3 ms·

> So ironically I see far less reason for identity portability in that ecosystem since (to my knowledge) the server you're using doesn't have much of an impact

by lapcat 4y ago

> So ironically I see far less reason for identity portability in that ecosystem since (to my knowledge) the server you're using doesn't have much of an impact on your experience. One of the biggest reasons why people change Mastodon instances is because the instance shuts down. I had to do an emergency switch because my instance admin went AWOL, and it was breaking down technically. In other cases, the admins decide they don't want do run an instance anymore, for whatever reason. If posts could be migrated on Bluesky, that would be a vast improvement over Mastodon.

BaseballPhysics 4y ago
You are right, that is definitely one very good reason why many people move (though in the Mastodon world, I would argue it's probably not the biggest reason outside of weird events like the shutdown of mastodon.lol), and in the Bluesky world, probably the primary reason (since there's no concept of local moderation or community policies that you might disagree with, thereby leading to an instance switch).
- lapcat 4y ago
  > I would argue it's probably not the biggest reason outside of weird events like the shutdown of mastodon.lol A number of such events have occurred. I haven't actually heard of anyone moderated off an instance (aside from spammers), but maybe I hang with the "wrong" crowd for that.
  - BaseballPhysics 4y ago
    It absolutely happens. Eh, tbh though, I don't know why I was arguing that point, it really doesn't matter one way or another. You absolutely identified a very good reason to want to switch instances, and why account portability has value in the Bluesky world. I wish ActivityPub had a better solve for this, but unfortunately a true federated model makes that awfully difficult (since the entire ecosystem has to update its view of where posts are located). Similarly, if I'm in a length email exchange with a friend on Gmail, and then I move to another service, there's no way to update my friend's account to "rewrite" those emails to point to the new service. It's a deep limitation in the model itself. The only question is whether the tradeoff is worth it (and, to me, it is).
    - brundolf 4y ago
      Another very cool decision they made for AT Protocol/Bluesky is making user identity domain name-based. So you can just sign up as a subdomain of eg .bsky.social, but you can also bring in a custom domain name. This neatly solves identity-portability and even trust/verification in one swoop (you can also change which domain your bsky profile is identified by, which, I'm not quite sure how that works at a protocol level but it is possible)
      - giantrobot 4y ago
        > This neatly solves identity-portability and even trust/verification in one swoop Until you lose control of the domain for any number of reasons and then whoever buys it happily continue on as you. A simple credit card processing problem can lose your "identity" at some point in the future.
        kuchta 4y ago
        Actually the domain (handle) resolves to your DID which is you primary identifier and which contains your public key and without coresponding private key, nobody would be able to happily continue as you... See: https://atproto.com/guides/identity https://atproto.com/guides/identity. It would be better though if the DID didn't contain the link back to the domain, so that you could continue with your identity under different domain...
        brundolf 4y ago
        The same is true if you use a custom domain for email, for your company's servers, for any number of other critical things. It's no different (and arguably those other things are more catastrophic than losing control of a social media profile) Also, to emphasize, regular people who don't do those other things don't have to roll a custom domain on bsky (and are unlikely to). But eg. if NPR wants to make a bsky account under @npr.org, that's really quite good verification that it's "the real NPR account", and then nobody has to deal with any of the politics around verification which have become a dumpster-fire on twitter since Musk took over

by lapcat 4y ago

BaseballPhysics 4y ago

You are right, that is definitely one very good reason why many people move (though in the Mastodon world, I would argue it's probably not the biggest reason outside of weird events like the shutdown of mastodon.lol), and in the Bluesky world, probably the primary reason (since there's no concept of local moderation or community policies that you might disagree with, thereby leading to an instance switch).

lapcat 4y ago
> I would argue it's probably not the biggest reason outside of weird events like the shutdown of mastodon.lol A number of such events have occurred. I haven't actually heard of anyone moderated off an instance (aside from spammers), but maybe I hang with the "wrong" crowd for that.
- BaseballPhysics 4y ago
  It absolutely happens. Eh, tbh though, I don't know why I was arguing that point, it really doesn't matter one way or another. You absolutely identified a very good reason to want to switch instances, and why account portability has value in the Bluesky world. I wish ActivityPub had a better solve for this, but unfortunately a true federated model makes that awfully difficult (since the entire ecosystem has to update its view of where posts are located). Similarly, if I'm in a length email exchange with a friend on Gmail, and then I move to another service, there's no way to update my friend's account to "rewrite" those emails to point to the new service. It's a deep limitation in the model itself. The only question is whether the tradeoff is worth it (and, to me, it is).
  - brundolf 4y ago
    Another very cool decision they made for AT Protocol/Bluesky is making user identity domain name-based. So you can just sign up as a subdomain of eg .bsky.social, but you can also bring in a custom domain name. This neatly solves identity-portability and even trust/verification in one swoop (you can also change which domain your bsky profile is identified by, which, I'm not quite sure how that works at a protocol level but it is possible)
    - giantrobot 4y ago
      > This neatly solves identity-portability and even trust/verification in one swoop Until you lose control of the domain for any number of reasons and then whoever buys it happily continue on as you. A simple credit card processing problem can lose your "identity" at some point in the future.
      - kuchta 4y ago
        Actually the domain (handle) resolves to your DID which is you primary identifier and which contains your public key and without coresponding private key, nobody would be able to happily continue as you... See: https://atproto.com/guides/identity https://atproto.com/guides/identity. It would be better though if the DID didn't contain the link back to the domain, so that you could continue with your identity under different domain...
      - brundolf 4y ago
        The same is true if you use a custom domain for email, for your company's servers, for any number of other critical things. It's no different (and arguably those other things are more catastrophic than losing control of a social media profile) Also, to emphasize, regular people who don't do those other things don't have to roll a custom domain on bsky (and are unlikely to). But eg. if NPR wants to make a bsky account under @npr.org, that's really quite good verification that it's "the real NPR account", and then nobody has to deal with any of the politics around verification which have become a dumpster-fire on twitter since Musk took over