I don’t really know what they think they can improve, but trying to improve ActivityPub is probably a more sustainable route than just starting a new protocol. Breaking changes and all that.
I also really don’t trust them - I suspect they went for their own protocol because really they just want to be the biggest server in their own semi-closed garden.
It’s for-profit right? Enshittification is just a matter of time.
It’s enshittified right in the design of the protocol. The entire idea of ATproto is to decentralize the annoying (& legally tricky) stuff like identity management and moderation, while keeping the profitable stuff (advertisement embedded in algorithmic feeds) more or less centralized.
And even though they are quite open about that in their technical documentation, somehow people fail to see it for what it is and think this would be somehow to their own benefit.
As soon as they mentioned “algorithmic feeds and viral content”, not interested.
You get “viral content” because of algorithmic feeds, which are there to 1) keep you engaged on the platform, and 2) allow them to push sponsored content to you for profit.
Even the word “feed” in this kind of context just reminds me of cows at a feedlot, mindlessly munching down on whatever garbage is piped into the trough, slowly being fattened up to be sold off to the highest bidder.
There are days when I get on here and there’s not much of anything interesting in my communities and you know what? I’m fine with that. I put the phone down and do something else. I don’t need an endless torrent of “content” to surf courtesy of an algorithmic feed that doesn’t have my best interests at heart.
Your default timeline view on Bluesky is just ‘posts from the people you’ve chosen to follow, in date/time order’. That’s the algorithm.
Everything else is optional and you can choose whatever other timelines or views you also want to see. If you only want to see the posts from people you follow then you don’t need to subscribe to any other feeds / algorithms.
I don’t really know what they think they can improve, but trying to improve ActivityPub is probably a more sustainable route than just starting a new protocol. Breaking changes and all that.
I also really don’t trust them - I suspect they went for their own protocol because really they just want to be the biggest server in their own semi-closed garden.
It’s for-profit right? Enshittification is just a matter of time.
It’s enshittified right in the design of the protocol. The entire idea of ATproto is to decentralize the annoying (& legally tricky) stuff like identity management and moderation, while keeping the profitable stuff (advertisement embedded in algorithmic feeds) more or less centralized.
And even though they are quite open about that in their technical documentation, somehow people fail to see it for what it is and think this would be somehow to their own benefit.
As soon as they mentioned “algorithmic feeds and viral content”, not interested.
You get “viral content” because of algorithmic feeds, which are there to 1) keep you engaged on the platform, and 2) allow them to push sponsored content to you for profit.
Even the word “feed” in this kind of context just reminds me of cows at a feedlot, mindlessly munching down on whatever garbage is piped into the trough, slowly being fattened up to be sold off to the highest bidder.
There are days when I get on here and there’s not much of anything interesting in my communities and you know what? I’m fine with that. I put the phone down and do something else. I don’t need an endless torrent of “content” to surf courtesy of an algorithmic feed that doesn’t have my best interests at heart.
Your default timeline view on Bluesky is just ‘posts from the people you’ve chosen to follow, in date/time order’. That’s the algorithm.
Everything else is optional and you can choose whatever other timelines or views you also want to see. If you only want to see the posts from people you follow then you don’t need to subscribe to any other feeds / algorithms.