My thoughts about Bridgy Fed

[akno77]

When I first heard about Bridgy Fed I thought this is something really cool. But after some time and thinking about the concept I got more and more cons why I don't want to use it.

Here are my points

1. I have no real control for the created Bluesky account. All the power is at Bridgy Fed. Sure I can delete the Bluesky account by myself but that's it!
2. If my Bridgy Fed Bluesky account gains a huge follower count I have no possibility to take them with me if I decide to create a real Bluesky account.
3. Fediverse for me is also about to not gain to much power to single people over the network. If there are thousands of Bridgy Fed Bluesky accounts only Bridgy Fed has the master rights for, this results into a lot of power to make abuse! What if he takes over the accounts to make own status post (like political propaganda etc.)? This is a lot of power if there are accounts with thousands of followers.
4. Or what if he sells the high follower accounts to spamers etc.?
5. What if Bridgy Fed gets hacked and all accounts are taken over?
6. What if the Bridgy Fed service is shut down forever and you loose "your" Bluesky account and its followers?

There are so many scenarios and so less power for the user that I came to the conclusion that Bridgy Fed should not be used!

Or am I totally wrong????

[snarfed]

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Lots of good thoughts.

1. I have no real control for the created Bluesky account. All the power is at Bridgy Fed. Sure I can delete the Bluesky account by myself but that's it!

True, you can't log into the bridged account and use it directly: https://fed.brid.gy/docs#use-like-normal . Having said that, the bridged account is a direct mirror of your account itself. It does what your account does, no more, no less.

2. If my Bridgy Fed Bluesky account gains a huge follower count I have no possibility to take them with me if I decide to create a real Bluesky account.

Not yet, but it's definitely a good idea and on our roadmap! #1137 , https://fed.brid.gy/docs#migration

3. Fediverse for me is also about to not gain to much power to single people over the network. If there are thousands of Bridgy Fed Bluesky accounts only Bridgy Fed has the master rights for, this results into a lot of power to make abuse! What if he takes over the accounts to make own status post (like political propaganda etc.)? This is a lot of power if there are accounts with thousands of followers.
4. Or what if he sells the high follower accounts to spamers etc.?
5. What if Bridgy Fed gets hacked and all accounts are taken over?
6. What if the Bridgy Fed service is shut down forever and you loose "your" Bluesky account and its followers?

Yes! And these are all also true of and possible on the fediverse itself. Your fediverse instance admin has complete power over your account, and all other accounts on your instance, regardless of how many followers they have. Your instance could get hacked, and all accounts taken over. (This has happened, many times.) Your instance could shut down forever, and you'd lose your account. (This has happened, many times.)

I can't give you any absolute guarantees, but neither can any instance admin. I'm not interested in taking over bridged accounts, even if they have lots of followers. (I don't really care about social media much.) And I do my best to keep Bridgy Fed as secure and sustainable as possible.

There are so many scenarios and so less power for the user that I came to the conclusion that Bridgy Fed should not be used!

That's totally ok! Different people want different things, and have different priorities and values. Many people use and like Bridgy Fed, but if you don't, that's valid too.

[Tamschi]

On the note of 3-6, you could allow people to attach a (user-defined) ATProto recovery key to the bridge account exclusively.

(Those can retroactively override signing key actions within 72 hours, which would protect against a takeover if caught early enough. More information here: https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/atproto)