Brutkey

Cassandra is only carbon now
@xgranade@wandering.shop

For one thing, Bluesky is an American PBLLC, not a German NPO. There's a lot more room for extraction in PBLLC structures.

For another, Mastodon does not own or control the spec to ActivityPub the way Bsky does to ATProto.

It's true that Mastodon has an outsized influence on AP, in that implementers have to worry not just about the spec, but bugs in Mastodon's implementation, but it's still an important distinction.

Cassandra is only carbon now
@xgranade@wandering.shop

But perhaps the biggest difference comes from the power dynamics. When Bsky backs people like Singal and Vance, that affects not just a plurality of ATProto users, but the near-entirety. When a user locks their skeets (again, ew), it's specifically a Bluesky-the-PBLLC account I need to interact with them.

Bluesky-the-company has far, far more control over ATProto users than Mastodon-the-nonprofit has over ActivityPub users.

Cassandra is only carbon now
@xgranade@wandering.shop

There's a reason I look askance at the widespread adoption of Bluesky-the-company's product. Because it is a product, and a corporate one at that.

I remember when Google used to make money by doing nice things for the open web, when Twitter played well with Instagram, when the tech companies of yore saw value in playing nice. I also remember what happened next.

Cassandra is only carbon now
@xgranade@wandering.shop

I bridge, and I don't block on bridging. I laud that Bluesky is doing more than the average startup to uphold the open web. But I also have precisely zero trust that they'll keep doing that once they've got enough market power.

I've said before, I don't even think ill of Graber et al (aside from the Singal thing, that was heinous). My unease is about power structures, not individuals.