federation.

That's what BlueSky currently does, it's all on one instance.

But if you run on just one instance, it makes it incredibly easy for Musk etc to buy you out.