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Free Our Feeds! What is it! @freeourfeeds.com F.O.F. is an independent group with the goal of running THIS👇 social network totally outside of Bluesky. It's not us. It's a fully independent version of the network. All the same users and posts. Running cooperatively with us and others.

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Will Free Our Feeds oversee ATproto? How is the conflict of interest of having a for profit app, Blue Sky, and the open protocol, ATproto, currently being managed by the same org being addressed? Real, not snarky, question. There is so much potential. The world needs this.

Since the protocol is open (and open source) Free Our Feeds can choose to ignore changes BlueSky is making. That could eventually lead to a fracturing of the ecosystem if it diverged far enough but that's a risk with any open source project / governance.

Makes sense. But if Blue Sky has most of the users in the ecosystem and there is no easy path for user migration and interop then we have a new walled garden. I would like to see the protocol broken off into a nonprofit then ensures user portability and interop between apps. Maybe Free Our Feeds.

The nature of atproto that Bluesky is built on makes this less of a problem due to the ability to run your own personal data server (PDS) and still take part in the ecosystem. @freeourfeeds.com has all the same posts because it's participating in the atproto network. 1/4

📢 This is the big goal of Bluesky! 📢 Social networks should not be owned by own company! They should be a shared commons! Nobody should have sole power over them.

Why does it matter? When I finally lose it and start wearing a shoe for a hat, and start demanding users wear shoehats too, and I instant ban for anyone not wearing a shoehat of course -- Orgs like Free Our Feeds will be able to keep the network going independently

So independent parallel networks operate as checks and balances? I see how that works. It’s basic, fascinating, and fundamental at the same time. I haven’t explored the beyond yet. I like it here thanks to you and Jay.

Doesn't this also work negatively as well though? If it's "all the same users and posts" then doesn't that entirely destroy moderation? Bluesky may have anti hate speech policies, but another instance could allow full on Nazis, and we'd all be swimming in the same ocean?

No, because your subscribed moderation can just hide the post for the people subscribed to it. Currently everyone is hard coded to be subscribed to Bluesky Moderation, but in the future you could subscribe to any moderation service that fits you and your needs.

What's the deal with appviews and clients? Let's say Bluesky PBC becomes shoehattered, and let's also say FOF and other organizations have set up alternative infrastructure. Bluesky PBC still controls the Bluesky appview, censoring dissidents. at proto and other appview live on, but Bluesky is dead.

As it stands, it seems one appview=one client. Is the intention that the client should be able to handle multiple appviews? Or is the intention moreso that each lexicon has a reference appview implementation, and anyone can host an interoperable instance? If the latter, how is the client expected to

Important questions first: What kind of shoe? Preferred size and color? Just want to be prepared. (Fun aside, I am glad that you are preparing for the day you may decide you actually want to sh*t all over the playground the way certain people have done/are planning to do.)

Genuine question, is there not still a risk that even a non-profit org like Free Our Feeds could still get hijacked by shoehatters? If so, does that put the whole project at risk of being overtaken to advance shoehat goals?

We've designed the network so as many orgs as are interested can operate it. I tend to think of it like term limits. Every org corrupts eventually. That's why we make leadership dynamic

I think that recent events have made it all the more clear - it's important that we take what we have here, scatter all around the world, yet remain in touch using the protocol. Easy to affect one data repository or AppView; near impossible with a world-wide web of them.

Honest questions Paul: 1/ how that differentiate from Bluesky itself? And from Mastodon? 2/ if THIS social network moves there, what will happen with the como behind Bluesky? Apologies if my questions are too newbie

1, mastodon is a separate network 2, this answers part of one: atproto is designed to run cooperatively among anybody who wants to run it, so you can have users on FOF and on Bluesky and they all feel like one network

there could be discrepancies as each operator would be allowed to make their own choices about which servers to accept or reject as part of the network. i would expect it to be virtually the same though

I absolutely love this. Sure, Bluesky is great, but other social medias were as well before big money interests got in the picture. So now whatever happens with investors, we'll always have a great experience! I trust you guys, but when investors come on, it usually goes out of your hands...

I don't doubt for a second about your teams' intentions, but having the whole situation taken out of your hands is definitely a sad possibility. Glad you guys are seeing ahead! Keep up the good work, oh handsome (software) wizard!

Think of it like this: A representative democracy depends on there being candidates to choose between. FOF is becoming one of those candidates.

Bluesky is, yes. AT is, yes. This foundation is talking about creating a bevvy of new social media applications built on AT. I would rather see githubs for AT-youtube, AT-tiktok, AT-instagram etc, rather than just a nebulous "foundation" that is just collecting money.