Scoop: #WSocial has been experiencing major technical problems for over a week: it is effectively a ghost town, filled with thousands of new accounts that cannot use the platform.

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@_elena Thank you for this well researched article! It’s almost funny to see how at more or less every turn something in the „decentralised“ ATProto ecosystem turns out to be under control of BlueSky. #WhereIsMySurprisedFace

[dzwiedziu@mastodon.social]

@_elena
> some W Social user complaints on X

How you know when you have truly failed.

@jwildeboer

[dergiga@troet.cafe]

@_elena I felt it got almost too much trash talking, because I never saw a danger that sane persons would join W-Social.
But I was always looking forward for some funny podcast episodes analysing this f
dumpster fire.
Lots of popcorn potential, though it shows a sad state of EU digital governance.

[vinterkarusell@saga.garden]

@_elena this is just getting better and better.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

Two pieces of good news for W Social:

1) I may have found the problem that has bricked their network for the past week.

2) This may very well be the LAST article I ever write about them. It's exhausting and stressful and I want to retire from this beat and go back to promoting the Fediverse.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. And to my trusted source (a Fedi friend) who found and shared with me brilliant gems: THANK YOU! It's been a real honor collaborating with you ️

[kielkontrovers@norden.social]

@_elena maybe their whole code is vibecoded, so nobody can fix it?

[paulk@writing.exchange]

@_elena
To speak with Neytiri from Avatar:
"This is sad. Very sad only."

Well done!

[johan@social.codefor.nl]

@kielkontrovers @_elena wouldn't be a first, and wouldn't suprise me either

[luca@sironi.xyz]

@leanderlindahl @_elena

Leave alone, for God sake which #atproto server they use.
They could eventually change it.

Somehow I don't feel like those high ethereal have for real an app on their phone, and they post personally.
They will have a social media manager or someone in care of their social media presence.
Which drive to another question.

Why don't they have an account on their @ec.social-network.europa.eu ?
It's money already 'spent'.
Crossposter services do exist.

[miquel@dice.camp]

@kielkontrovers @_elena it's a fork of bluesky sourcecode, which probably none of them really understands

[disisdeguey@expressional.social]

@_elena LOL

[aleksei@social.fakeplastictrees.ee]

@_elena I guess I need another coffee because I don't understand how can a Bluesky relay have any impact on a platform that is "owned, run, and hosted in Europe."

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@aleksei they only host their PDS in Europe. From their FAQ:

"W operates European owned infrastructure for key parts of its service, including Personal Data Server infrastructure, moderation services and other platform components. W is also developing and operating its own AppView infrastructure. During the public beta, however, some user experiences and services may continue to rely on shared or third-party AT Protocol infrastructure, including components originally developed by Bluesky..."

[datterich@darmstadt.social]

@_elena I believe their devs are busy on some algorithm and don't have time for troubleshooting. It's something like:

showReplyNumbers = realReplyNumbers^3;
showBoostNumbers = realBoostNumbers^4;
showLikesNumbers = realLikesNumbers * 3;

Currently, they are working to add some sort of random(); to make it look less obvious while their management intensifies marketing efforts.

/1!11

[plantagolabs@mastodon.social]

@_elena Thank you for your reporting on how much of a dumpster fire W social is.

I also think it would be a good thing that you take a much needed break from it. The toxic fumes do harm the brain.

Health first

[aubreydelosdestinos@101010.pl]

@_elena @74 This is gold.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@aleksei yes! and the platform was bricked when user 1859 registered... so it's been unusable for a full week for 3100+ users out of 5000

[hyblon@social.vivaldi.net]

@_elena Schadenfreude my old friend...

[hyblon@social.vivaldi.net]

@leanderlindahl @_elena well VDL and Lagarde endorsing this was the “red flag” as they say these days.

[aubreydelosdestinos@101010.pl]

@_elena @74 Honestly, I gave up when I saw they verify users with an ID. That's my personal uncrossable line.

As a project, it's especially embarrassing when they could have just used Fedi. Which is a more ideological reason I'm not gonna bother with WSocial.