this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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That is actually an advantage. Centralized platforms are able to achieve larger audiences, increasing the chance that I will be able to find content I actually care about.
Only as long as the centralized authority stays aligned with you. Then you have the same problem.
Pretty much how Bluesky took off at all. It's just the polarization of the platform style reflecting the polarization of society: Twitter/X went right-wing so the (center-)left made their own platform. It's the same thing the right did when Twitter was politically censoring right-wing content before Musk bought it and Trump made Truth Social, the only difference being that Bluesky got the Big Tech and mainstream media blessing. Musk said he would stop that sort of censorship but just reversed it to censor left-wing content. Nobody actually wants a truly free platform, they just want their echo chamber.
That's giving the algorithms too much credit. They don't encode user desires they encode user engagement bait. Like everything under our capitalist system the motivation is profit: in this case ad revenue. Sometimes positive things or agreeable things drive engagement, sometimes negative or divisive things. As long as users spend time scrolling on the platform they'll both be given equal weight.
As with anything profit motive driven it's just about what makes more money not what makes more sense or what makes better outcomes. The core assumption of capitalism (at least how it's sold) is that profit causing activity correlates with improvements to human well-being. How anyone still believes that, I'm not sure.
On Bluesky you can choose which algorithm/s you want to see though and even create your own.
Something something bittorrent.
what?
An example of a non centralized network that has no issues with discoverability.