In 2023, Bluesky’s CTO Paul Frazee was asked what would happen if Bluesky ever turned against its users. His answer:

it would look something like this: bluesky has gone evil. there’s a new alternative called freesky that people are rushing to. I’m switching to freesky

That’s the same argument people made about Twitter. “If it goes bad, we’ll just leave.” We know how that played out.

  • brian@lemmy.ca
    7·
    7 months ago

    But every counter-argument to the concerns above rests on the same foundation: technically, users can leave. Technically, you can self-host. Technically, you can run your own relay. The capability exists at every layer. But people don’t do these things. They never have with any protocol. Not email, not RSS, not XMPP. The default wins. Always.

    except those explicit examples showing that people do exactly those things?

    • 73ms@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      with XMPP there’s the cautionary tale of Google Talk. For the rest I’m not aware of such an example but email is becoming more centralized than ever and RSS is much less prominent than it once was, mostly replaced by profiles to be followed on closed off platforms.

    • Bob :boost_requested:@social.vivaldi.net
      2·
      7 months ago

      @Lumidaub @cm0002 i think it’s refrence to it is still centralized, so if bluesky won’t the way of twitter then the poster believes they are trapped. I mean there are alternatives within that protocol but there also is mastodon; also you could host the profile on your own server.

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
        1·
        7 months ago

        Accepting this thesis for a moment - okay, and? How does that mean I need to be “wary”?

          • Lumidaub@feddit.org
            1·
            7 months ago

            I mean, if your business somehow relies exclusively on BSky, sure, that’s probably not a good idea. But that’s true for any site that you use for engagement, no matter the underlying technology. I’m confused.

        • 73ms@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          7 months ago

          it means don’t believe their PR about being decentralized, claims about there always being a way out or it being impossible that they’ll turn bad the moment the pressure to start extracting profits becomes a reality.

          • Lumidaub@feddit.org
            1·
            7 months ago

            Because what? They’ll chain me up in their basement and force me to use their platform? Is that what I’m meant to be “wary” of?

            • 73ms@sopuli.xyz
              1·
              7 months ago

              Because presumably you left reddit for a federated alternative to escape something exactly like their platform is likely to become and wouldn’t want to prop up yet another example of that when there are better alternatives.

              • Lumidaub@feddit.org
                1·
                7 months ago

                So now what? What do you want me to do? What does “be wary” mean? Are you concerned for my emotional well-being because I might emotionally invest in a platform and then be very sad in case it goes sideways?