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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
        Yes, as far as i know it's an honest self-report kind of thing.
    - erxam 8mo ago
      I don't exactly know either, but it's probably some sort of lax verification measure like a selfie. Don't need extreme measures to keep bad actors out if you're able and willing to throw out anyone who obviously doesn't intend on playing nice.
    - OneDeuxTriSeiGo 8mo ago
      Note that I'm not a blacksky member, just someone involved in the greater atproto space so my understanding of the process is likely not perfect. But AFAIK the way blacksky operates is that they assume good faith when new users join. If it becomes obvious that you are not black then you will likely get reported or directly hit by moderation action and they will ask you to verify your identity at some level. I think it's something along the lines of "send a photograph that would be non-trivial to fake". Not necessarily forcing you to dox yourself but requiring that you provide some level of evidence that's visibly resistant to AI/tampering. Now I have no idea the extent to which they do this to be entirely honest but I do know they don't mess around with people doing "digital blackface". I'm not sure how well that moderation approach will scale at large but given they are a community that has carved out their own niche and not a corp just blindly driving to scale, I doubt they'll see the strain that the greater bluesky and atproto have experienced with moderation struggles at scale. And given all decisions around policy and moderation rules are decided by the Blacksky People's Assembly, as the community evolves participants can participate in governance and help craft the process if they are dissatisfied.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]

> 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
      Yes, as far as i know it's an honest self-report kind of thing.
  - erxam 8mo ago
    I don't exactly know either, but it's probably some sort of lax verification measure like a selfie. Don't need extreme measures to keep bad actors out if you're able and willing to throw out anyone who obviously doesn't intend on playing nice.
  - OneDeuxTriSeiGo 8mo ago
    Note that I'm not a blacksky member, just someone involved in the greater atproto space so my understanding of the process is likely not perfect. But AFAIK the way blacksky operates is that they assume good faith when new users join. If it becomes obvious that you are not black then you will likely get reported or directly hit by moderation action and they will ask you to verify your identity at some level. I think it's something along the lines of "send a photograph that would be non-trivial to fake". Not necessarily forcing you to dox yourself but requiring that you provide some level of evidence that's visibly resistant to AI/tampering. Now I have no idea the extent to which they do this to be entirely honest but I do know they don't mess around with people doing "digital blackface". I'm not sure how well that moderation approach will scale at large but given they are a community that has carved out their own niche and not a corp just blindly driving to scale, I doubt they'll see the strain that the greater bluesky and atproto have experienced with moderation struggles at scale. And given all decisions around policy and moderation rules are decided by the Blacksky People's Assembly, as the community evolves participants can participate in governance and help craft the process if they are dissatisfied.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]