I went to the event “Bluesky Mini Meetup Kyoto 2024'' where I could ask Bluesky development members “Can the server handle the sudden increase in users?'' “What are the plans to add a trend display function?''

The offline event “Bluesky mini meetup in Kyoto 2024” where you can listen to Dan Abramoff, a member of the Bluesky development team, was held on Saturday, September 21, 2024, so I participated. At this event, I was able to listen to Mr. Abramoff's lecture on the core technology of Bluesky, and there was also a Q&A period, so I was curious about questions like “How did you join Bluesky?” and “Will the server be able to handle the increase in the number of users?” I had heard about it.

Bluesky

https://bsky.app/

◆This is what the place looks like

The Bluesky Mini Meetup at Kyoto 2024 was held at Doro Shobo, a library and event space in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto City.

You can walk a few minutes from Karasuma Station to reach Doro Shobu.

This is what the place looks like from the inside. More than 10 Bluesky users have gathered.

The next person is Mr. Abramov from the Bluesky development team who came to Japan this time. Mr. Abramov is responsible for the front-end development of Bluesky, and is also known as the developer of the JavaScript library for building user interfaces “React” and the developer of the state management framework “Redux”.

◆Mr. Abramov's lecture

The event started with a lecture by Mr. Abramov. In the lecture, he gave a detailed explanation of the data management mechanism of the decentralized SNS protocol “AT Protocol” which is the basis of Bluesky software, using slides and demonstration using “ATProto Browser”.

Mr. Abramov's lecture was entirely in English, and a Mac with a close-up of the VoicePing AI translation app screen was set up in the space.

◆ Question and answer time

After the lecture there was time for questions and answers. First, Mr. Abramov answered questions prepared by Mr. Nighthaven, who served as the event coordinator. The main questions and answers are as follows.

Mr. Nighthaven (hereinafter referred to as Nighthaven):

Please tell us your impressions of Paul Frazee, Hailey, Eric, and Samuel who work as front-end developers at Bluesky.

Mr. Abramov (hereinafter referred to as Abramov):

Paul is an extremely talented developer. They created the initial version of the Bluesky app in a few months. His code isn’t perfect and may require some hacking, but he’s very good at prioritizing what’s important. Hailey has excellent problem-solving skills. She’s been working on video playback functionality for both Android and iOS apps, and is able to successfully navigate the differences between platforms.

Eric is responsible for the visual part of the application. He has a great sense of aesthetics and knows how to make the user interface look beautiful. Samuel was responsible for developing the video creation functionality for the web version of the application. He is familiar with WebAPI and is good at creating native approaches.

Night Shelter:

Are there any plans to include group chat functionality in Bluesky?

Abramov:

Plans are in place, but there are no immediate plans to implement.

Night Shelter:

Are there any plans to implement a trend display function?

Abramov:

We have received many requests for a trend display function, and we are currently studying it. There are some initial moves, but we do not know when they will be implemented.

Night Shelter:

Has the adoption of the decentralized SNS protocol had any impact on front-end development?

Abramov:

The front-end development part is not much different from regular web development.

Night Shelter:

What will Bluesky look like in two years?

Abramov:

I hope he's still alive (lol). I agree. It's necessary to provide a clear means of monetization to ensure the survival of the company. I'd also like to implement features that users frequently request, such as “implement group chat function” and “mute specific users”. Also, Bluesky has a strong impression that it targets high-end users, so we need to make it easy to use for general users as well. We also want to improve Bluesky's unique features that other SNS services don't have, such as the feed function.

After Mr. Nighthaven finished his questions, there was time for the audience to ask Mr. Abramoff questions. It was a good opportunity, so I asked them four questions that interested me. The questions and answers are as follows.

