Okay, everyone, please chill out. I understand that you’re mad at everyone for not getting your way, but understand that this isn’t how this works. You can’t just bully apps into working the way you want them to work, it requires some effort on your part.

If you’ve never read my work before, hi, I’m Sam. I’m fresh out of college and I work on apps and various media content across the social web. I’m autistic, non-binary (he/they), and asexual and I have a lot of thoughts about the world that end up on this site. I hope you like it!

What’s Going On?

Okay so over the past few weeks Bluesky has been getting into a little bit of trouble with their userbase because of some decisions surrounding moderation of people on their platform. People have noted shortcomings particularly around the trans community, who were very big in cementing Bluesky’s place in the world as it stands now.

My Thoughts

I’m well aware of the danger and the disgusting nature of the content these users are posting and, as someone who is more or less part of the trans community (as someone who was born AMAB, I don’t particularly look like it) I understand. This kind of behavior isn’t tolerable and you shouldn’t stand for it. But Bluesky isn’t necessarily the solution to all of your problems.

The Open Web

The whole point of Bluesky is to be a decentralized experience. It’s not supposed to be only only platform on the network, and it’s not supposed to be the only company in control of the network. Really what it boils down to is: not everything is Bluesky’s problem here. Bluesky gives us the tools for composable moderation—you get to choose what’s happening in your timeline and on your posts, you have that power. If the tools aren’t robust enough or the company isn’t moving fast enough, then someone else is perfectly capable to taking up some of the load.

ATProto and 3rd Party Development

Look, the whole thing here is that Bluesky isn’t the end all be all of this network. There’s supposed to be more happening. The problem is, everyone seems to either not understand this or not care. Anyone is capable of working on building something on this network, not just apps (which you can do on centralized social media as well). Someone could take a whole section of Bluesky (Blacksky, for example) and make that its own platform on the ATProto network and it would all just work together.

Is Bluesky Really Decentralized

Honestly, it’s not. Not yet. There are a few integrations that are being worked on in a few places, but the 3rd party dev community isn’t there. Not like there is for ActivityPub. It’s sad to see because on more than one occasion I’ve seen hostility towards 3rd party projects. This runs completely counter to the whole value proposition of the network: it’s not owned by one company. It’s not necessarily Bluesky’s problem, they’re a small team. If they don’t move fast enough then someone else is perfectly capable of—and encouraged to—pick up the slack. This doesn’t work if you just yell at people. Others have to help. Building the community together actually does require you to work together to actually build the community.

Other Options

I know a great place where you have total control of the moderation of your experience. Where the platform truly isn’t owned by one company and you have the ability to work at your own pace. And if you don’t want to do it yourself, you have the ability to move yourself between platforms and find one that works for you. It’s called Mastodon. It works. Trust me.

Closing Thoughts

Look, if you want this whole thing to work, you’re going to have to put in the effort. Yelling at people isn’t going to solve anything, building new tools will. You can’t just bully a startup into tailoring the timeline to 20 Million different opinions. It just doesn’t work like that. We all have to work together, it’s not all on them to do this. That’s what makes the service resilient, that’s the whole value proposition. Without it, it’s just another Twitter, it’s just another X, it’s just another Facebook. You have to do your part and welcome 3rd party support. Have your own thoughts you want to share? Comment below or talk to me on Mastodon, Threads, or Bluesky. Also feel free to reach out via email.