4 ms·

Some more background and a user report of the migration process: https://gregpak.net/2025/11/13/how-and-why-i-moved-from-a-bluesky-server-to-a-blacksky-server/

by pjc50 8mo ago

Some more background and a user report of the migration process: https://gregpak.net/2025/11/13/how-and-why-i-moved-from-a-bluesky-server-to-a-blacksky-server/ https://gregpak.net/2025/11/13/how-and-why-i-moved-from-a-bl... Crucially, the purpose of Blacksky is to provide a service for the (US) black community which has its own moderation decisions while being substantially interoperable. (Remember, the reasons people use one social network rather than another are almost always social first and technical second, where the social functions are enabled or hindered by the technology)

slopinthebag 8mo ago
> Crucially, the purpose of Blacksky is to provide a service for the (US) black community which has its own moderation decisions while being substantially interoperable. What are the differences between Bluesky and Blacksky? What does it mean to provide different services for the black community?
- beepbooptheory 8mo ago
  https://docs.blacksky.community/list-of-our-services https://docs.blacksky.community/list-of-our-services
  - slopinthebag 8mo ago
    > The main Blacksky feed and platform are exclusively for Black people. Non-Black people cannot create accounts to post on Blacksky. Fascinating edit: before people take it the wrong way, I mean it's fascinating in that I've never seen these type of moderation policies before. I've seen plenty of communities about cultures (i.e. Ukrainian discord servers), but not around Race and not exclusionary to outsiders. I'm not making a moral judgement here.
    - OneDeuxTriSeiGo 8mo ago
      Yeah it's worth noting that blacksky provides accounts to non-black users but their posts don't get included in the blacksky feed. And non-blacksky PDS users who are confirmed black still are allowed to be included in the blacksky feed. So it's multiple components really. - The blacksky feed which is a curated feed and community built around the US black community on atproto. - The blacksky client, appview, moderation team, and relay which provide the necessary infrastructure for blacksky to operate independent of the rest of the ecosystem if they need to and for them to tailor their experience to their community. - The blacksky PDS which serves as a source of truth for data storage and auth for blacksky users that choose to use it. And of course non-black users can use all of this infrastructure but if you aren't black and you want to host your account on a blacksky PDS you have to pay a small subscription/donation. It's all for their community but they are more than willing to let other people use their infra as long as those people pay their fair share.
      - arrowsmith 8mo ago
        Not that I’m going to do it myself, but what’s to stop a non-black person from signing up? Do you verify people’s identities?
        tptacek 8mo ago
        I assume it's mostly the same thing that keeps non-Catholics from taking communion at Catholic mass.
        julianlam 8mo ago
        tasteless wafers?
        tptacek 8mo ago
        In the sense that there's no upside to violating the norm, yeah, that too.
        knowtheory 8mo ago
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
illithid0 8mo ago
That post isn't very clear about what specifically happened on BlueSky that made the author move, and I can't see the full thread he links without having a BlackSky account. What moderation decisions were made regarding this "Link" user that were suspect, using the post author's word?
- seltzered_ 8mo ago
  My perspective of that situation is Link was a fairly popular poster, and had a post that was a quote post of someone from the Bluesky team with an image of an assassinated figure and an alt text that couldve been perceived as a threat to the bluesky team. Some commentary ( https://bsky.app/profile/mackuba.eu/post/3m2jtzlznu22o https://bsky.app/profile/mackuba.eu/post/3m2jtzlznu22o ). IIRC it came during a week of discourse & tensions around bluesky moderation concerning some controversial writers ( https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team/post/3m25esnq4t22y https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team/post/3m25esnq4t22y ) I share this just to be helpful a tiny bit but theres likely a lot of context missing and different perspectives on this.
- knowtheory 8mo ago
  There are a lot of misunderstandings about what Blacksky is assuming that it's a just a community fork of Bluesky. The Blacksky team has a much broader vision for which they decided ATProto was the right architecture. There's a lot more to read about them up on their site: https://blackskyweb.xyz/ https://blackskyweb.xyz/
TacticalCoder 8mo ago
[flagged]
- erxam 8mo ago
  [flagged]
- minitech 8mo ago
  - “yellow” is a racist adjective for asians, “black” is not a racist adjective for black people - there is no “white community” in the US to make the equivalent to “black community” so you can’t really draw any useful conclusions from how string replacement on this sentence makes you feel
  - amazingamazing 8mo ago
    > - “yellow” is a racist adjective for asians, “black” is not a racist adjective for black people the term black historically was used and originated in a racist manner.
    - Angostura 8mo ago
      I suspect contemporary usage is most relevant here, no?
      - deleted 8mo ago
        [deleted]
    - well_ackshually 8mo ago
      If and when the asian community decides to reappropriate "yellow" as a way of self identification, then given a few decades, it will not be seen as racist anymore. In the mean time, "yellow" is a racist adjective for asians, "black" is not a racist adjective for black people.
      - amazingamazing 8mo ago

by pjc50 8mo ago

slopinthebag 8mo ago

> Crucially, the purpose of Blacksky is to provide a service for the (US) black community which has its own moderation decisions while being substantially interoperable. What are the differences between Bluesky and Blacksky? What does it mean to provide different services for the black community?

