this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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[–] Kirk@startrek.website 36 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Wait, there are 1600 BlueSky instances to join? Are they counting people using a custom domain name as an entire instance?

[–] tfm@europe.pub 30 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Kirk@startrek.website 30 points 4 days ago (2 children)

OK so it sounds like there is still just the single BlueSky that is "federated" with a handful of single-user BlueSkies?

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 42 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Yes. The relevant metric:

99.55% of posts are on a single instance. That is not "federated" in any meaningful sense.

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 13 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I'm moreso curious if it federated in a literal sense. Is it even possible to participate without using bsky.app's servers?

[–] f314@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Self-hosting a Bluesky PDS means running your own Personal Data Server that is capable of federating with the wider Bluesky social network.

Seems like it

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 8 points 4 days ago (2 children)

A PDS still requires BlueSky's servers

[–] Natanael@infosec.pub 5 points 4 days ago

No it doesn't. If other people on bluesky servers want to see your content then obviously it will go through bluesky servers, but if you connect to a 3rd party relay and use a separate appview like zeppelin.social and use DID:Web for account ID then nothing involving the bluesky servers was used and it still behaves like native

[–] f314@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Oh, I misunderstood. So you mean federating with their network from other software implementing the AT Protocol? From skimming the docs it looks like it should be possible as long as you implement the correct schemas, but I didn’t dive very deep.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Yes, very recently Black Sky launched. Much too late to make any difference.

[–] eatham@aussie.zone 1 points 3 days ago

Where is this from?

[–] tfm@europe.pub 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

PDSes only store user data. These are full instances that can be used to browse the network. The idea is to make your account really yours. Bluesky is hosting most of them. But there are some people who do it on their own.

But bluesky controls much more important components in the network, namely the Relay and AppView.

If Bluesky decides to cut off your PDS you are pretty much alone.

Bluesky is pretty much a centralized platform like Twittler.

[–] Natanael@infosec.pub 1 points 4 days ago

Zeppelin.social is 3rd party appview and you can host your own

https://whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net/3lo7a2a4qxg2l

A Full-Network Relay for $34 a Month

Add using DID:Web and you're now fully self hosted