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Tony Wong

@thevballdude.bsky.social
336 followers 1.1K following 1.2K posts

Interests include content moderation/T&S/platforms, internet culture, buildings/infrastructure/transit, politics, elections, and maps. Oh, and volleyball.

PostsRepliesMedia
Tony Wong @thevballdude.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
This is a good way of thinking about my previous post, although I'm not entirely convinced that this is a meaningful difference as far as the average user is concerned.
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Tony Wong @thevballdude.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
In a sense, this really signals the beginning of the end (if not the end) of decentralized/composable moderation on Bluesky, at least for the most part.
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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 30/04/2026
The Iran war is accelerating a shift toward renewable energy as governments race to reduce supply-chain vulnerabilities, according to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
bloom.bg
Iran War Is ‘Supercharging’ the Energy Transition, UNFCCC Says
The Iran war is accelerating a shift toward renewable energy as governments race to reduce supply-chain vulnerabilities, according to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
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ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
we know the account yet?
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hammancheez but spooky @hammancheez.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
the body language in this shot is legit art AOC : clearly 'go fuck yourself, raccoon dick chopper' RFK Jr : leaning forward, trying to dominate, stammering, failing Lady in back : grinning at RFK Jr's obvious confusion at being faced with opposition Cop, back to viewer : 'bruh' body language
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
you wouldnt believe this big wooden horse, oh it’s so beautiful you wouldnt believe and theyre saying “mr trump youll never get that horse in.” look at em back there. the fake news. but we’re gonna bring in that horse folks and we’ll say “thank you, bye bye” but they don’t think we can get it in
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Jeremy Diamond ☕️ @dmnd.me · 24/03/2026
Forget TACO, we are approaching the NACHOOO Zone Not Able to Cease Hostilities On Our Own
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ETH Zurich @ethz.ch · 11/03/2026
A large international study across 13 EU countries shows that a decisive #MiddleGroup often determines whether #ClimatePolicy proposals gain majority support.
ethz.ch
Climate policies: The swing voters that determine their fate
A large-scale international study spanning 13 EU countries shows that when it comes to climate policy proposals, the decisive factor is not the pro- or con-camps that are decisive, but a substantial m...
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ETH Zurich @ethz.ch · 12/03/2026
#ClimateChange is lengthening our days. Rising sea levels slow Earth’s rotation, and the current increase is unmatched in the past 3.6 million years.
baug.ethz.ch
Climate change slows Earth’s spin: Day lengthening unprecedented in million years
Climate change is lengthening our days because rising sea levels slow Earth’s rotation. Researchers from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich now show that the current increase in day length – 1.33...
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Matthew Ponsford @interspecies.agency · 13/03/2026
Just incredible shoebill awareness-raising from this Hong Kong teens' magazine
Photographs of a dinosaur-looking bird, the shoebill, and popstar Sabrina Carpenter, overlaid with a height comparison showing both are 152 cm, with visual graphics saying the magazine's name SSWAGGER and some Chinese characters Photographs of a shoebill and popstar Sabrina Carpenter overlaid with a height comparison showing that, yes indeed, both are just 152 cmI can't even begin to describe this photograph. I think that might be Taylor Swift on a night out with Sabrina Carpenter. But Sabrina is photoshopped to have a shoebill face and talons, with wing-tips coming out her coat but still Sabrina's hair
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Tim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Today was the day Donald Trump became the green energy president
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 20/02/2026
one thing that drives me insane about modern platforms is how many default to "3 months" or "1 year" instead of showing the actual date of a post, very frustrating
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 13/02/2026
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes! "Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
academic.oup.com
Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky
Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 12/02/2026
the informal second person plural in english is now "chat"
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Tony Wong @thevballdude.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
IMO the issue is that if Will and Sky had their way, there is a risk that Bluesky simply becomes Threads 2.0 (this isn't anything against Threads, but it's also why we don't need a duplicate). I also get the feeling that what a lot of people On Here really want is "Threads without Zuckerberg"...
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 04/02/2026
Most people are worried about climate change - but most don't hear or talk about regularly. That's why I started my free newsletter Talking Climate. Every week I share good news, not so good news, and what people can do. If you aren't a reader yet, see below. I have 6 different ways to subscribe!
