I'm disappointed in what has happened, but I think Bluesky/AT Proto presents a better direction and I hope that this is just a period of adjustment.

There are essentially two tiers of moderation on Bluesky – that provided by Bluesky themselves, and community moderation. The community moderation is powerful and I use it fairly extensively already, and my hope is that in the long term it's the community moderation that represents the bulk of moderation on the network.

The problem is that Bluesky are legally required, and required by app publishing platforms, to implement some moderation themselves. It seems like their approach there has been to focus on strict legalities, leaving the rest to community moderation. This is a good idea for the decentralized nature, but unfortunately some high profile individuals know how to fly under the legal limit while still being a pain. Then there's outrage at them not being banned even though community moderation thoroughly silences them for anyone who wants it. This results in hate being targeted at the Bluesky team... and eventually that hate turns into threats (perceived or real) and that results in bans. Now it looks like Bluesky are banning their critics while allowing dangerous people on the platform.

Bluesky are not without fault here. They've not communicated about this well, they've not pushed community moderation well enough, and they've posted some questionable rage bait. But I do understand where they're going and think the future is ultimately bright for AT Proto and the Bluesky network.