Bluesky, the much-hyped decentralized social network, hit a snag recently—and people are a little confused. Like, isn’t the *whole point* of decentralization that it *can’t* go down? Well… yes, but also, not exactly.
Bluesky Went Down. Yes, Really.
On Thursday night, users trying to scroll through Bluesky were met with a whole lot of *nothing*. The app—on both web and mobile—was out of commission for nearly an hour. Bluesky acknowledged the outage on its [status page](https://status.bsky.app), blaming something called **“Major PDS Networking Problems.”** (PDS = *Personal Data Servers*—basically the storage brains behind your posts and profile.)
They posted their first alert at 6:55 PM ET and started rolling out a fix around 7:38 PM ET.
But Isn’t Bluesky… Decentralized? How Did It Even Crash?
Great question, internet sleuth!
Bluesky *is* decentralized—meaning it’s built so that no single company or server is supposed to control the whole experience. Instead, it uses something called the **AT Protocol**, which allows multiple servers and apps to talk to each other and share data, in theory creating a more open and resilient social web.
**But here’s the catch:** Most people are still using the *official* Bluesky app, and it currently relies heavily on Bluesky’s own infrastructure. So when *their* systems hiccup, the whole party kind of stops.
Think of it like this: even though the *blueprint* says everyone can build their own house, 99% of people are still crashing on Bluesky’s couch. So when their internet goes out… yeah. Everyone notices.
Not Everyone Felt the Crash
Interestingly, the few adventurous users and communities who had already set up their *own* personal servers? They were chillin’. No outage. No drama. This actually highlights the **long-term vision** of decentralization: over time, more people will host their own servers, use different apps, and create diverse, resilient communities—meaning one glitch won’t take the whole system down.
One such community? **Blacksky**, a group using Bluesky’s tools to build safer, more welcoming online spaces tailored to specific needs. That’s where decentralization starts to shine.
Meanwhile… Over on Mastodon
Of course, no tech drama is complete without a little snark from the neighbors.
**Mastodon**, another decentralized network (but based on a different protocol called ActivityPub), had its moment in the spotlight. Users there were quick to throw some shade at Bluesky’s growing pains.
One user joked:
“See how the mighty Bluesky crumbles while the Raspberry Pi running Mastodon under my bed just keeps chugging along.”
Translation: My little DIY server’s doing just fine, thanks.
Another quipped:
“Nice decentralization ya got there.”
Oof. Internet burns are eternal.
The TL;DR: What This Means for You
– Yes, Bluesky is decentralized, but it’s still early days.
– Most people are using the official app, so if that goes down, the user experience does too.
– More independence is coming, with communities and developers building their own setups.
– This kind of hiccup is a normal (if frustrating) part of building something new.
– The dream of a truly open, stable, and decentralized social web? Still very much alive.
So, next time Bluesky goes offline for a bit, don’t panic. It’s just growing pains—and maybe a sign that it’s time to start learning what a “personal data server” actually is.
