🌐 Beyond Bluesky: The Rise of Decentralized Social Apps

The AT Protocol (ATProto), the open foundation behind Bluesky, is becoming a launchpad for next-gen social apps.

Some standout innovations:
・Flashes: A photo/video-sharing platform reminiscent of classic Instagram
・Spark: A video-first app with livestreaming on the way
・Streamplace: Livestreaming built with cryptographic creator protections
・Graze: Build, customize, and monetize your own social feeds

This signals a shift toward user-owned, open social ecosystems—a strong contrast to walled-garden platforms. Developers, creators, and users alike are embracing interoperability, privacy, and creative freedom.

👉 techcrunch.com/2025/03/30/beyo…

#DecentralizedWeb #ATProtocol #Bluesky #Web3 #SocialMediaInnovation #OpenSource

Beyond Bluesky: These are the apps building social experiences on the AT Protocol | TechCrunch

A year ago, Bluesky was opening up to the public and was known as one of the many X competitors that emerged after Elon Musk acquired the network formerly

^{Sarah Perez (TechCrunch)}

New: Fediverse Report 109

This week, an essay about #Bluesky's proposal for setting user preferences on their accounts. This allows people to indicate how they want their data to be handled off-protocol. I wrote about how the #fediverse can improve on this, using its strengths of many different communities, each with its own culture and values.

Also:
- Next week is the digital conference @fediforum
- A research dataset to compare Threads and Mastodon users

Read at: fediversereport.com/fediverse-…

⚠️ Important info for Bluesky users:

Due to the fact that #Bluesky has the same capitalist revenue model as Twitter/X and Meta, we will soon stop crossposting this channel. Be welcome to follow us directly from Mastodon: joinmastodon.org.

#anarchism

Mastodon - Decentralized social media

Learn more about Mastodon, the radically different, free and open-source decentralized social media platform.

^{joinmastodon.org}

At #ATmosphereConf

atprotocol.dev/atmosphereconf/

atprotocol.dev/atmosphereconf-…

@boris (one of the organizers) is talking in front of the audience. (Boris and I are both from Vancouver.)

I see Fediverse people here. For example, @damon (of We Distribute fame) is sitting next to me.

#ATProto #ATProtocol #DeSo #Bluesky #bsky

ATmosphere Conference

An in-person conference focused on AT Protocol that powers Bluesky and the wider ATmosphere. Join us in Seattle, March 22nd & 23rd.

^{Boris Mann (ATProtocol Dev)}

#Bluesky nominally has the capacity to be decentralized, in practice, it's fully centralized. What led @vortex to call it "federation washing".

But what about #blacksky? Is this a working example of #decentralization of Bluesky?

On the level of technical infrastructure, it's a service built on top of Bluesky, on a social level, it's clearly distinct (different feeds, moderation, social user basis).

In terms of building a space of a large minority community, it seems to have succeeded where Mastodon failed so far,. And it might even be large enough to decentralize the infrastructure as well.

privacy.thenexus.today/decentr…

"Decentralization" and erasure: Blacksky, Bluesky, and the ATmosphere

Part 3 of Bluesky, the ATmosphere, and the fediverses

^{Jon (The Nexus Of Privacy)}

Hey, Surf beta testers! Got a Bluesky account? Now you can link it to Surf and bring your Mastodon and Bluesky communities together in one place.

⚠️ Pro tip: DON’T log out to sign up with Bluesky if you already set up your account! Just head to Settings → Manage Accounts to link it up. You can also choose your primary account for posting there.

#bluesky #mastodon #fediverse

New article in @TheConversationUS from me and @rwg:

theconversation.com/the-fedive…

#fediverse #bluesky #socialmedia

The fediverse promises social media without Big Tech – if it can avoid familiar pitfalls

The fediverse promises an egalitarian, noncommercial alternative to Big Tech for social media, but there’s a lot of work needed to make it work.

^{The Conversation}

Bluesky To Sell Your Content To AI Data Miners

So it begins. Hidden in Jay Graber's recent charm offensive is this innocuously framed initiative: Bluesky is weighing a proposal that gives users consent over how their data is used for AI (techcrunch.com/2025/03/10/blue…)

Not so fast.

1) Shows they are planning on doing content deals with AI companies.
2) Seems like it is Opt-out vs. Opt-in (see below).
3) It is just a voluntary robots.txt file

h/t @Lydie tech.lgbt/@Lydie/1141490233448…

more...

#Bluesky

ℒӱḏɩę

2025-03-12 10:37:48

This is why I deleted my BlueSky the other day. If the question even has to be asked, then the platform is not safe

EDIT: I'm mostly worried about the Federal Nazis scraping our data. At this point I don't give a shit about Microsoft.

techcrunch.com/2025/03/10/blue…

Bluesky is weighing a proposal that gives users consent over how their data is used for AI | TechCrunch

Speaking at the SXSW conference in Austin on Monday, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber says the social network has been working on a framework for user consent over

^{Sarah Perez (TechCrunch)}

I just came across an article that says #Bluesky now supports uploading videos up to 3 minutes long.

Sorry for the extremely newbie question but I wonder what the impact would be on the hypotethical of a self-hosted relay?

In a phenomenal article from last year @cwebber wrote that running a relay in November 2024 required 5 TERABYTES of storage (dustycloud.org/blog/how-decent…)... up from 1 TB in July 2024.

Does video make Bluesky decentralization / self-hosting a relay even more unattainable? 🤔

Just found out about #FreeOurFeeds, a campaign aiming to "free social media from billionaire control". Signed by... millionaires?
freeourfeeds.com

#SocialMedia #Bluesky #ATProto

Free Our Feeds

Let's take social media away from billionaire capture.

^{Free Our Feeds}