Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Is Stepping Down (wired.com) 48
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down after overseeing the platform's growth from a Twitter research project into a 40-million-user alternative to X. "As Bluesky matures, the company needs a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things," Graber wrote in a statement.
She will be transitioning to a new Chief Innovation Officer role while Venture capitalist Toni Schneider will serve as interim CEO until the board searches for a permanent replacement. Wired reports: Graber joined Bluesky in 2019, when it was a research project within Twitter focused on developing a decentralized framework for the social web. She became the company's first chief executive officer in 2021, when it spun out into an independent entity. She oversaw the platform's remarkable rise and the growing pains it experienced as it transformed from a quirky Twitter offshoot to a full-fledged alternative to X. Schneider tells WIRED that he intends to help Bluesky "become not just the best open social app, but the foundation for a whole new generation of user-owned networks."
Schneider, who will continue working as a partner at the venture capital firm True Ventures while at Bluesky, was previously CEO of the Wordpress parent company, Automattic, from 2006 to 2014. He also served as its CEO again in 2024 while top executive Matt Mullenweg went on a sabbatical. During that time, Schneider met Graber and became an adviser to Bluesky's leadership. In a blog post announcing his new role, Schneider said he plans to emphasize scaling, describing his job as "to help set up Bluesky's next phase of growth."
This isn't the end for Graber and Bluesky. She will transition to become the company's chief innovation officer, a role focused on Bluesky's technology stack rather than its business operations. The position was created for her. Graber, who began her career as a software engineer, has always sounded the most enthusiastic when discussing Bluesky's technology rather than its revenue streams. Bluesky's board of directors will appoint the next permanent CEO. The members include Jabber founder Jeremie Miller, crypto-focused VC Kinjal Shah, TechDirt founder Mike Masnick, and Graber. (Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was originally part of the board but quit in 2024.) This means Graber will have input on her successor. The talent search is still in early stages.
She will be transitioning to a new Chief Innovation Officer role while Venture capitalist Toni Schneider will serve as interim CEO until the board searches for a permanent replacement. Wired reports: Graber joined Bluesky in 2019, when it was a research project within Twitter focused on developing a decentralized framework for the social web. She became the company's first chief executive officer in 2021, when it spun out into an independent entity. She oversaw the platform's remarkable rise and the growing pains it experienced as it transformed from a quirky Twitter offshoot to a full-fledged alternative to X. Schneider tells WIRED that he intends to help Bluesky "become not just the best open social app, but the foundation for a whole new generation of user-owned networks."
Schneider, who will continue working as a partner at the venture capital firm True Ventures while at Bluesky, was previously CEO of the Wordpress parent company, Automattic, from 2006 to 2014. He also served as its CEO again in 2024 while top executive Matt Mullenweg went on a sabbatical. During that time, Schneider met Graber and became an adviser to Bluesky's leadership. In a blog post announcing his new role, Schneider said he plans to emphasize scaling, describing his job as "to help set up Bluesky's next phase of growth."
This isn't the end for Graber and Bluesky. She will transition to become the company's chief innovation officer, a role focused on Bluesky's technology stack rather than its business operations. The position was created for her. Graber, who began her career as a software engineer, has always sounded the most enthusiastic when discussing Bluesky's technology rather than its revenue streams. Bluesky's board of directors will appoint the next permanent CEO. The members include Jabber founder Jeremie Miller, crypto-focused VC Kinjal Shah, TechDirt founder Mike Masnick, and Graber. (Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was originally part of the board but quit in 2024.) This means Graber will have input on her successor. The talent search is still in early stages.
never gonna grabe you up (Score:4, Insightful)
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"Scathing execration" comes to mind as a possible first step on the evolutionary chain from the latter to the former.
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Remember, you can't spell "enshittification" without "scaling and execution". Well, they have several letters in common, at least.
That's a shitty comparison.
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No need to worry, I dont think this ideologically very limited monoculture platform will last much longer..
"ideologically very limited" is a weird way to say "bans nazis", you precious little snowflake.
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Re: No need to worry (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe it's about who they ban so much as who creates an account there to begin with, and even then, actively participates, and even still, what they actually talk about.
Of the major social media platforms, I tend to abserve the following:
- Twitter: anything and everything, even though the vast majority of it is completely useless
- YouTube: anything and everything, even if most of it is demonetized
- Reddit: anything and everything, if it weren't for the fact that the vast majority of it is automatically blocked and/or shadowbanned by AIs of infinite wisdom
- TikTok: Endless scroll of content that isn't given the time of day to be meaningful, but also an endless dopamine hit for stupid people. Effectively a poor man's heroine
- Fecebook: Endless scroll of cat memes and people reacting to stupid shit their neighbor did last night
- Bluesky: Endless scroll of outrage and doom about something in the current news cycle, especially if some other unknown person must surely find it offensive because of their identity
Only three of these occasionally have something worthwhile. The rest do not.
