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Interesting idea, but I'm not sure it's gonna work in the long run. There is a key difference between reddit / forums and bsky / other apps like it. Forums are

Interesting idea, but I'm not sure it's gonna work in the long run. There is a key difference between reddit / forums and bsky / other apps like it. Forums are many to many, and the focus is around community. Someone (doesn't really matter who) posts something, and lots of people comment. You go there to read the voices of many people. Bsky / birdapp on the other hand focus on one to many. The person posting matters the most, and the commenters are usually "followers" or people interested in what one person has to say. It's a key difference IMO, and the main reason I like forums and heavily dislike the twitter-style apps. I want to read the voices of many, not the voices of few "influencers". You can make it look like a forum, but it's still gonna be focused on the voices of few. That being said, with reddit going crazy over the last few years (and especially this last election cycle), I'm open to suggestions on new places to try that focus on forum-style discussions.

Gualdrapo 2y ago
There's Lemmy and nostr, for example. But I absolutely agree that the individual-centered social media is as toxic as it can be. Forum-style social media is just a bit less toxic but can be more constructive since it's centered about community and ideas rather than particular individuals/personas.
nastoy 2y ago
Agreed and there's also the problem that on Bluesky, one user blocking another means that the thread of conversation gets broken for everyone else who may read it. See e.g. https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/7021 https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/7021 > As it stands, if 20 people are involved in a discussion, and ONE single person decides to block someone, then all of a sudden, the 19 other people in the discussion (+ any other viewers) are now inconvenienced simply because one person had an issue with someone else. > Bluesky does have a bit of a block culture, and as such, this issue is only going to get worse and worse, and threads are going to get harder and harder to read and follow as more and more people get blocked. Trying to create a Reddit-like experience around this limitation would be very difficult, as the thread breakage is done server-side so the clients don't even get enough info to reconstruct the conversation.
- lukev 2y ago
  I haven't looked at how Threadsky does it, and I don't want to weigh in on the merits of different approaches. But blocking in ATProto happens at the application (AppView) layer. A different application can absolutely make different choices from the Bluesky app about how blocking works and is displayed.
  - taurknaut 2y ago
    Presumably you still need server code to prevent blocked users from interacting with each other, no?
    - lukev 2y ago
      If I block you, then my client will prevent me from seeing your records. There's nothing at the protocol level that prevents you from seeing my records, even when blocked, because all records are public. Anyone (even without an account) can see everyone else's records. Well behaved clients are guided not to show posts to a blocked user, but this is a developer norm to enhance user experience all around -- seeing posts from someone who blocked you generally doesn't do anyone any good. But the protocol fully lets you build a client that shows you exactly who has blocked you and what they're posting.
      - taurknaut 2y ago
        Right, but there's more to blocking than content filtering (which is more akin to muting in twitter nomenclature). It should also restrict the blocked person from interacting with my content. At least that's what I'd expect (and I suspect most would).
- taurknaut 2y ago
  I'm struggling to come up with what intent this behavior was supposed to perform. I block probably one person every other thread. I don't block you because I had some kind of conflict, I blocked you because I don't like what you tweet and I don't want to see it and it's not clear what "not interested" actually does. Why this would impact anyone other than whom I'm blocking is perplexing. I certainly can't vouch for what they want to see and whom they want to interact with.

Gualdrapo 2y ago

There's Lemmy and nostr, for example. But I absolutely agree that the individual-centered social media is as toxic as it can be. Forum-style social media is just a bit less toxic but can be more constructive since it's centered about community and ideas rather than particular individuals/personas.

nastoy 2y ago

Agreed and there's also the problem that on Bluesky, one user blocking another means that the thread of conversation gets broken for everyone else who may read it. See e.g. https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/7021 https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/7021 > As it stands, if 20 people are involved in a discussion, and ONE single person decides to block someone, then all of a sudden, the 19 other people in the discussion (+ any other viewers) are now inconvenienced simply because one person had an issue with someone else. > Bluesky does have a bit of a block culture, and as such, this issue is only going to get worse and worse, and threads are going to get harder and harder to read and follow as more and more people get blocked. Trying to create a Reddit-like experience around this limitation would be very difficult, as the thread breakage is done server-side so the clients don't even get enough info to reconstruct the conversation.

lukev 2y ago
I haven't looked at how Threadsky does it, and I don't want to weigh in on the merits of different approaches. But blocking in ATProto happens at the application (AppView) layer. A different application can absolutely make different choices from the Bluesky app about how blocking works and is displayed.
- taurknaut 2y ago
  Presumably you still need server code to prevent blocked users from interacting with each other, no?
  - lukev 2y ago
    If I block you, then my client will prevent me from seeing your records. There's nothing at the protocol level that prevents you from seeing my records, even when blocked, because all records are public. Anyone (even without an account) can see everyone else's records. Well behaved clients are guided not to show posts to a blocked user, but this is a developer norm to enhance user experience all around -- seeing posts from someone who blocked you generally doesn't do anyone any good. But the protocol fully lets you build a client that shows you exactly who has blocked you and what they're posting.
    - taurknaut 2y ago
      Right, but there's more to blocking than content filtering (which is more akin to muting in twitter nomenclature). It should also restrict the blocked person from interacting with my content. At least that's what I'd expect (and I suspect most would).
taurknaut 2y ago
I'm struggling to come up with what intent this behavior was supposed to perform. I block probably one person every other thread. I don't block you because I had some kind of conflict, I blocked you because I don't like what you tweet and I don't want to see it and it's not clear what "not interested" actually does. Why this would impact anyone other than whom I'm blocking is perplexing. I certainly can't vouch for what they want to see and whom they want to interact with.