Gigazene (below, G):

When Mr. Why (Jerome Johnson), Bluesky's technical advisor, came to Japan in April 2024, he said, “We started developing a Bluesky web app using React, but the development was difficult and we ended up using React with Meta.” We decided to invite the person who was developing it to the development team. I think this “React developer” refers to Mr. Dan, but please tell me how you joined the Bluesky development team.

Abramov:

I was previously involved in React development at Facebook (now Meta). I worked at Facebook for eight years, but decided to quit because I wanted to do something else. That's when I came across Bluesky and was really interested in it.

I really liked Twitter, but I had a hard time understanding the new direction of Twitter, and I wished there was a different version of Twitter. I also love open source and want to work in it.

Bluesky was built using React, and I liked Bluesky's idea of ​​treating scopes as handles. Bluesky seemed to make sense at its core, so I went for a job interview with Bluesky and decided to join the development team.

A:

When Mr. Why came to Japan, I heard that “Bluesky's data centers are located in San Francisco and Brasilia, and each data center has 30 working servers.” The number of Bluesky users has been increasing rapidly in the past month, but do you have enough server space?

Abramov:

I agree. Many Brazilian users joined Bluesky after the X service went down in Brazil. Currently, the number of users exceeds 10 million. Before the X service went down, there were about 6 million people. The server became a little unstable after the number of users started to increase rapidly. This was not due to lack of server resources, but some settings were not ideal. So I had to adjust the server configuration a little.

After adjusting the server configuration, it runs much smoother and can handle more traffic than before. Brazilian users are very active, with many posts, many followers, and many likes. In particular, I think the number of likes has increased by about 10 times. However, the network has remained flexible and scalable so far. Therefore, it is quite possible to support a larger user range than the current one.

A:

In the AT protocol explanation page, the main federation structure is the “PDS'' where each user's data is stored, the “Relay'' which collects information from each PDS and does the organizing, etc., and the “Relay'' which receives the information presented from the Relay and uses it for display. Three types of “application views” are presented which are processed in images. So far, it has been announced that users can host their own PDS servers, but are there any plans to allow users to host their own Relay servers?

Abramov:

Using Relay is open source, so if you try it, you can do it. We won't stop it.

When running Relay, you can target all PDSs on the network, or you can target just some PDSs. By the way, if you host a PDS server for all PDSs, it will cost about $150 (about 22,000 yen) per month. It's not expensive, but it costs more than hosting a PDS.

Please note that Bluesky hosts two Relay servers for load balancing.

A:

Are there any plans to implement private accounts? Also what is the priority for private accounts?

Abramov:

This is an interesting question. Implementing private accounts requires solving multiple problems. One advantage of decentralized SNS protocols is that they are completely public, but we focus our discussion on whether or not it is possible to create “decentralized public SNS systems.” There are also several considerations regarding the behavior of the API for private accounts. We will spend the next few months to six months finalizing the specification.

However, we are not trying to create private accounts (like other social networks). We are trying to create a system that stores data in a public distribution system (PDS), does not export it to Relay, and only makes it available to specific applications that request access to the data. For example, it is similar to sharing files on Dropbox. This is different from a so-called “private account” which is more like a group chat function.

We're still looking at the specifications for private accounts, so it's still unclear what the specifications are, but we'd like to at least have something that can support the “I want a private account” use case.

◆ Lightning talk by users

Following Mr. Abramov’s lecture and Q&A time, Mr. Shigebu and Mr. Terutan held a quick chat, after which the event was dismissed. You can check out the Lightning Talk content from the link embedded below.

Today's slide #BlueskyMeetupKyoto

docs.google.com/presentation… — しげぽん@shigepon7 (@shigepon.net) 2024-09-21T07:07:24.114Z

I don't know how far I've gotten in streaming, but I'm getting rid of the advertised stuff #bskymeetup
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11FDxvMWTDQfeQYsJqIAYLHoxdbBcksR6eRRrtok5vIw/edit?usp=drivesdk — Erutan (@l-tan.dolciss.net) 2024-09-21T07:01:23.311Z