Regardless, while I understand that you desire to ad-hominem everybody you don't like by labeling them a nazi, and require that all nazis be banned, all this does is firmly ensnare you into an echo chamber. While echo chambers might make you feel good, they aren't intellectually stimulating.
Bluesky may as well just be "TikTok for assholes" because being in the right echo chamber yields dopamine. Sure, other sites have their share of assholes, big ones at that, but in their defense, at least they have other stuff too.
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Look, twitter (also known as the worse rebrand in history), is lead by an actual nazi. You might excuse his nazi salute that maybe wasn't actually one. You might excuse mecha hitler. But just look at the crap he is spreading, this is nazi crap, the fact that he (and many others like stephen miller) stay somewhat politically correct by not daring to claim the nazi name or say the n word doesn't mean much. When he says civil war is inevitable in uk, we all know which are the two sides.
And to make it worst, ev
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I don't believe it's about who they ban so much as who creates an account there to begin with
Anyone who's actually used it knows that trolling scum does create accounts there, then they get blocked.
Like the new CEO, you don't seem to have used it.
Re: No need to worry (Score:1)
I've browsed it a bit, but there's nothing worthwhile on it. The only good thing about it is that it doesn't ask you to log in every time you do just about fucking anything, which that alone would put it well above Twitter for the simple fact that I don't persist cookies for most sites (banking is the only major exception, which I keep in its own container tab) nor do I ever care to log into them to begin with.
But that's what nitter is for. So why would I ever want to visit an intellectual desert like blues
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I've browsed it a bit, but there's nothing worthwhile on it. [...] So why would I ever want to visit an intellectual desert like bluesky, again?
If it's an intellectual desert because you're not there, I hope it never ever rains.
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Desert does not mean arid.
Though I suppose in your case, the only kind of rain you ever want to see comes from a golden shower while you're being shit on, so it makes sense that you'd say something like this.
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Desert does not mean arid.
No one said that but you. You seem confused. Try taking your meds.
Re: No need to worry (Score:1)
Oh and the reason you hope it never rains is because the rain would only serve to wash the urine and poo off of your face. Got it. Yeah that is confusing, because otherwise mentioning rain the way you did makes absolutely no sense given you aren't implying an arid desert.
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I am just curious - how does BlueSky's popularity compare to Gettr or Truth Social?
Re: No need to worry (Score:5, Informative)
Most recent data I could find shows:
Truth Social 6 million active
Gettr 9 million (total, maybe half are active)
Bluesky 40 million with about 3.5 million active.
Re:No need to worry (Score:5, Interesting)
I like Bluesky. I don't need to live on the edge all the time, I don't need to near what Twitter Nazis have to say. If that's a bubble then I'm okay with it, it's got cats and some politics and it's not my only source of information.
Maybe it's too good for the capitalist world we live in and won't survive, but if it dies I won't be going back to Twitter.
Someone should make a Bluesky for Reddit. Reddit without the gaslighting and moderation abuse.
Re:No need to worry (Score:5, Insightful)
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There is a certain feeling of entitlement from people who feel that others shouldn't be able to block them.
Then put your money where your mouth is (Score:3, Informative)
> Schneider tells WIRED that he intends to help Bluesky "become not just the best open social app, but the foundation for a whole new generation of user-owned networks."
Bluesky will remain a normal monolithic network as long as its owned and controlled by one group. If they want to prove they intend to do what they're claiming they want to do, they need to decentralize, and split the company into multiple (at least 3) social network portals with their own critical infrastructure.
For now, there's only one decentralized network, and it's not BS.
Bluesky copying or.... (Score:2)
just changing its name to Mastodon?
Technical debt from the start (Score:1)
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Mind you Threads actually DID implement ActivityPub
And got met by 3/4 of the mastodon network going "Oh hell no, keep your weird boomers out of our network, facebook" and blocked. I tried looking up the threads account my instagram account auto-created on mastodon, and there was nothing. Turns out the admin of my mastodon account blocked it to keep out the stupid facebook AI slop that besets the facebook , er meta I mean, networks.
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The exit strategy begins.... (Score:2)
.... enshittification to follow.
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Infinite money glitch (Score:2)
Create a political echo chamber online and grab a bunch of startup capital. Allow people to rile themselves up on said platform. Sell the data and the platform off to the "enemy". Create the next political echo chamber online and have everyone from the previous platform move there. Repeat until the extremists are such a minority that they aren't worth the money.
Bluesky (Score:2)
Bluesky, rhymes with Brewski.