Question for protocol/fediverse/API enthusiasts:

Some claim mastodon is safer from rug-pulls than bluesky—it would be harder for some future bad actor to force everyone onto some engagement-optimizing algorithm.

If that's true (is it?), to what degree is that safety technological vs. legal/social?

@dynomight cc @trwnh maybe?

@ouguoc @dynomight both? technologically there is no single point that everything must flow through. socially there is a current to ensure this by encouraging people to run their own servers. a mastodon rugpull would be harder to do because mastodon isn’t the only software in this space. if mastodon did something unpopular, it’s possible that people would just move to something else that still let you talk to the same people. bluesky on the other hand is only one service that fetches/sorts data.

@ouguoc @dynomight basically the mastodon tech is like email (move from hotmail to gmail, you can still talk to people because there is a standard for sending messages), but the bluesky tech is more like google (the websites exist independently but all the discovery/searchability happens in one service that can easily go to shit)

@ouguoc @dynomight notably you can run your own email but you cant easily run your own google. and it’s a lot less useful even if you manage to do it

@trwnh @ouguoc @dynomight the concerning bit is, Gmail and Microsoft still kind of managed to centralize email DeFacto.

While you *can* set up your own email server, the majority of other servers will flag it as probable spam (and not for bad reason)

@AuntyRed @ouguoc @dynomight yeah it's more like bsky tech is centralized but mastodon tech is neutral/unaligned. the latter allows social resistance to rugpulls but doesn't guarantee it. the former locks you in without being able to do anything about it outside of building entirely separate architecture

with mailing, usps, fedex, ups will all deliver to an address. and you pick a house/apt/etc to live. but if the only mega-stadium in your area shuts down, then where do you go for huge events?