Escaping Reality
@a-virtual-world.bsky.social
I have an account on Second Life. These things happen.
RW Location:
Chicago metro area
SL location:
Book Island
https://spesweuvitusi9rabri4relwriqisafr.wordpress.com/klx3phoropro1owi6atizl85itriswufafap/
RW Location:
Chicago metro area
SL location:
Book Island
https://spesweuvitusi9rabri4relwriqisafr.wordpress.com/klx3phoropro1owi6atizl85itriswufafap/
Just now, I started to create an openly acknowledged alt account, for the sharing of my favorites and bookmarks. Bluesky suspended that account before I even got done setting it up. This was blatantly arbitrary.
I've filed an appeal. If I don't see a satisfactory resolution, I'm done here.
I've filed an appeal. If I don't see a satisfactory resolution, I'm done here.
July 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Just now, I started to create an openly acknowledged alt account, for the sharing of my favorites and bookmarks. Bluesky suspended that account before I even got done setting it up. This was blatantly arbitrary.
I've filed an appeal. If I don't see a satisfactory resolution, I'm done here.
I've filed an appeal. If I don't see a satisfactory resolution, I'm done here.
February 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Escaping Reality
📢 App Version 1.98 is rolling out now, including: (1/5)
• a new option for who can reply to your posts
• search posts by a user
• lots of little improvements to make the app feel better!
• a new option for who can reply to your posts
• search posts by a user
• lots of little improvements to make the app feel better!
February 17, 2025 at 9:20 PM
📢 App Version 1.98 is rolling out now, including: (1/5)
• a new option for who can reply to your posts
• search posts by a user
• lots of little improvements to make the app feel better!
• a new option for who can reply to your posts
• search posts by a user
• lots of little improvements to make the app feel better!
Reposted by Escaping Reality
📢 1.98 is rolling out now (2/5)
Choose who can reply to your posts by clicking into “Anybody can interact.”
Now you can choose “your followers” as an option — aka only people who follow you can reply to the post!
Choose who can reply to your posts by clicking into “Anybody can interact.”
Now you can choose “your followers” as an option — aka only people who follow you can reply to the post!
February 17, 2025 at 9:20 PM
📢 1.98 is rolling out now (2/5)
Choose who can reply to your posts by clicking into “Anybody can interact.”
Now you can choose “your followers” as an option — aka only people who follow you can reply to the post!
Choose who can reply to your posts by clicking into “Anybody can interact.”
Now you can choose “your followers” as an option — aka only people who follow you can reply to the post!
Reposted by Escaping Reality
That's a nice feature. I've used it over on Twitter, and it really does a lot to nip trolling in the bud, even without Bluesky's improvement on the feature (letting us turn off quote replies).
Different subject: I have a serious concern about the way email address updating works.
(continues)
Different subject: I have a serious concern about the way email address updating works.
(continues)
February 23, 2025 at 6:42 PM
That's a nice feature. I've used it over on Twitter, and it really does a lot to nip trolling in the bud, even without Bluesky's improvement on the feature (letting us turn off quote replies).
Different subject: I have a serious concern about the way email address updating works.
(continues)
Different subject: I have a serious concern about the way email address updating works.
(continues)
Reposted by Escaping Reality
Right now, when one changes one's email address, the system first sends a confirmation code to one's old email address, which one has to enter into the system to continue. Then, after one has done that, the system sends a confirmation code to one's new email address, which one also has to enter.
February 23, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Right now, when one changes one's email address, the system first sends a confirmation code to one's old email address, which one has to enter into the system to continue. Then, after one has done that, the system sends a confirmation code to one's new email address, which one also has to enter.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
In the short run, sure, this makes accounts harder to steal for hackers, but what happens to a user who loses access to his email account without warning, and finds himself having to replace his now dead old email address with a new one?
This is not a pure hypothetical. This has happened, before.
This is not a pure hypothetical. This has happened, before.
February 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM
In the short run, sure, this makes accounts harder to steal for hackers, but what happens to a user who loses access to his email account without warning, and finds himself having to replace his now dead old email address with a new one?
This is not a pure hypothetical. This has happened, before.
This is not a pure hypothetical. This has happened, before.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
Remember "Bigfoot Email for Life"? Turns out that life was a lot shorter than expected. The last I checked, Bigfoot Communications was still around, but they threw all of the email accounts they were hosting into the trash.
February 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Remember "Bigfoot Email for Life"? Turns out that life was a lot shorter than expected. The last I checked, Bigfoot Communications was still around, but they threw all of the email accounts they were hosting into the trash.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
Then there was R360, the email set up by Webring, which suddenly vanished one day, because the owner had a mood swing.
These things happen, and they're not a new problem. Mom and pop ISPs have been shutting down user accounts without cause since before the Web was invented.
These things happen, and they're not a new problem. Mom and pop ISPs have been shutting down user accounts without cause since before the Web was invented.
February 23, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Then there was R360, the email set up by Webring, which suddenly vanished one day, because the owner had a mood swing.
These things happen, and they're not a new problem. Mom and pop ISPs have been shutting down user accounts without cause since before the Web was invented.
These things happen, and they're not a new problem. Mom and pop ISPs have been shutting down user accounts without cause since before the Web was invented.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
If you don't make some sort of provision for the possibility that something like this will go wrong, you're going to make our accounts less secure, not more so.
February 23, 2025 at 6:57 PM
If you don't make some sort of provision for the possibility that something like this will go wrong, you're going to make our accounts less secure, not more so.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
Realistically speaking, how much of a danger are hackers for most of our account, anyway? Mow many people even want to hack an obscure account on Bluesky? Which, let's be honest, would be most of our accounts, mine especially.
