jakebsky (u/jakebsky)

jakebsky commented on Building Bluesky: A Distributed Social Network newsletter.pragmaticengin... · Posted by u/tosh

jayveeone · 2 years ago

When will we stop perpetuating the lie that BlueSky and AT Proto are open source?

It's not doing much to create the trust needed for this project.

jakebsky · 2 years ago

Why would you think it's not open source?

The reference implementation: https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto

Complete React Native Android/iOS/Web app: https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app

Go libraries: https://github.com/bluesky-social/indigo

PDS distribution: https://github.com/bluesky-social/pds

All dual MIT / Apache 2.0 licensed.

jakebsky commented on Bluesky's stackable approach to moderation bsky.social/about/blog/03... · Posted by u/steveklabnik

BryantD · 2 years ago

I think this is a really good question. Let me offer one possible answer:

It might not be necessary or useful to have multiple aggregators right now. However, I do feel better knowing that if Bluesky the company goes under or changes to a degree where I'm not happy with their decisions, it's possible for someone to stand up a second aggregator.

For that matter, if someone's a free speech absolutist and if they care enough about it to spend the money, they could stand up an aggregator right now with more permissive standards.

jakebsky · 2 years ago

Even at scale, running a Relay should be well within the means of a motivated individual or org that is willing to spend hundreds of dollars per month. Right now it'd cost just tens of dollars per month to run a whole network Relay. Some people are already doing this I believe.

Running an "AppView" (an atproto application aggregator/indexer/API server) is generally an order of magnitude more expensive and complicated. But still not beyond the reach of a user coop, non-profit, or small startup.

So these services should all be well within the capabilities of at least multiple companies operating in the atproto ecosystem as it scales.

And in many cases it should make good sense for these companies to do this since it will improve their performance by colocating their services and enable them to do things like schedule their own maintenance windows, etc.

jakebsky commented on Ozone UI: web interface for atproto labeling services github.com/bluesky-social... · Posted by u/weinzierl

jakebsky · 2 years ago

For anyone interested, more info about Ozone is available here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39684027

jakebsky commented on Enough with the dead butterflies (2017) emilydamstra.com/please-e... · Posted by u/punnerud

josfredo · 2 years ago

I bet no one at Bluesky is aware of this.

jakebsky · 2 years ago

Haha! Pretty sure most people on the team have seen this post, even prior to the logo choice.

Speaking personally, it just strikes me as very pedantic point with not much substance behind it. I do get why this post is "ackchyually" bait though.

jakebsky commented on Bluesky is rolling out Hashtags bsky.app/profile/bsky.app... · Posted by u/ulrischa

whywhywhywhy · 2 years ago

Ex-Twitter devs rolling out a feature that if you used it on Twitter during their reign it would harm your post in the algorithm.

jakebsky · 2 years ago

There are no ex-Twitter devs at Bluesky and only one ex-Twitter employee who started this month.

Custom feeds on Bluesky are federated so that anyone can create a new one using any algorithm they wish. There are already many thousands to choose from.

jakebsky commented on Bluesky announces data federation for self hosters bsky.social/about/blog/02... · Posted by u/jakebsky

ineedaj0b · 2 years ago

What happens when the bots show up? Do they have anything to defend against that?

jakebsky · 2 years ago

Yes, we have an "AutoMod" system and other protections in place. But it is a cat-and-mouse game, so we expect it to be one of the challenges. But because the network is completely open, it's also something anyone who is interested can help with.

jakebsky commented on Bluesky announces data federation for self hosters bsky.social/about/blog/02... · Posted by u/jakebsky

grey_earthling · 2 years ago

What I mean is: where is the website other than bsky.app where I can see content from the network?

jakebsky · 2 years ago

The bsky.app web app is a JavaScript app that runs in a browser. It talks to an AppView (API server) which talks to a Relay which talks to all PDS hosts on the network.

There are other clients for Bluesky that do the same thing as the bsky.app web app: https://docs.bsky.app/showcase?tags=client

jakebsky commented on Bluesky announces data federation for self hosters bsky.social/about/blog/02... · Posted by u/jakebsky

TabTwo · 2 years ago

They only do IPv4, right? At least the only mention v4 addresses on the GitHub page.

jakebsky · 2 years ago

For now, yes, our network services are IPv4 only.

jakebsky commented on Bluesky announces data federation for self hosters bsky.social/about/blog/02... · Posted by u/jakebsky

overstay8930 · 2 years ago

That’s… not what I said. If you want other people to host services (like to federate), it’s going to be pretty impossible for the vast majority of people to actually do it if you only allow IPv4 connections.

You cannot federate behind CGNAT, and most folks can only open ports over IPv6, because they don’t live in America where everyone can get their own public IPv4 address. This is a pretty big miss IMO.

jakebsky · 2 years ago

Okay, I get what you're saying. Yes, hosting a PDS server behind NAT is a problem.

1. The expected scenario is that people would run PDS hosts on small VMs (Digital Ocean, Vultr, AWS, etc) where an IPv4 address is the default.

2. People running PDS hosts behind NAT would use a tunnel service of some kind (Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale Funnel, Ngrok, etc).

But IPv6 is something we do want to support, and it won't be a huge effort. It will just take a bit of time to get to it.

jakebsky commented on Bluesky announces data federation for self hosters bsky.social/about/blog/02... · Posted by u/jakebsky

fiatjaf · 2 years ago

10 months later, this description of Bluesky is still accurate: https://fiatjaf.com/ab1127fb.html

jakebsky · 2 years ago

In fact, it's mostly inaccurate.

> "the protocol has an official webpage with a waitlist and a private beta?"

Both the waitlist and the private beta are gone.

> "The “protocol” is just a description of whatever the Bluesky app and servers do, it can and does change anytime the Bluesky developers decide they want to change it"

1. atproto is well documented and the plan and desire is to make it a proper internet standard.

2. There are hundreds of independent projects relying on the protocol to create alternative clients and custom feeds (algorithms).

3. The protocol includes namespaced schemas so that different apps can evolve without breaking each other e.g. the "app.bsky" namespace is for the Bluesky microblogging app.

> "The “DID Placeholder” method..."

There is already support for did:web and plans to support other DID methods, including potentially (non-POW) blockchain methods.

> "All posts go through the Bluesky central server..."

All posts go through any Relay that anyone cares to operate. It's also possible to fetch posts directly form the origin PDS host, it's just slower and results in more load on the PDS.

> "And you, as a reader, doesn’t have any control of what you’re reading from either..."

Apps are in full control over where they get posts from. An app can enable users to select a Relay/AppView or fetch posts directly from the origin PDS.

> "But I fail to see why even more than one network provider will exist,..."

People may want to operate their own Relay/AppView services so they have more control for their specific application, for higher performance (latency/throughput) reasons, or for geographic/jurisdictional reasons, to name a few.

And the compute/network requirements are not beyond the capabilities of small startups, non-profits, coops, or public services and likely never will be.