It was always going to be this way. It didn’t take long to see the signs of enshittification on BSky. They were subpoenaed for user info, they banned journalists, implemented age verification, and I left when they started adding link redirects and tracking.
The claimed reason for that is to highlight “referrer” links for the sites people go to from bsky.
My understanding is that if you click like https://www.themarysue.com/ the website operators would see a “feddit.org” or “lemmy.world” referer if you’re using a web browser and don’t have a defeating option enabled, but not if your browser is locked down or you use an app. The immediate redirects, however, do consistently show in the web site’s access logs.
It’s possible bsky could fuck around with this in the future, but doing so risks just sending users to a pseudo-fork like blacksky.
but doing so risks just sending users to a pseudo-fork like blacksky.
I think if there’s anything we’ve learned at this point, it’s that it’s extremely hard to get users to leave a platform they have connections on. That’s always the plan.
That’s why bsky’s pseudo-federation isn’t as big a deal as some ActivityPub boosters claim.
As I understand it, if lemmy.world shuts down or starts demanding cash my only resource would be the same as if Facebook decides I’m too critical of billionaires – start all over elsewhere with a new account. Sure, I could get close to the same experience with a different node, but I’d be a brand new account with no history. I might as well go someplace else entirely.
Bsky’s “portable user” idea fixes that. There are accounts my bsky account follows who switched to blacksky, and if they hadn’t said they’d changed I wouldn’t have noticed. The essential identity of their account shifted almost seamlessly, and they “federate” with everyone else, aside that their appview shows accounts that bsky’s ordinary moderation hides.
I don’t have any illusions about how altruistic the cryptobro VC’s are. But the entirely of their value proposition is that “leaving bsky” should be about as painless as porting your number from Verizon to AT&T.
I’m easily out if they screw it up, I’m in the fediverse at least as much as there. So far, I’m OK with them and I want to see what happens with this protocol. Mastodon needs some work too.
Which is why “Not for profit” organisations are such a good thing. They are harder to get going but because they are not investment vehicles in the same way you don’t have CEOs installed just to maximise share value. Decisions are focused on what the company needs to perform its mission.
The American Healthcare system fully disagrees with your statement, as they actively exploit non-profit status to avoid taxes and squeeze any “profits” into bonuses for the people at the top. They aren’t even the only industry doing this, but it all boils down to a piss poor lack of regulation and enforcement that really lets companies exploit non-profit structures.
Certainly things can be open to abuse, and different regulatory systems have different loop holes. However I have seen examples where it’s been a good thing.
What goes up must come down… watch in the tech bro future we will be bailing out social media companies just like the airlines. Always making a good thing bad.
That’s all the talk so far? It feels like a bad sign to me when power starts moving from the true believers to the VCs.
It was always going to be this way. It didn’t take long to see the signs of enshittification on BSky. They were subpoenaed for user info, they banned journalists, implemented age verification, and I left when they started adding link redirects and tracking.
They banned journalists? Who?
And I didn’t know about the redirects and tracking either. They are doing that without ads?
https://fediversereport.com/bluesky-censorship-and-country-based-moderation/
Don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself. Open any link and the link you clicked is hijacked back to a BSky domain.
The claimed reason for that is to highlight “referrer” links for the sites people go to from bsky.
My understanding is that if you click like https://www.themarysue.com/ the website operators would see a “feddit.org” or “lemmy.world” referer if you’re using a web browser and don’t have a defeating option enabled, but not if your browser is locked down or you use an app. The immediate redirects, however, do consistently show in the web site’s access logs.
It’s possible bsky could fuck around with this in the future, but doing so risks just sending users to a pseudo-fork like blacksky.
I think if there’s anything we’ve learned at this point, it’s that it’s extremely hard to get users to leave a platform they have connections on. That’s always the plan.
That’s why bsky’s pseudo-federation isn’t as big a deal as some ActivityPub boosters claim.
As I understand it, if lemmy.world shuts down or starts demanding cash my only resource would be the same as if Facebook decides I’m too critical of billionaires – start all over elsewhere with a new account. Sure, I could get close to the same experience with a different node, but I’d be a brand new account with no history. I might as well go someplace else entirely.
Bsky’s “portable user” idea fixes that. There are accounts my bsky account follows who switched to blacksky, and if they hadn’t said they’d changed I wouldn’t have noticed. The essential identity of their account shifted almost seamlessly, and they “federate” with everyone else, aside that their appview shows accounts that bsky’s ordinary moderation hides.
I don’t have any illusions about how altruistic the cryptobro VC’s are. But the entirely of their value proposition is that “leaving bsky” should be about as painless as porting your number from Verizon to AT&T.
AP accounts are also portable…
I guess I don’t care that much at this point but I’m out as soon as I see the first ad.
Why wait? Why continue contributing value and investing in the platform? The longer you wait, the harder it becomes.
I’m easily out if they screw it up, I’m in the fediverse at least as much as there. So far, I’m OK with them and I want to see what happens with this protocol. Mastodon needs some work too.
Mastodon’s problems are not intrinsic…
Which is why “Not for profit” organisations are such a good thing. They are harder to get going but because they are not investment vehicles in the same way you don’t have CEOs installed just to maximise share value. Decisions are focused on what the company needs to perform its mission.
The American Healthcare system fully disagrees with your statement, as they actively exploit non-profit status to avoid taxes and squeeze any “profits” into bonuses for the people at the top. They aren’t even the only industry doing this, but it all boils down to a piss poor lack of regulation and enforcement that really lets companies exploit non-profit structures.
USAmerica is just corrupt country that non-profit is just a way to avoid taxes.
Most of parts of the world won’t let non-profit to be turned that way.
Certainly things can be open to abuse, and different regulatory systems have different loop holes. However I have seen examples where it’s been a good thing.
What goes up must come down… watch in the tech bro future we will be bailing out social media companies just like the airlines. Always making a good thing bad.
They may fail but we better not be bailing them out!