Hi - it's been a while, but I'm so happy to be back.

In an earlier update, I said I would use this issue as just a round-up of links related to developments in the human web. Instead, I want to focus today on Bluesky, which is seeing a major uptick in users due to migrations from other platforms. It's also getting $15M in funding led by a cryptocurrency investor and explained its roadmap to become a sustainable business. It's a lot, and I think it deserves the space right now. At the end of that discussion, I'll drop the promised round-up.

Okay, on that note - let's talk about Bluesky.

Birds Flock, Money Talks

After a brief ban in Brazil and changes to their Block feature where users could continue accessing profiles of folks they were blocked by, large waves of users left X for the various Twitter alternatives. The largest beneficiary of these migrations is, perhaps, Bluesky, which grew to 13M users as of Oct. 24th. For context, the platform reached 10M users about a month earlier. They converted this steady growth into a Series A funding round of $15M led by Blockchain Capital.

There's a lot to unpack here. First, let's start with the easy one - with investors come an expectation of returns, and it looks like their route to more revenue will include a subscription service with exclusive features like HQ video and profile customizations. Unlike its competitors, this subscription will not uprank users that pay-to-play, which I think is an important call-out. While I'm not convinced this will be the silver bullet to becoming a viable business, I appreciate the transparency of direction and hope they also use some of these funds to invigorate competition in the AT protocol ecosystem.

Then comes the bigger story: a lead investment group that has heavily (and I mean heavily) placed bets on the cryptocurrency industry. In another swing at transparency, Bluesky assured its users that it "will not hyperfinancialize the social experience." I think it's a noble promise to make, but it does sound like they aren't against some financialization, even if it's just at the protocol level. I'm also not against folks making a living using social media (in fact, I'm an advisor at a company doing this for ActivityPub), so I don't see anything wrong with making it easier to attach financial features to AT. Still, I hope this doesn't mean focusing on crypto for those features rather than an attempt at helping build a Patreon for AT.

That said, if subscriptions don't pay the bills, promises must change to ensure shareholders get their returns so I think it's something to keep an eye on. Only time and revenue will tell.

Crackergate

In an odd turn of events, Meta's Threads scored multiple own goals over the previous few months, including an explicit acknowledgment that both their For You algorithm and moderation system are broken. Anyone who uses these platforms daily (it's me, hi) could've told you this without confirmation.

The straw that broke (cracked?) the camel's back seemed to be a mixture of posts being removed for no real reason, ranging from replying to something that could be taken as a threat when entirely out of context to just saying the posting the word "cracker."

According to Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram and Threads, the tool built for moderators wasn't giving them enough context. Still, there also seems to be a highly sensitive automated system floating these posts to the moderators in the first place. There are also hints of a significant language barrier regarding how some posts are taken. I don't think users are being given the whole story, and a lack of comms isn't helping their case.

All of this came to a head when folks who users consider pivotal to their Threads experience were wrongfully suspended indefinitely. It started with users creating backup accounts on Bluesky in case they were also hit, but then it became a backchannel for Threads users to express their frustrations with the platform.

But this moment allowed these users to see the features that differentiate Bluesky from Threads—custom feeds, configurable moderation, starter packs, lists(!!!) etc. Bluesky also cleverly launched a Threads account to market its features to users who were on the fence about joining, something that the community, which typically backlashes against comparison to another platform, surprisingly enjoyed.

On the other side of what is now being called Crackergate, many users have decided that the sky is indeed bluer elsewhere and have either moved or become more active on Bluesky. Threads still isn't transparent about the issue or their plans to resolve it, and I'm seeing more of my Threads mutuals migrating daily. Another batch just followed me while writing this piece.

I hope Threads finds a way to fix the platform's issues soon. Moderation and recommendations are pre-1.0 features that should not be this badly broken more than a year in. Trust in Meta's focus on Threads has deteriorated much more than it ever needed to. It's starting to feel like it's more of a hobby than a product, and the lack of transparency only exacerbates that feeling.

Perhaps not depending on word-of-mouth to resolve suspensions would be a good start.

The Elephant in the Room

A common question during these migrations was, "Why not Mastodon?" While Bluesky is still somewhat centralized, Mastodon is what most would consider a truly decentralized social web platform. In many ways, it should be what users consider the safest route for long-term data and online relationship ownership.

I don't think the answer to this is quite complicated—Bluesky has built numerous features that make it easy to find, or in this case, re-find, your communities from other platforms. Whether it be their Starter Packs, the algorithmic marketplace, or shareable lists, all of these make it easy for folks leaving these other platforms to find their existing networks quickly. There's definitely a cultural aspect to it, but the fact that folks quickly found a large cohort of X and Threads mutuals played a significant part in those mutuals sticking by each others' sides and staying there.

The on-ramp to Mastodon and other ActivityPub-based platforms is still an icy one that takes a lot of manual effort. Apps like Flipboard, Newsmast, and Mammoth have attempted to solve this, but onboardings need to be a core part of the platform, not add-ons by other parties. Those who deeply care about their privacy and data ownership may be willing to make that effort, but most want to be with their people as quickly as possible.

Your platform can do all the right things for users, and I think Mastodon does a lot right. But none of the good things will stick if you can't show them where the people are.

People, not Platforms. People.

Check These Out

Alright, it's time for that round-up I promised you. So much has happened:

• In a special episode of MKBHD's Waveform podcast, co-host David Imel dove dive into the open social web. This is probably the best explainer I've seen out there so far.
• Croissant is a new iOS app for cross-posting between Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon—pretty great for migrators!
• Co-author of the ActivityPub spec launched The Social Web Foundation, which includes numerous organizations, including Mastodon, Meta, Flipboard, Ghost, The BLVD, among many others all of whom will work together to push ActivityPub further.
• Ben Werdmuller, Senior Director of Technology at ProPublica, broke down The Two Fediverses that currently exist and how we move forward
• After basically no tangible efforts to help it succeed, Mozilla Social was shut down. While I think it's unfortunate, there are still many organizations diligently running Mastodon instances.
• A search solution in the form of Fediverse Discovery Providers seems to be picking up more and more steam. This will definitely help with some of the on-ramp discovery issues I called out above.
• Dave Winer, founder of RSS, celebrated 30 years of Scripting and spoke to The Guardian about what he's learned

There's a lot more that's worth sharing, but these are just some of the highlights. Others, I'm saving for future editions of the newsletter. Subscribe to keep track of when those drop!

Thank you for reading! You can follow me on the social web Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads. And if you want to be notified of future issues of augment and my newsletter "Human-Generated Content," you can follow on RSS or subscribe here for free!