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I know this is an unpopular thing to say, but I'm broadly skeptical of any federated/decentralized communication network. Email and phones exist for historical

I know this is an unpopular thing to say, but I'm broadly skeptical of any federated/decentralized communication network. Email and phones exist for historical reasons; and both are absolutely infested with scams and spam. I'm not saying that any of the centralized networks are immune from those maladies, but the problems seem to be substantially less challenging on that front.

naasking 4y ago
> and both are absolutely infested with scams and spam. So is Twitter and Instagram and more. Bots and ads. Just peruse fitness channels anywhere for the most blatant shilling you've ever seen.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
paulgb 4y ago
Neither email nor phone anticipated the spam problem at the protocol layer, and solutions have instead been tacked on. At least anecdotally, the solutions mostly work, if slow to gain the adoption throughout the network to make them useful. Even phone spam hasn’t been as bad for me since SHAKEN/STIR became law.
evilos 4y ago
I think in this context, these protocols just makes\ it so that multiple private "bluesky"s can exist and interact. Users can move between being hosted on bluesky or redsky or whatever. So it's like mastadon but with better security/privacy?
tensor 4y ago
Worse, what are you going to do about things like child porn or other highly objectional material? If it's decentralized then you can't block these things. Often advocates of these sorts of things say that the good outweighs the harms, but I don't buy that it's really that simple. Imagine if its your kid that has objectional material posted without their consent. Now you have no way of removing it even if it's against your local laws? This isn't the sort of balance we need.
- wmf 4y ago
  You remove illegal material by finding the server, physically seizing it, and arresting the people who run it.
Scharkenberg 4y ago
> I know this is an unpopular thing to say That's actually the mainstream opinion outside politically-charged/weird nerd circles.

naasking 4y ago

> and both are absolutely infested with scams and spam. So is Twitter and Instagram and more. Bots and ads. Just peruse fitness channels anywhere for the most blatant shilling you've ever seen.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

paulgb 4y ago

Neither email nor phone anticipated the spam problem at the protocol layer, and solutions have instead been tacked on. At least anecdotally, the solutions mostly work, if slow to gain the adoption throughout the network to make them useful. Even phone spam hasn’t been as bad for me since SHAKEN/STIR became law.

evilos 4y ago

I think in this context, these protocols just makes\ it so that multiple private "bluesky"s can exist and interact. Users can move between being hosted on bluesky or redsky or whatever. So it's like mastadon but with better security/privacy?

tensor 4y ago

Worse, what are you going to do about things like child porn or other highly objectional material? If it's decentralized then you can't block these things. Often advocates of these sorts of things say that the good outweighs the harms, but I don't buy that it's really that simple. Imagine if its your kid that has objectional material posted without their consent. Now you have no way of removing it even if it's against your local laws? This isn't the sort of balance we need.

wmf 4y ago
You remove illegal material by finding the server, physically seizing it, and arresting the people who run it.

Scharkenberg 4y ago

> I know this is an unpopular thing to say That's actually the mainstream opinion outside politically-charged/weird nerd circles.