Post AxEdSEKJsitXWbghyC by hakona@im.alstadheim.no
(DIR) More posts by hakona@im.alstadheim.no
(DIR) Post #AxDme67kuSApzOaKTg by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-08-16T08:12:07Z
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Yeah, I knew some lovely people who worked at Twitter too. And did you know they once had unfettered API access and anyone could create their own client? Some of us loved that so much we built things that helped legitimise them as an open platform. And then one day they just switched that off. Legitimacy is gold to venture-capital-funded startups. They need people with it to convince everyday folks that this latest iteration of the same old rug pull is different. Until they’ve grown so much that they don’t. I guess we haven’t learned that much after all.You want to understand Bluesky? Imagine if Google had invented email and scaled Gmail before allowing others to set up their own email servers, knowing that maybe a handful would and that they were large enough to make the rules ad infinitum. That’s Bluesky.Don’t fall for the latest venture-capital funded Silicon Valley social network no matter who tells you it’s fine and no matter how many words they use to do so. Especially when we’ve had a noncommercial and noncorporate alternative for close to a decade now in the form of the fediverse.I know it’s a low bar but can we please at least get it through our thick heads that venture capital funded Silicon Valley Big Tech does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.#BlueSky #BigTech #ventureCapital https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115034545696148137
(DIR) Post #AxDnqDSXYy4IAUeJJw by ayo@social.ayco.io
2025-08-16T08:18:43Z
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@aral it is almost like a playbook of enshittification. I grew tired of pointing this out
(DIR) Post #AxDrmhsWvHTZAbO6Hw by TCatInReality@mastodon.social
2025-08-16T09:09:35Z
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@aral I would go further and say that venture capital funded Silicon Valley Big Tech is the very worst form of late-stage capitalism ...destroying all other institutions, including democracy, for it's own complete domination.
(DIR) Post #AxDygd1OldpG32aJ2O by audaciousfurry@bark.lgbt
2025-08-16T10:27:05Z
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@aral And if you think you *have* to use bsky because you know people on there (and they won't switch to #Mastodon), you don't, actually. Brid.gy allows you to have your posts bridged to #Bluesky without actually ever having to touch the platform in question.@bsky.brid.gyhttps://fed.brid.gy/
(DIR) Post #AxE3RbIlNa7q8nMP7A by obrhoff@mastodon.social
2025-08-16T11:20:22Z
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@iamkonstantin What is happening? Is Bluesky already turning into the same kind of crap?I mean, it was always obvious with this kind of funding and the incentives that come with it, but yeah, people got addicted to the reach and fell for it again.Luckily it never stuck with me, since I hate this popularity contest for the algorithm.
(DIR) Post #AxEDCfYoGJ7iXzNvNI by gimulnautti@mastodon.green
2025-08-16T13:09:41Z
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@aral Yup. The good old pull-up-the-ladder-you-used-to-climb-behind-you trick!
(DIR) Post #AxENhIIxm6AwwLDMdE by uoou@mas.to
2025-08-16T15:07:19Z
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@aral Literally the only time I hear about Bluesky (or Twitter) is when someone boosts a post like this telling me not to think about Bluesky (or Twitter).It's like The Game for fuck's sake.The rest of us weren't suckered into "building things" for Twitter. And we weren't thinking about Bluesky until you told us not to.
(DIR) Post #AxEQ4dWHGTgPIyhU8m by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-08-16T15:33:57Z
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@uoou Congratulations. Here’s a cookie.
(DIR) Post #AxEQarODESPNaYIFxg by TheFrenchGhosty@libretooth.gr
2025-08-16T15:20:22Z
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@uoou Hard agree.Also @aral it's ironic that you complain about Bluesky doing that with Fedi, when your own project "small web" is literally doing the same with the *actual* small web (sure, it's a "foundation", I'm sure it changes everything, you're definitely not looking for fundings)
(DIR) Post #AxEQas7wUQzJsNgmEy by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-08-16T15:39:46Z
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@TheFrenchGhosty @uoou@mas.to Oh yeah, our tiny not-for-profit is doing exactly the same thing as a venture capital funded Silicon Valley startup with a concept I’ve been championing for a decade. Excellent take, Sherlock.
(DIR) Post #AxEZ3uAykZFIGJSqK8 by gabriel@col.social
2025-08-16T17:14:35Z
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@aral just listened to a recently re-released podcast by the folks at #onTheMedia in which they interview the people and creators at #bluesky . Obviously they defend the argument that the protocol itself is free, so blue sky the company would not be able to enshitify there protocol. (And maybe you have listened to it already, chances are).
(DIR) Post #AxEblvRpaBKCrAStKi by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2025-08-16T17:44:51Z
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@gabriel Indeed. In just the same way that the protocols of the web are free so we don’t have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. And the protocols of email are free so when Gmail says your email address is spam it’s meaningless because you can still email anyone in the world (apart from the three people in Iceland who use Gmail, those losers!) Thankfully, we live in a system where companies that have billions or trillions of dollars and economies of scale have zero advantages as long as the protocols are free.
(DIR) Post #AxEdSEKJsitXWbghyC by hakona@im.alstadheim.no
2025-08-16T18:03:43Z
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@aral Digression: people will insist on qoute-tooting. I'm looking forward to proper support for it. Clicking on that link takes me away from my instance, and my settings, like always expand Content-warnings.
(DIR) Post #AxEdubO1ju1l9Tx0SW by wdjorth@mastodon.online
2025-08-16T18:09:03Z
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@aral I’ve been worried since BS started that its promise of decentralization and independence was never to be realized. That worry only solidified as venture capital became involved in keeping it afloat.
(DIR) Post #AxEflWETjSwKT9HUH2 by marcink@stolat.town
2025-08-16T18:29:31Z
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@aral It feels to me that even calling it “enshittification” is giving them too much, making it sound like it’s a new concept when it’s just a good old long con. Build trust with a large enough group, betray them as soon as it brings enough profit, repeat.
(DIR) Post #AxEqPcFxkndkHEjYXY by noondlyt@hellions.cloud
2025-08-16T20:28:55Z
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@aral They have been this from the outset. So many red flags.
(DIR) Post #AxEr1S3g7PlXeV1s6C by txtechnician@mastodon.social
2025-08-16T20:36:00Z
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@aral Reddit did the same thing.
(DIR) Post #AxF15ttNZdtgg3yKAq by curiously@mastodon.au
2025-08-16T22:28:44Z
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@aral engineering divert all power to the enshitification engine!
(DIR) Post #AxFcehxbcmue6wPSYy by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-08-17T05:29:45Z
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@aral I knew some really nice tech people -- including at least one publicly identifying as an anarchist -- who worked at #Twitter in the fairly distant past. My impression is that they were at the time -- long before the #Musk era -- fairly idealistic about the company (although that certainly faded).