Rob Ricci

https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/ricci.io

Research Professor in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah

Here, I mostly post about decentralization and social networks. I'm more active on other topics in the fediverse at [discuss.systems/@ricci](https://discuss.systems/@ricci/ ) .

🌉 [bridged](https://fed.brid.gy/bsky/ricci.io ) from 🦋 [ricci.io](https://bsky.app/profile/ricci.io ), follow Bridgy Fed for the Atmosphere (Bluesky) (npub1pqr…2sck) to interact

Web site: https://bsky.app/profile/ricci.io
Link: https://ricci.io
Link: https://discuss.systems/@ricci/

Public Key

npub1at4rd5yaz7euh6g0kdl406c6qv0778a7tuynwrv4ncvt3xl0flcsz3q2e3

NIP-05 Address

ricci.io_at_bsky.brid.gy@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsw463k6zw30v7tay8mxl6havdqx8l0r7l97zfhpk2eux9cn0h5lugpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dslus6mv

Publishing to

yabu.me

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1at4rd5yaz7euh6g0kdl406c6qv0778a7tuynwrv4ncvt3xl0flcsz3q2e3

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Last Notes

2026-09-21 15:41:36 UTC

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I'm super curious about the difference we have in numbers for W - the others I have roughly line up with this (except that I'm doing MAU), except that in my numbers W is about the same size as eurosky. Must be a lot of W accounts writing non-bluesky records?

2026-09-18 15:33:38 UTC

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This is a very good point, it's very much not the current "shape" of atproto but it seems like it could be

2026-09-14 03:13:01 UTC

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so uh what does this do to their moderation lists?

2026-09-08 15:37:13 UTC

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My theory (and it's not entirely mine, I'm cribbing from [@svivek.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy](https://bsky.brid.gy/ap/did:plc:sw7j7ndhq3hjvxscmc4lfe7t ) here) is that we are much further along the curve of diminishing returns than a lot of people realize. You spend 10x as much building a model, you don't get a model that is 10x better. That leaves plenty of room for a

2026-09-08 15:37:13 UTC

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fifth-place lab that is far behind in terms of expertise and effort, but not all that far behind on model quality.

2026-09-08 13:58:40 UTC

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xAI made a bunch of money too by (implicitly) acknowledging they're not going to be in front and renting all of Colossus 1 (the one datacenter that everyone, even the most fervent AI fan, can agree sucks) to Anthropic for Claude

2026-08-29 16:30:37 UTC

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The number of instance-like *implementation* behaviors is pretty striking. I included a few here [blog.ricci.io/what-i-wish-...](https://blog.ricci.io/what-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-at-protocol-and-bluesky-2wjwbg2 ) - I'm happy to update this if I've got any of them wrong.
[What I Wish Someone Had Told M...](https://blog.ricci.io/what-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-at-protocol-and-bluesky-2wjwbg2 )

2026-08-27 00:44:04 UTC

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Custom feeds are *more* complete, which makes sense to me, but are still missing some stuff. I'm not getting any 404s or anything, so I assume the AppView is just quietly not hydrating those posts?

2026-08-27 00:32:40 UTC

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But PDSes aren't instances, they don't affect visibility, is what I heard...

2026-08-26 23:49:22 UTC

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I can *see* Kuba, but he doesn't end up in my Following feed

2026-08-26 23:22:19 UTC

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So are you

2026-08-26 20:11:02 UTC

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I've got a few disconnects today from both of the bluesky relays, but that's typical. fig's have disconnected me a few times which is *not* typical. sri's are ... wow dropping me a *lot* and it's been going on for quite a while

2026-08-26 19:56:12 UTC

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Oh weird, better check what my monitors are seeing

2026-08-26 19:24:16 UTC

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AppView definitely been acting up again today

2026-08-25 19:14:16 UTC

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I kind of think so too?
But maybe I'm just fedi-brained.

2026-08-25 18:07:42 UTC

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Or, conversely, it's fine, and "Fediverse levels of UX" are actually acceptable to users of Bluesky and adjacent platforms, as it turns out

2026-08-25 17:57:03 UTC

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repost their stuff but ... this has a lot of work to go to even reach Fediverse levels of user experience.
I don't know why this is happening, so I won't speculate yet.

