This content is originally from my own blog. Check it out here!

Intro

Hi I'm a nobody telling everyone that they should behave. OK, for real now, while on Bluesky I get constantly annoyed or depressed by what I see. Constant moderation problems, begging for features, protocol talk. I'm genuinely tired, so I'm writing this for peace of mind. Please read to the end and be respectful, if I'm wrong just tell me like you would to a normal human person.

America

We're starting from the big fish, aren't we? We all know what is happening in the United States of A in the year of our lord and saviour Luigi Mario 2025. A lot of people say that the government accounts should be banned, but if you think about it, banning those accounts is declaration of "war". The current administration has a tendency to go after people or companies that don't fit their political view. The fact that Bluesky is USA-based doesn't help. There is no world where it would be a good choice to do it, no matter where you lie on the political spectrum. The priority is building the platform and the protocol, and getting your company vaporized doesn't fit those goals. They aren't big enough to not care what some government says to them. From what I see, they limit themselves to what could realistically hurt them. It might not be nice, but there is no other choice.

Moderation

Death threats are bad. Yea, I know, crazy take! Some people do think that saying someone should stop existing is acceptable. I think we on the Internet just got so desensitized to that, but none of us (at least most) wouldn't say that to someone IRL. We stopped thinking of other people being on the other side and how that affects them. You may say, "they are bad people, they deserve it", but they can also say that, and it all becomes a vicious cycle of toxicity. I like that one Markiplier video, where he says "treat people with respect", and it's not just those who you like, he says everyone. This doesn't mean you need to like everyone, just treat them like people. "Treat others how you want to be treated" type shit.

Now that we have that checked, let's go to roasting Bsky mods. Make better tools, give better context and reasoning, and be consistent. I'm not deep into Bsky's moderation tooling, but from what I've heard it needs improving. For example, recently they added a distinction between Bsky and PDS. That's bad (because it's so late). Additionally I firsthand saw how one account basically got sent to limbo, because it needed to be checked. That's not clear at all, you basically go online one day and for no reason your account is gone, because mod needs to check if it's ok? WTF!? Also I think e-mails don't get sent sometimes, and if they do they lack context. No clue how bad it is, cause I could never do anything wrong, tehee~, but if there are issues, please fix them, don't make more problems.

"But the protocol..."

Literally every time Bsky posts something it's constant begging for features and people explaining why that can't be done, because of the PROTOCOL. I do understand most of the requests. I myself wanted bookmarks for a while. Where communication goes wrong is that Bluesky is not just a Twitter clone, but a Twitter clone that wants you to own your data. That's the whole point of the ATProtocol and why some things can't be done for now. The Twitter clone wasn't even meant to exist, but it does and it got attention. What some are asking can be reasonable and easy in other places, but not here. It has to fit into the system that is used and replacing it is not something they will do. Devs care about you being able to move, if you don't trust them, but people just want another Twitter. Why need all that decentralization bs? Honestly, even if I'm not full decentralized mode myself, I still see the vision and I like what's being done, hell that's one of my hyperfixations at this point. First-party support for custom clients, doing whatever you want with data on your account and services respecting that, interoperability between services, free data hosting for your users.

Conclusion

I'm tired, that's the conclusion. I'm not expecting to change anyone's mind. On the contrary, I expect being yelled at. But if you want a more thought provoking conclusion: Yelling on the Internet won't fix all the problems. Idk insert T.H.I.N.K acronym here or something. Honestly just go watch that Markiplier video.