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To grow the ATproto network, Bluesky has to grow a lot more. If Bluesky doesn't grow, it's just gonna disappear. It's not like Mastodon, which is perfectly happy to stay small. If Bluesky doesn't grow, it is going to die alongside the network.

quick question: can you expand on the statement "if bluesky doesn't grow, it is going to due alongside the network"? it just seems to go against everything promoted by the protocol, so i'm curious (ex: interoperatility, self-hosting, etc.)

I think it's unrealistic that it will stick around in its current form if it doesn't grow. It's designed for scale, and optimizing for it. It's a fairly different approach compared to Mastodon, where instances are small monolith easy to self-host but the whole network is harder to scale.

Pros and cons with both approaches. I think there is value in scale, especially if you wanna build an ecosystem, but also if you wanna be the place where things happen that Twitter used to be (and X still is).

ie: becoming the "place things happen" for internet events. an example i'd provide is a group i'm a part of known as the fighting game community where a kotaku article sourced a bluesky thread for the work, which expanded to the game's publisher responding. (2/3) source: kotaku.com/developer-ac...

i believe the true failure of bluesky pbllc is the inability to cultivate strong niche communities like these in favor of larger communities with lower adoption rates. truthfully, in my eyes, bluesky needs more non-tech HOW-TO docs for general users rather than focusing on bringing more ppl over.

I don't think they are mutually exclusive. You can build a global network AND enable niche communities.