One of the most overlooked features of Bluesky is this concept of "composable moderation". In normal people words, that's the idea that really anyone can moderate the feed how they see fit. There are multiple ways to do this through different means and we'll talk a little bit about how it all works.

AppView-Level Moderation

What's An AppView

An "AppView" is a server in the network that's designed to pull all of the activity on the network an app would need into one spot. It's the app's view of the network. Bluesky has one of these AppViews, Blacksky has an AppView, Northsky, W Social, and Eurosky are also working to create their own AppViews, meaning that each app/website will have a slightly different view of the network.

How Moderation Is Applied

Each group is responsible for moderating their own AppViews. The services that collect all of the activity across the network don't look at what that content is, they just move things around like pipes. Once you get to the AppView, though, moderators are able to start taking a look at the content and determining whether or not it should be able to make it to the app (again, affecting the app's view of the network).

Content Labelers

The tools that are responsible for marking content as "allowed" on the AppView are called labelers. They literally skim through all of the activity on the network and will label it certain ways. Some things will get labeled as spam, intolerant language, illegal behavior, or really anything under the sun. AppViews subscribe to these labelers as part of the process of moderation. Some of the groups also run labelers to moderate the AppView themselves like Bluesky, Blacksky, and Northsky.

What This Means

A group could create an AppView that doesn't subscribe to the labeler that's run by Bluesky. That means that none of the moderation decisions made by Bluesky are actually visible in the app's view. Nobody is required to listen to Bluesky's moderation decisions, they only affect the AppViews (view of the network) that subscribe to that labeler (activity monitor).

If you disagreed with Bluesky's moderation policies on certain views or certain types of content, you could log into another app that uses a different AppView. You don't need a new account, you don't need to follow everyone again, it's all just there, but you're no longer seeing Bluesky's moderation decisions.

Self-Subscribed Labelers

Labelers aren't just for AppViews. Users are also able to subscribe to labelers from the app that they're using. This means that, if there's something that you want blocked/muted/hidden that's not included in the AppView's labelers, then you can apply it yourself.

I use a few different labelers, but one of my most useful ones is an activity labeler. It will show a little badge on an account that will tell me if the user posts a lot, follows a lot of accounts very quickly, unfollows a lot of accounts very quickly, or if they have been steadily posting over a period of time without taking a break.

This labeler really helps show me accounts that are either automated without declaring that they are (with that little robot logo that shows up). It also shows me whether an account is following me in order to get a follow back and is not actually interested in my content and will unfollow me soon.

Moderation Lists

This is a much simpler form of moderation. Effectively, these are just lists of users that you can mute or block (like a reverse starter pack). If you subscribe to a moderation list, you can choose to either mute or block the users on the list, and that list of users is determined by the owner of the list.

How This Works With AppView Moderation

This is in addition to AppView moderation. The moderation lists can only be more strict than the moderation that the AppView is applying. They cannot be used to show content that would otherwise be blocked. This can be used for many different things, like muting people talking about subjects that you don't want to hear about, whether it's AI, American Politics, or a sport you don't care about.

Blocking and Muting

This is the one that everyone's used to on other social media networks. You block a user to never see their content or interact with them again. You mute a user to hide their content, but not completely toss them into the abyss. This can be done on the individual level or you can use the lists we just talked about.

Why I Think You Should Care

This is a really important feature of the Atmosphere's network—you have control over what you see on the internet. A lot of controversy sparks around moderation decisions (or lack thereof) on a lot of apps. Here, that's not a problem. Nobody is beholden to Bluesky's moderation policies. Nobody's beholden to Blacksky's moderation policies. You get to pick what you want. You have control. Does it take a little more work? Sure. But one moderation service can't make everyone happy and, by putting in a little bit of effort on your end, you get to take back your feed.