Bluesky Architecture compared to other social media services

Printable version

Éibhear Ó hAnluain

2024-05-24 Fri 00:00

Introduction

Boo!

General social media architectures

Simplistic view 1/2 – overview

structurizr-1-001-GenericSocial-01.png

Simplistic view 2/2 – services

structurizr-1-002-GenericSocial-02.png

  • Social media user access the app
  • The app interacts with the API
  • The API is the gateway for the database of posts, responses, likes, etc.

More realistic view 1/4 – overview

structurizr-1-003-RealisticSocial-01.png

More realistic view 2/4 – basic services

structurizr-1-004-RealisticSocial-02.png

  • Social media user access the app
  • The app interacts with the API
  • The API is the gateway for the database of posts, responses, likes, etc.
  • The API also captures data for building profiles of users for targeting purposes
  • The algorithmic feed generator guides the API on what posts to place into the app's feed

More realistic view 3/4 – the algorithm

structurizr-1-005-RealisticSocial-03.png

  • Social media user access the app
  • The app interacts with the API
  • The API is the gateway for the database of posts, responses, likes, etc.
  • The API also captures data for building profiles of users for targeting purposes
  • The algorithmic feed generator guides the API on what posts to place into the app's feed
  • Algorithmic feeds are created by the service administrator, using an app only they have access to

More realistic view 4/4 – content moderation

structurizr-1-006-RealisticSocial-04.png

  • Social media user access the app
  • The app interacts with the API
  • The API is the gateway for the database of posts, responses, likes, etc.
  • The API also captures data for building profiles of users for targeting purposes
  • The algorithmic feed generator guides the API on what posts to place into the app's feed
  • Algorithmic feeds are created by the service administrator, using an app only they have access to
  • Moderation is also performed by a member of the service's staff, using a dedicate app and services the the user doesn't have access to

Federated social media services

Federated services 1/8 – overview

structurizr-1-007-FederatedSocial-01.png

Federated services 2/8 – internal, administration and content moderation services

structurizr-1-008-FederatedSocial-02.png

  • Same as before, the user access the service through an App that uses an API
  • As federated services are small, the administrator and the moderator are the one person
  • No algorithmic feeds, though
    • not popular in the fediverse community
    • difficult to implement in a federated environment.

Federated services 3/8 – federation 1

structurizr-1-009-FederatedSocial-03.png

  • Same as before, the user access the service through an App that uses an API
  • As federated services are small, the administrator and the moderator are the one person
  • No algorithmic feeds, though
    • not popular in the fediverse community
    • difficult to implement in a federated environment.
  • Federation service to push activity out to the federated network
  • Federation API to take in activity from other nodes
  • A logical database of inbound federated posts
  • Federation using ActivityPub standard

Federated services 4/8 – federation 2

structurizr-1-010-FederatedSocial-04.png

Federated services 5/8 – federation 3

structurizr-1-011-FederatedSocial-05.png

Federated services 6/8 – federation 4

structurizr-1-012-FederatedSocial-06.png

Federated services 7/8 – federation 5

structurizr-1-013-FederatedSocial-07.png

Federated services 8/8 – federation 6

structurizr-1-014-FederatedSocial-08.png