Bluesky and Mastodon users are debating whether to connect the two decentralized social networks. The sarcastic GitHub comments hide serious code issues that might change the internet.
The oldest decentralized social app is Mastodon. Mastodon has 8.7 million users after growing last year as individuals sought an alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter. Bluesky gained 1.5 million members in a few days after opening to the public last week, increasing its total to 4.8 million.
Bluesky is about to federate its AT Protocol, allowing anyone to set up a server and create their own social network using the open source software. Since each server can communicate with the others, users will only need one account across all the social networks on the protocol. Mastodon utilizes ActivityPub; therefore, Bluesky and Mastodon users cannot naturally interact.
A few Mastodon users enjoy it that way.
Software engineer Ryan Barrett learned this the hard way when he tried to link AT Protocol and ActivityPub with Bridgy Fed.
The debate recalls the early 2000s blogging culture, when individuals worried about Google indexing their deepest thoughts and sentiments. These bloggers wanted their postings to be public so they could build communities on LiveJournal with like-minded individuals, but they didn’t want their private thoughts to be read.
Barrett is not affiliated with Mastodon or Bluesky, but third-party developers may build on the open-source protocols. Mastodon users heard about Barrett’s initiative and criticized it as the Bluesky Federation approached.
Barrett wanted to make the bridge opt-out by default, so public Mastodon postings may appear on Bluesky without the author knowing and vice versa. The opt-out default dispute, which one Bluesky user termed “the funniest github issue page I have ever seen,” featured false legal threats and weird personal assaults.
Barrett has worked on projects like Bridgy for 12 years, but he’s never had such a strong response.
Barrett told Eltrys, “It hasn’t been easy the last couple of days, being the main character of the fediverse.” Mastodon users may worry about their posts appearing in unexpected locations, but he understands.
“A lot of the people there, especially longtime members, came from more traditional centralized social networks and were mistreated and abused there, so they came looking for and tried to put together a safer, smaller, and more controlled space,” Barrett said. “They expect consent for everything with their data.”
A prevalent misperception is that the bridge would instantly combine Bluesky and Mastodon. That’s not how technology works.
Barrett said some people believe that when the bridge is online, every Fediverse post will be visible on Bluesky and vice versa, and the bridge proactively grabs them and shoves them over in both directions. “That only happens when someone first requests to follow a person across the bridge.”
With constructive GitHub comments, Barrett built a “discoverable opt-in.” Users on either side of the bridge must request to follow accounts from across the bridge, and then they will get a one-time pop-up asking whether they want their accounts connected.
The most fervent Mastodon and Bluesky enthusiasts are already fighting for the open web. As decentralized social networks grow increasingly widespread, how various ecosystems on different protocols interact might shape the future internet era.
Mastodon supporters have always doubted Bluesky. Mastodon, a charity, isn’t owned by a major business that wants to please its investors, unlike Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Bluesky was first backed by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Bluesky is now a distinct business from Twitter. Despite being on its board, Dorsey is more interested in Nostr, another decentralized technology he supports.
Dorsey was strike one for anti-establishment Mastodonians. Strike two occurred when Bluesky created its own protocol instead of utilizing ActivityPub. Before strike three, Bridgy Fed debates were like foul tips.
Mastodon has a more serious culture than Bluesky. Platform leaders cause some of these disparities.
“The whole philosophy has been that this needs to have a good UX and be a good experience,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told a panel last month. People don’t only like decentralization and abstract notions. They’re here to have fun.”
Mastodon adoptees typically join because they like its technology. They occasionally take offense to Bluesky (the firm) establishing a new protocol instead of merging with ActivityPub since they believe in it so strongly. Even ActivityPub co-author Evan Prodromou dislikes Bluesky.
“The best thing that [Bluesky] can do for its users is implement ActivityPub to connect to the millions of users on the fediverse,” Prodromou said on Instagram Threads, which promises to enable ActivityPub interoperability.
As these federated social networks grow, Bridgy Fed’s ideological difficulties will certainly fuel strife. Eventually, Meta’s Threads app will interact with ActivityPub networks like Mastodon. ActivityPub is also backed by Flipboard and Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and Tumblr. These links to Threads, which has 130 million active users, may be more dangerous than a third-party Bluesky bridge for Mastodon users who wish to stay away from conventional social networks.
Barrett is keeping Bridgy Fed ready for Bluesky’s federation. His short spell as the “main character of the fediverse” solidified his safety emphasis.
“I am thinking and feeling deeply that however content moderation works on either side of the bridge, it needs to be at least as good as for native Fediverse users, and vice versa,” Barrett stated. “I am liable if I publish this.”
Bluesky and Mastodon users are fighting over social media’s future.
