/blog

Dave Winer blogged a response to Colin Devroe's post on Mastodon.

Colin stated:

I wouldn’t hold our breath that Bluesky will ever make the tech decisions we would want

Among Dave's points was this:

Maybe they can come up with something better organized and with more consistent interfaces. But the web doesn't work that way. Once it embraces a method of doing something, it goes on, and doesn't reconsider.

I replied to Dave on Bluesky (of course 😆) with the following:

From my perspective, a non-developer who just tinkers, the problem with always reinventing things is that it makes it exponentially harder to interop.

Every new "solution" tries to be more clever than the last, meaning we have to integrate more complex solutions when "simple" could achieve the same.

We have an abundance of standards that have served the web well for decades.

Surely the more intelligent thing is to find ways to do more with what we have, novel implementations, so that anyone with an existing appreciation can hook in using any language/platform.

ATProto is an open and extensible protocol upon which anyone can build. Many already have. Different apps can interact with the same data and use the same identify information no matter where you are.

Someone can even host their own PDS (Personal Data Server) and still interact with the 'network' of apps as though native.

This does not, however, mean that Bluesky is a decentralised social media platform. It could be, but currently remains centralised on Bluesky's servers.

My point above about using any language or platform is in regards to hosting the components required for full decentralisation. PDS, relays, AppViews, etc.

Relays and AppViews are complex and incredibly resource intensive, meaning they are beyond the reach of individuals. There are options like Blacksky, but this is intended for communities.

Developing a new protocol adds an additional layer of complexity. All common web-related languages have built-in functions or libraries to publish and consume data via established standards and protocols.

The choice of language or environment should not be forced upon people just so they can join in.