Jack Dorsey’s decentralized social media platform sounds like it has potential. Here’s the gist of it, from a tech standpoint:
Basically it works like a search engine, where users post content, and any search engine can index it and show the results. So there will be a depository of user posts, and then any website can plug into that and choose which content to surface to their users.
So it could be tweets, pics, etc, on one blockchain, and then different sites with different algos built around that.
Exactly why I asked. I am curious. Unless it is etherum based it will be dead in the water. Being erc 2.0 compatible allows it to become a decentralized banking, loan , gaming and shopping site aswell and plug in NFTs and whatever else the kids think of next.
I don’t think that matters when it comes to success. Lots of social media apps get big without an yof that crap.
I suppose what they’ve released so far is a protocol that is blockchan-agnostic, and could be implemented on any chain with the tech to do it (tho it seems the content would be silo’d to each chain). But if they’re also building their own implementation then it has to be one chain or another, so hmm… I can’t find anything about it
Ah so it doesn’t involve blockchain ?
Lots of folks have looked at creating open platform social media. Nobody has succeeded yet. I think Ethereum L2 protocols could facilitate it somewhat, at least the financial and identity parts. That’s the point of blockchain after all.
Yeah. Or rather, lots of people have made platforms that work, but none have wide-scale adoption. It’s not really clear what value they create that the average user actually cares about
So far, based on a very cursory look, it does not seem to be populated by raging trolling bots. It feels quite different from the current mess that is “X.”
I have no idea if the bots were there in earlier twitter. They are there now though.
As I wrote, I am unsure what twitter looked like before, but now it looks wildly out of control, with user names containing a long string of numbers hurling out homophobic slurs. I can only guess that’s what “free speech” looks like in their current owner’s mind.
Maybe that kind of thing is also on bluesky, but based on cursory browsing I’m not seeing it. I can’t say I miss it.
I only started using Twitter much around 2017-18, so I gather that was after the (apocryphal?) good old days. But yes, Bluesky now is providing a lot of what I used to like on Twitter.
Plus enough of the Taiwan content that had been keeping me on Twitter has now, fortunately, moved over to Bluesky.
Edit: for both services I’ve only ever used the “Following” tab, and very rarely looked at algorithmic feeds. That meant on Twitter my experience was probably better than most, except that many of the people I followed left the site so things started to look pretty empty. This also means I’m not sure what a typical experience is like.
Edit 2: a startling thing about Bluesky at the moment: reading the comments can actually be interesting and not rage-inducing! Apparently that was once true on Twitter, but certainly not by the time I started reading there.
One thing that I really like about Bluesky is that you can block words from your feed. So say there is a politician or war that you do not want occupying your thoughts any more than is necessary. Just mute that name and the politician will largely disappear from your feed so you can focus on stuff you are really interested in like Dunhuang, perl tricks, or bluegrass.
Oh, good tip! I haven’t done that one, but I can see its utility.
Yeah, Bluesky for now is heavily emphasizing letting users manage and control their experience. But I’m not aware of any good third-party apps yet, like what Twitterific used to be.