2026-08-25 17:57:03 UTC

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So uh when you posted this I thought was a joke, but then I did a quick comparison between my Following feed on Bluesky and Blacksky and uh, wow. It's substantially different. A lot of accounts I follow don't show up there. I can find them if I search, I can see their posts when other people

2026-08-24 14:28:22 UTC

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Like, there are still people with [aol.com](https://aol.com ) email addresses. Admit it, just reading that, some things came into your head about them. We absolutely do this using all kinds of identifiers.

2026-08-24 14:23:05 UTC

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I'll admit it too - at this point, when I see someone on W vs. someone on eurosky ... I know they are both European but I have pretty different default expectations about them.

2026-08-24 14:15:09 UTC

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People look for heuristics with which to to judge each other quickly, and when there's a straightforward way to use that for blocking, it's inevitable that it will be. The most visible signifier in the atmosphere today is the domain an account's handle is under, which of course doesn't have to line

2026-08-23 22:29:53 UTC

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This is the same dilemma that has evolved on the Fediverse: there are some instances that are very welcoming to sex work, kink, other topics that are not universally accepted - and folks have to decide whether they want to be on these instances that might get blocked, or try to

2026-08-23 22:29:53 UTC

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"blend in" on the bigger instances, and restrict what they post to what's acceptable there.
It all comes down to which moderators have the ability to block you from what fraction of the network, and that's currently far more skewed on the atmosphere.

2026-08-23 21:24:10 UTC

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The only way this *doesn't* happen is if there is a reason to be on a PDS *other* than because of affinity group.
So far, affinity groups are just about the *only* thing that's been successful at getting people to PDSes other than the Bluesky ones.

2026-08-14 16:36:21 UTC

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The fact that it's so easy to backup the whole network (also: hubble) is super strong, to be sure.
If Bluesky-the-company got nuked, we know the current upper bound on how many accounts on their PDSes would be able to re-establish their identities today. It's 270.
[rob.leaflet.pub/3mr7vhdonuk2i](https://rob.leaflet.pub/3mr7vhdonuk2i )
[Rotation Key Census, July 2026...](https://rob.leaflet.pub/3mr7vhdonuk2i )

2026-08-12 21:43:32 UTC

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I think it's mostly bad in the context of the funding model. A social network doesn't have to be the biggest to be healthy, nor does it need infinite growth. It doesn't have to be on fire all the time.
But when you're funded by folks who expect those things, well now it's a problem.

2026-07-26 15:32:22 UTC

Inspired by @npub1he4…h38v 's AMA about #atproto over on #Mastodon ... AMA about #ActivityPub and the #Fediverse! No question is too basic! (If questions get beyond my knowledge I'll at least try to point you in the right direction 😃)

2026-07-24 17:48:19 UTC

I made a @npub1965…0qdc version of my post about why @npub1nfl…nul3 might think you're in a location that requires age verification when you're not.
[ricci.pckt.blog/calgary-texa...](https://ricci.pckt.blog/calgary-texas-e7r748c )
[Calgary ... Texas? - Rob Ricci...](https://ricci.pckt.blog/calgary-texas-e7r748c )

2026-03-06 16:08:10 UTC

Congratulations, and I'm sure AtmosphereConf will be awesome. But also, if one of the world's most infamous enshittifiers is interested in your anti-enshittification technology you might still have some work to do re: convincing them you are an anti-enshittification technolgy.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lehcqqkwzcwvjvw66uthu5oq/post/3mge5bulsdk2n
#note194j…46xv

2026-01-22 01:45:47 UTC

Launching their new social network, W, the EU posted a map of where other social networks are hosted. It showed nothing in Europe.
But their map is wrong.
Here's what Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere actually look like
[arewedecentralizedyet.online/map/?source=at](https://arewedecentralizedyet.online/map/?source=at )
https://at.ricci.social/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:rz6grfppdzkzytcwnb66nldn&cid=bafkreie4lyfavahwn7gkth7mgfmwgrwsmj5swwbapx67nxlon5ifjpspne

2025-12-08 19:49:20 UTC

I did a study of now many users in the atproto world (Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere) have strong control over their identities via rotation keys or other methods
[Rotation Key Census, December ...](https://rob.leaflet.pub/3m7isflo7ls23 )