 Just joined the Bluesky closed beta. I’m @atomicpoet.bsky.social I’m trying this out. It’s supposed to be Mastodon’s future rival. Bluesky is not compatible with Mastodon right now. While Mastodon uses ActivityPub protocol, Bluesky uses AT protocol. What can Bluesky do that Mastodon can’t? Offer nomadic identity. Keep in mind, though, that there’s Fediverse server software—like Hubzilla—that offers that feature, and they’re compatible with Mastodon. 101 comments
@aral I don’t think Jack owns it, but he can definitely wreck it. Ever since he donated to Nostr, it’s been a train wreck. At this point, I also suspect Mastodon has too much momentum for Bluesky to challenge it. But we’ll see.  @kechpaja @atomicpoet Yeah, since I moved this account and its followers from mastodon.sergal.org, I'm wondering what nomadic identity is above this?  @Sbectol That’s the promise. But so far, there’s only one instance that I know about. @atomicpoet@mastodon.social @Sbectol@toot.wales I skimmed their faq and protocol desc. Appears to be a crypto key in a dns txt record pointing to your datastore wherever, coupled with your client caching a copy of all your posts and other activities, then uploading to new server instance. My immediate thought about Bluesky is that it’s a super stripped down and minimalistic version of Twitter. And as much as Bluesky’s much vaunted algorithm is hyped, I’m kind of disappointed. There’s only two feeds: Following and “What’s hot”. Thankfully, Following is the default, not “What’s hot”. It doesn’t give you the local feed. Since there’s only one instance, you can’t check remote feeds or see a federated feed. There’s no lists. But at least the feed is engaging. Apparently, Bluesky has 15,000 accounts. I’m still gauging the quality of the community. Seems like there’s lots of startup founders. Thankfully, there’s fewer crypto people—unlike Nostr. @atomicpoet I only JUST got around to applying for access so haven't had a chance to see it yet Having looked through the “What’s hot” feed, the algorithm seems very heavy on memes. It’s much less political than Mastodon, and there’s less journalism. Not as much hobbies either. Right now, the culture seems to focus on inconsequential stuff. Which is fine if that’s what you’re into. One thing Bluesky has that Mastodon doesn’t is quote posts. People use it a lot. Here’s also a good time to remind people that other Fediverse server software—like Akkoma, Friendica, and Calckey—support quote posts. @atomicpoet Out of curiosity: How are they using it? To totally slag each other off? Or perhaps to share interesting content with a comment that possibly adds value?
I’ve said previously that I don’t have a religious adherence to ActivityPub. If AT protocol takes off, cool. What’s important to know is what kind of community gets built with it, and just how decentralized it ends up becoming. But I also wonder how Bluesky can compete with the Fediverse when the Fediverse is on pace to add 1 million accounts per month. @atomicpoet I second that - for me my position is "I don't care if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice". If the AT protocol turns out to be superior then I'm all for Mastodon and others to adopt the protocol. @CommissarMatis @atomicpoet this neglects that ActivityPub was created by a Working Group in a painful minority protecting process getting to consensus and passing Internationalization and Accessibility tests as well as a privacy review. Good luck comparing and succumbing for some light perceived advantage. Happy lock-in 😀 @rigo @CommissarMatis I mean, Zot protocol was essentially made by one guy all by himself. @atomicpoet @CommissarMatis this isn't the point. HTTP was essentially made up by one guy all by himself in CERN. As was HTML. See the difference? @rigo @CommissarMatis And much of ActivityPub didn’t start at the W3C. It was an iteration of OStatus. And prior to that, work done by @evan with his startup identi.ca. Now one thing I will say is that W3C validation was important, and was probably what created momentum for broad adoption. Anyway, competition isn’t bad. If anything, AT protocol could be the kick in the pants to improve ActivityPub. @atomicpoet @CommissarMatis @evan I don't think a single thing was started at W3C, except PICS perhaps. And I'm all ears when it comes to improving ActivityPub. @rigo @CommissarMatis @evan Well, let’s start with something obvious: nomadic identity. There’s one aspect of Bluesky that beats the pants off of Mastodon, and it could be something that might stop Mastodon’s momentum in its tracks. Bluesky has full text search. This is not a small thing. @atomicpoet I'm not advocating for discourse but if people reading this (legitimate and needed) thread plan to opt for Bluesky, _please don't_, for your own well-being, and your followers'. This won't end well.  @shlee I mean, full text search already exists on almost every Fediverse server software except vanilla Mastodon. @atomicpoet So does #Akkoma. You can choose between different engines, e.g. ElasticSearch, and it works just fine.
@atomicpoet is it because there is only ONE instance at the moment? When there are more AT protocol implementation instances - hope this still works. @rom Don’t think so. Full text search works on other Fediverse server software. This isn’t something that’s all that technically hard to implement.  @atomicpoet Is the lack of full text search on Mastodon on purpose or due to tech limitations? @atomicpoet@mastodon.social @muiiio@mst.muiiio.com the follower list of a remote user only shows users on the instance where you're active in  @atomicpoet #InVancouver. Problem solved. If no hash, rooter doesn’t care for their stuff to be searchable. @atomicpoet according to @Gargron they have it in their backlog, however it doesn't seem like a priority yet  @atomicpoet "What's Hot" things usually aren't. :) There's a lot of serious stuff in the world, so it makes sense folk would want some humour.  @atomicpoet How many users are on the Beta? Do you think that they are tending to post more vanilla content as they're exploring something new? @atomicpoet I got a query in February in preparation for an invitation, where they asked for my birdsite handle. After that, nothing. Apparently, they do some profiling regarding whom to invite. @hmans AT Protocol is open, which means you could plausibly build your own software and self-host it. But right now, there’s only one instance. It's an interesting design! All things considered, though, I think any comparisons between BlueSky and Mastodon/Fedi should wait until they have more than a single instance. 99% of the perceived complexity here is due to the distributed nature of the network, and the many "BlueSky is like Mastodon minus the complexity" I'm seeing at the moment to me mostly read like "there's only one instance, hooray!" @hmans I agree. Things get much more complicated for Bluesky once one single instance no longer controls everything. @atomicpoet From first glance, seems like they do handles slightly different. Instead of delimiting the user handle and the instance with an @, they blend it in with a period. I see what they are doing there, they're making it so you can easily access a Bluesky account by typing a handle as if it were a URL. That's not a bad approach at all, and would be more intuitive than how ActivityPub services do it. But the problem is, it looks too much like Twitter.  @atomicpoet@mastodon.social #Calckey currently has post import &  @atomicpoet I put my name down for it when they asked, after Elmo took over the dead bird place. Now that I’m settled here, I’m not sure I want to start my profile all over again. AND they have not emailed back to invite me or advise me of whatever is available. Reading your breakdown, I note they have quotes-tweets, and that was the source of so much trolling and hate in the other place. Stalkers and trolls seem far less here. That’s huge.  @atomicpoet I think Mastodon (well, I really mean the fediverse) doesn't have rivals. Sure, there's financially movitated stuff that is similar, but it's not a competition for the fediverse. I believe (hope) the fediverse will continue in some form regardless of whether *new app x* becomes popular or not.
I mean, iirc is still popular yet it still has, in this context, "rivals" |
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@atomicpoet Oh, cool, Jack’s one the best decentralised billionaires. He built Twitter. I’m sure Bluesky will be at least as good if not better.