beepbooptheory 8mo ago
https://docs.blacksky.community/list-of-our-services https://docs.blacksky.community/list-of-our-services
- slopinthebag 8mo ago
  > The main Blacksky feed and platform are exclusively for Black people. Non-Black people cannot create accounts to post on Blacksky. Fascinating edit: before people take it the wrong way, I mean it's fascinating in that I've never seen these type of moderation policies before. I've seen plenty of communities about cultures (i.e. Ukrainian discord servers), but not around Race and not exclusionary to outsiders. I'm not making a moral judgement here.
  - OneDeuxTriSeiGo 8mo ago
    Yeah it's worth noting that blacksky provides accounts to non-black users but their posts don't get included in the blacksky feed. And non-blacksky PDS users who are confirmed black still are allowed to be included in the blacksky feed. So it's multiple components really. - The blacksky feed which is a curated feed and community built around the US black community on atproto. - The blacksky client, appview, moderation team, and relay which provide the necessary infrastructure for blacksky to operate independent of the rest of the ecosystem if they need to and for them to tailor their experience to their community. - The blacksky PDS which serves as a source of truth for data storage and auth for blacksky users that choose to use it. And of course non-black users can use all of this infrastructure but if you aren't black and you want to host your account on a blacksky PDS you have to pay a small subscription/donation. It's all for their community but they are more than willing to let other people use their infra as long as those people pay their fair share.
    - arrowsmith 8mo ago
      Not that I’m going to do it myself, but what’s to stop a non-black person from signing up? Do you verify people’s identities?
      - tptacek 8mo ago
        I assume it's mostly the same thing that keeps non-Catholics from taking communion at Catholic mass.
        julianlam 8mo ago
        tasteless wafers?
        tptacek 8mo ago
        In the sense that there's no upside to violating the norm, yeah, that too.
        knowtheory 8mo ago
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]

illithid0 8mo ago

That post isn't very clear about what specifically happened on BlueSky that made the author move, and I can't see the full thread he links without having a BlackSky account. What moderation decisions were made regarding this "Link" user that were suspect, using the post author's word?

seltzered_ 8mo ago
My perspective of that situation is Link was a fairly popular poster, and had a post that was a quote post of someone from the Bluesky team with an image of an assassinated figure and an alt text that couldve been perceived as a threat to the bluesky team. Some commentary ( https://bsky.app/profile/mackuba.eu/post/3m2jtzlznu22o https://bsky.app/profile/mackuba.eu/post/3m2jtzlznu22o ). IIRC it came during a week of discourse & tensions around bluesky moderation concerning some controversial writers ( https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team/post/3m25esnq4t22y https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team/post/3m25esnq4t22y ) I share this just to be helpful a tiny bit but theres likely a lot of context missing and different perspectives on this.
knowtheory 8mo ago
There are a lot of misunderstandings about what Blacksky is assuming that it's a just a community fork of Bluesky. The Blacksky team has a much broader vision for which they decided ATProto was the right architecture. There's a lot more to read about them up on their site: https://blackskyweb.xyz/ https://blackskyweb.xyz/

TacticalCoder 8mo ago

[flagged]

erxam 8mo ago
[flagged]
minitech 8mo ago
- “yellow” is a racist adjective for asians, “black” is not a racist adjective for black people - there is no “white community” in the US to make the equivalent to “black community” so you can’t really draw any useful conclusions from how string replacement on this sentence makes you feel
- amazingamazing 8mo ago
  > - “yellow” is a racist adjective for asians, “black” is not a racist adjective for black people the term black historically was used and originated in a racist manner.
  - Angostura 8mo ago
    I suspect contemporary usage is most relevant here, no?
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - well_ackshually 8mo ago
    If and when the asian community decides to reappropriate "yellow" as a way of self identification, then given a few decades, it will not be seen as racist anymore. In the mean time, "yellow" is a racist adjective for asians, "black" is not a racist adjective for black people.
    - amazingamazing 8mo ago