Been reading up on the #BlueSky hype train. I am really confused.
They claim BlueSky is supposed to be "#open" and "#federated" but then why didn't they just join #Mastodon or contribute to #ActivityPub? Making a new app I can 100% understand but also making a brand new protocol? WHY?
I'm not sure how "open" BlueSky really is (their recent plans to monetize features are very #sus) but either way, BlueSky and its protocol feel like a gigantic Not Invented Here syndrome. 🙄
@Wuzzy there are extremely good answers to your question.
#BlueSky operates in a way that is fundamentally different from #ActivityPub, in ways that address many of the criticisms that users and developers have when they are using platforms like #Mastodon.
These differences are so fundamental that it's not like BlueSky developers could have just taken AP and offered some patches to improve it.
They made a brand new protocol because their approach differed so markedly from the AP approach.
People do debate over which approach is better, and people can have strong feelings about one approach being much better than the other, but the strength of those feelings just emphasizes how fundamentally different they are.
It's akin to gas versus electric cars. EV car makers couldn't just make small tweaks to existing gas engines; rather they had to go a completely different direction with the electric motor instead.
@volkris This explains it.
I remain skeptical because of stuff like their announcement they want to add paid-for features in the app which isn't realistically possible in free software in many cases. Makes me doubt their intentions.
Also, federation currently only exists on paper AFAIK. Too much centralized power atm.
But I admit, the technical thought process behind this is interesting.
I guess I just wait and see how it develops.