@ziclaud excellent point! I had completely forgotten about them

@_elena would it make even worse for me... And would show just again, that this platform is not interested in real sovereignty.

@castrillo thanks! there were so many revelations in the days following the announcement. I documented all the blunders and missteps in a folder called "W social horror show" - which had to be organized with subfolders because I had over 60 screenshots 🫠

@_elena Why do they do stupid things like that when they could just spin up a Mastodon instance

@_elena isn't that like, the point of decentralization and open source? The only real criticism of blue sky is that it's owned by American VCs

@_elena There was TV news in Germany recently talking about alternatives and WSocial was one of them. The representative talked about how they made the network‘s algorithm more user-friendly and I thought „Who tf needs a freaking algorithm other than people-I-follow-latest-first or simply-everything???“
An algorithm is their way of guiding news and communication. Who still wants that?????

@Sleepypanda yes! I know the report you were talking about... it first covered the conference I spoke at - 2MR - and then the report spoke about W Social. But why?????

@jaj @_elena you’ll enjoy this, then… https://eupolicy.social/@hpod16/116538344713848285

@juandesant @_elena I do follow this account but I thought the idea behind W was not to create an account but to launch a new network

@_elena , would have loved to help translate, but sadly my French is thus far on the level of being able to order a drink or ask for directions to the pool

@_elena

Thank you, this kind of work is so important and sadly underappreciated.

The difficulty for a lot of people (like me!) is not really understanding the tech we're using. So we end up trusting whatever we're told.

Hopefully, articles like this will gradually educate people so they understand how to make their choices align with their principles.

@_elena I'm on the waiting list for W social, but was losing interest since I read about the ID requirement. You just learnt me about Eurosky.

@petitcoeur @_elena I don't think it's much better than W personally. They're currently more dependent than W will be when they launch tomorrow since the only thing Eurosky provides right now is a PDS and in my opinion they're not really being very honest about the limitations of what they're offering either even if slightly less deceptive when it comes to the Bluesky connection.

@_elena Very well written. Thank you! It is surprising in today's age that news does not include this type of investigative research or thought but instead stops at the 5 sec sound bit that serves a few attention seeking moments vs improving the larger social fabric of life.

@wraptile would have to disagree that it's the only one but it is a pretty significant one and also has implications for how independent anything based on their platform and protocol can really be.

Dries Buytaert (Drupal) wrote about some of the limitations when it comes to software sovereignty, Bluesky would get a "C" under his framework and that's before we even consider the network effects inherent to a social platform:
https://dri.es/the-software-sovereignty-scale

@_elena

@gimulnautti that is a valid concern but saying that's how it *will* end up i's a very cynical outlook for an effort that could still produce something positive... people need to get involved and fight against the forces that try to make it fail like that even if it is difficult when faced with lobbyists like these.

@_elena

@_elena I've read about it once, when the EU made the announcement of intending to make such place, but never heard of it again. Maybe because it didn'5 interest me (or because I was sceptical, like the "yeah duh .. a Google-is-still-hiding-in-the-background'-social"-feeling).
Although living in 2 EU-countries makes the change of reading more about it bigger you'd think, but ... No. Sorry.
But thanks for your interesting 'backgroundcheck', at least I know I don't have to feel like I have missed anything, staying at masto is still the best choice.

@_elena maybe we should mark some major media, BEFORE they launch another W Social promo article tomorrow

@lemonde @BR24 @SZ_de @DerSpiegel @repubblica @tazgetroete @tagesschau @Tagesspiegel @KyivIndependent

@_elena oh, too late, there's another:

Social Media Made in Europe

Die schwedische Plattform W Social will es mit TikTok, Instagram und Co. aufnehmen – ohne Desinformation und Algorithmen, die auf Emotionen setzen. Ist das naiv oder lässt sich damit auch Geld verdienen?

dw.com (www.dw.com)

@dw_innovation