Fediverse memes

Eh. Doesn't seem too bad, but then again, I haven't made an account there because of it not really being decentralized enough for my taste.
Seems kinda dumb to go from one centralized service like X to another. Bluesky's claims of being decentralized are highly exaggerated.

Anybody know what the real reason for this is?

All websites can track how often a link is clicked, and what the link is, and who clicked it (especially if you have an account).

I use an app called URLcheck that I've installed via F-Droid. Although it doesn't appear to give me the ability to skip the bluesky redirect action but at least I know it's there I guess.

They never needed to redirect to do that in the first place. It's probably just done for convenience. Websites quietly tracking outgoing links has been technically possible since the '90s.

As someone who ran a popular link shortening platform let me tell you how difficult it is to curtail spam links.

This is likely a way to warn users before being forwarded to fraudulent websites that a link has been marked as spam.

There are many other use cases for this redirect as well but this is the most obvious for user safety.

I mean, it was made by former Twitter execs... and that was marketed as an "advantage" over alternatives like Mastodon. This isn't surprising at all unless you literally don't pay any attention to anything.

Bluesky never felt quite right.

Wolves in sheep's clothing.

This is for publishers to track outgoing links.

That was fast