February 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Realistically speaking, how much of a danger are hackers for most of our account, anyway? Mow many people even want to hack an obscure account on Bluesky? Which, let's be honest, would be most of our accounts, mine especially.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
"Oooh, I took away his two followers and his Second Life photos. I am dangerous!" said nobody, ever. There's no glory in it.
Also, hacking was a lot easier in the old days, because passwords were so grossly insecure.
Also, hacking was a lot easier in the old days, because passwords were so grossly insecure.
February 23, 2025 at 7:01 PM
"Oooh, I took away his two followers and his Second Life photos. I am dangerous!" said nobody, ever. There's no glory in it.
Also, hacking was a lot easier in the old days, because passwords were so grossly insecure.
Also, hacking was a lot easier in the old days, because passwords were so grossly insecure.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
People would just take one or two words and stick them together, maybe with a two digit number, which often would be the last two digits of their year of birth, or something else equally guessable.
Today, we know to use long randomly generated passwords, and save them somewhere, offline.
Today, we know to use long randomly generated passwords, and save them somewhere, offline.
February 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM
People would just take one or two words and stick them together, maybe with a two digit number, which often would be the last two digits of their year of birth, or something else equally guessable.
Today, we know to use long randomly generated passwords, and save them somewhere, offline.
Today, we know to use long randomly generated passwords, and save them somewhere, offline.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
They're a lot harder to crack, and anybody can create them. This means that you're reducing what would have already been a tiny probability of a near future hacking, at the expense of sending the probability of a lockout a few years down the road soaring.
That's a bad trade for the user.
That's a bad trade for the user.
February 23, 2025 at 7:14 PM
They're a lot harder to crack, and anybody can create them. This means that you're reducing what would have already been a tiny probability of a near future hacking, at the expense of sending the probability of a lockout a few years down the road soaring.
That's a bad trade for the user.
That's a bad trade for the user.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
It's also a completely unnecessary one. Bluesky could, at minimal expense, allow its users to have backup contact addresses, the way Google, Yahoo and Automattic do, and Flickr did before the SmugMug takeover.
February 23, 2025 at 7:16 PM
It's also a completely unnecessary one. Bluesky could, at minimal expense, allow its users to have backup contact addresses, the way Google, Yahoo and Automattic do, and Flickr did before the SmugMug takeover.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
The probability of two providers flaking out at the same time is a lot lower than that one doing so on its own. If the user has three, four or even five alternate emails, ever better, and where is the expense?
Diskspace costs a fraction of a cent per megabyte.
Diskspace costs a fraction of a cent per megabyte.
February 23, 2025 at 7:18 PM
The probability of two providers flaking out at the same time is a lot lower than that one doing so on its own. If the user has three, four or even five alternate emails, ever better, and where is the expense?
Diskspace costs a fraction of a cent per megabyte.
Diskspace costs a fraction of a cent per megabyte.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
A megabyte works out to be about 66 printed pages. The cost of allowing up to, say, ten contact email addresses per account would be next to nothing. Obviously.
How many email addresses fit onto a single printed page? Is the time of a single user really worth less than a fraction of a penny?
How many email addresses fit onto a single printed page? Is the time of a single user really worth less than a fraction of a penny?
February 23, 2025 at 7:22 PM
A megabyte works out to be about 66 printed pages. The cost of allowing up to, say, ten contact email addresses per account would be next to nothing. Obviously.
How many email addresses fit onto a single printed page? Is the time of a single user really worth less than a fraction of a penny?
How many email addresses fit onto a single printed page? Is the time of a single user really worth less than a fraction of a penny?
Reposted by Escaping Reality
You know, a penny? That amount of currency so small, that the US mint has stopped making them?
Does Bluesky really want to tell its users that bodies of work that they might end up spending years posting online, as going to get valued at less than a fraction of the value of a now defunct coin?
Does Bluesky really want to tell its users that bodies of work that they might end up spending years posting online, as going to get valued at less than a fraction of the value of a now defunct coin?
February 23, 2025 at 7:25 PM
You know, a penny? That amount of currency so small, that the US mint has stopped making them?
Does Bluesky really want to tell its users that bodies of work that they might end up spending years posting online, as going to get valued at less than a fraction of the value of a now defunct coin?
Does Bluesky really want to tell its users that bodies of work that they might end up spending years posting online, as going to get valued at less than a fraction of the value of a now defunct coin?
Reposted by Escaping Reality
Put that way, it sounds awful, doesn't it? So please, give this some thought. When the security procedures are more of a danger to our accounts than the hackers they're supposed to protect us from, that's a real problem and it needs to be addressed with something other than security theater.
February 23, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Put that way, it sounds awful, doesn't it? So please, give this some thought. When the security procedures are more of a danger to our accounts than the hackers they're supposed to protect us from, that's a real problem and it needs to be addressed with something other than security theater.
Reposted by Escaping Reality
Even fashionable security theater, which is what this is. Yes, I've heard of two factor authentication.
That's a fancy sounding term for a half-baked idea that has been a problem for users, for quite some time. It's not one that should be viewed with reverence.
That's a fancy sounding term for a half-baked idea that has been a problem for users, for quite some time. It's not one that should be viewed with reverence.
February 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Even fashionable security theater, which is what this is. Yes, I've heard of two factor authentication.
That's a fancy sounding term for a half-baked idea that has been a problem for users, for quite some time. It's not one that should be viewed with reverence.
That's a fancy sounding term for a half-baked idea that has been a problem for users, for quite some time. It's not one that should be viewed with reverence.