Could someone please explain to me whether Bluesky is decentralized?

[Gæst]

@cwebber

As you may know, having no doubt researched the long history of your family name, a "lemmer" was traditionally someone who worked with lemmings -- most often the trainer in charge of herding them over cliffs to enable dramatic footage for Disney nature "documentaries".

With the passage of time, this practice came to be seen as cruel and inhumane, and agencies dedicated to the preservation of wildlife began training workers to gently and safely capture the lemmers in web-netting and return them to their native habitats -- thus creating the role of "lemmer webber".

(In those days, of course, many individuals were known by their given name plus their role in society; as formal recordkeeping became more ubiquitous, however, these surnames became detached from social roles and were simply inherited. It is thus possible now for, e.g., a person with the last name "Webber" -- in olden times most commonly used for those who created web content or wrote web software -- to be in a profession which has nothing at all to do with the World Wide Web.)

This important part of our natural history is rarely mentioned and yet is essential to an understanding of how we have become a more humane society (until this year, anyway, but that's another story).

#SplainingAsAService #LowQualityFacts

[rcriii@hostux.social]

@cwebber not so much de- as re-centralized. you see bluesky started when a bunch of people were on a plane going to a blues fest and texting each other. Later they decided to create a place to share their wit and bon mots with the world.

[rcriii@hostux.social]

@cwebber but if you are on bluesky you should know this ... Oh I see what you did there you minx!

[paradegrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org]

@cwebber

Christine.

We have talked about this before.

You really need to do your own research, and not ask random strangers on the internet.

Also: you need to stop posting that type of question, because everyone at work is now wondering why I am laughing so hard!

[jdw@cosocial.ca]

@cwebber @quintessence

Voila

https://skylight.social/

[expertenkommision_cyberunfall@mastodon.social]

@cwebber

Define „decentraliced“

This can mean different things.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@expertenkommision_cyberunfall I wil define it

[cwebber@social.coop]

@jdw @quintessence decentralization is saved, thank you

[puppygirlhornypost2@transfem.social]

@cwebber@social.coop yea it's decentralized because arrogant pricks on the internet say so. hope this helps ​​

[Gæst]

@puppygirlhornypost2 @cwebber@social.coop pseudo-centralized in practice

[Gæst]

@cwebber@social.coop It's not decentralized because you can not host your own independent server using the Bluesky "AT Protocol".

I have no sources because it is impossible to prove something that doesn't exists.

[internic@mathstodon.xyz]

@cwebber At the risk of asking a serious question, what's the deal with all these alternative ATProto apps? Are there any that have significant independent infrastructure?

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/04/beyond-bluesky-these-are-the-apps-building-social-experiences-on-the-at-protocol/

I'm guessing that the answer is that they mostly share the same infrastructure and just provide a different AppView and possibly a different lexicon (not sure that's the right term) as far as the data they store and can interact with. But given that I have a very limited understanding of how Bluesky works under the hood, I'd be interested in a (much) more knowledgeable perspective.

[per_sonne@ciberlandia.pt]

@cwebber

It's "decentralized" but only has one, very central, instance.

So...it's like claiming you have a multicoloured pencil box, but with only one blue pencil inside, no other pencils available and no plans to provide them.

[maryjane@social.coletivos.org]

@cwebber Please!Do your own research to find the blogposts you wrote!

[justin@toot.io]

@cwebber it's "semi" bridged to the Fediverse, but it's opt-in I believe, you have to follow the bridge to enable it.

[mishavanmollusq@sfba.social]

@rcriii @cwebber

BlueSky so beyond The Cloud

[philip@mastodon.mallegolhansen.com]

@cwebber I don’t know what “decentralized” means, but I keep hearing about how much fun* bluesky is.

*Fun is limited to those in the good grace of the Turkish government and may be revoked at any time.

[chadarius@twit.social]

@cwebber Being decentralized and have the capability of being decentralized are very different things. Bluesky has the capability of being decentralized. It also works a little bit differently than Mastodon. You see the same feed no matter what instance you use with Bluesky.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@SuperDicq ok thanks, it's too bad there can't be a source though, I thought it was open source

[cwebber@social.coop]

@per_sonne is crayola decentralized though