A global map showing that most people don't talk about or hear about climate change regularly (except in Scandinavia - I believe this is the Greta Effect!). Source: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.A global map showing that most people are worried about climate change. Source: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
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Tony Wong @thevballdude.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
This sounds like one of those cases where someone was banned for their own good (as in "it would be beneficial for their mental health"). As for whether it should be temporary or permanent, I'll just say that permabans should only be used as a last resort.
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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
some good climate/energy news: * 96% of new US power capacity was carbon-free in 2024 (56 gigawatts!) * 2025 included the first month ever when 51% of power on the U.S. grid was carbon-free * The golbal trend is overwhelming: The world is now investing more $ in clean energy than fossil fuels
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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 23/12/2025
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
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Victoria @vicwalker.dev.br · 07/12/2025
Why the fuck is a temporary suspension still ending up as a PDS-level takedown? Ok, sure, it should be back to normal after the given time. But that's not what was promised back in September (pfrazee.leaflet.pub/3lz4sgu7iec2k).
pfrazee.leaflet.pub
Update on Protocol Moderation - Paul's Leaflets
Where account takedowns happen is important
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olive consumer's floating skull @machete.gay · 03/12/2025
I do think the X feature that shows what country/region an account posts from is inherently pretty good and should be a standard feature on every social media website. It genuinely sucks that Elon Musk, noted shithead, is the one guy doing it.
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Scott Ferguson @videotroph.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS! EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PUBLISHED BOOKS! www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/978...
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🎃 scarecrowcialism 👻 @swolecialism.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
he got a three day timeout for a month-old post lol
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Tony Wong @thevballdude.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Silly me thinking composable moderation would prevent situations like this
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ETH Zurich @ethz.ch · 19/11/2025
How people react to uncertainty has far-reaching socio-political consequences: A new ETH Zurich study found that people who perceive uncertainty as an opportunity are less likely to vote for right-wing populists. ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
ethz.ch
People who rate uncertainty positively are less likely to vote for right-wing populists
How people deal with uncertainty influences their political behaviour – and the stability of democracy. A new study by ETH Zurich shows that if uncertainty is seen as an opportunity, the willingness t...
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ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 14/11/2025
It feels like a lot of disconnect comes from the fact that what makes sense as operable policies for a scaled social media site has low relevance to what makes sense as norms for healthy society, despite our expectation that these should have more of a relationship.
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Tim Bray @tbray.org · 14/11/2025
I thought the @sarahkendzior.bsky.social suspension was an interestingly nontrivial moderation scenario. I wrote up a little case study/explainer on how it might have been handled on Mastodon. Probably only for people who care about moderation nitty-gritty. www.tbray.org/ongoing/When...
Actions available to a Mastodon moderatorMore actions available to a Mastodon moderator
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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 14/11/2025
Sigh. I want to like these folks but I wish they would stop stepping on rakes. *taps sign, again*
platformocracy.com
Bluesky trust and safety is too important to be left to Bluesky
Bluesky is open about almost everything, except setting and enforcing their community guidelines. They have an opportunity to lead the Internet forward with a democratic alternative.
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Tony Wong @thevballdude.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Bluesky should really specify whether a suspension is temporary or permanent. @pfrazee.com @aaron.bsky.team
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
When you are a small social media site getting the same letter as Meta, Google, and TikTok, that's a sign that you're under a degree of scrutiny that is quite frankly terrifying, especially in this current climate!
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
It likely does not help that Bluesky was one of the six social media sites that got the letter from Clay Higgins, chair of the law enforcement subcommittee of the House oversight committee, about violent rhetoric after Charlie Kirk's death: clayhiggins.house.gov/2025/09/15/h...
clayhiggins.house.gov
Higgins Calls Upon Social Media CEOs to Condemn the Celebration of Charlie Kirk’s Assassination - Congressman Clay Higgins
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) delivered a letter to social media leaders demanding the immediate removal of posts and accounts that celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk, t...
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Bluesky used to use a much less stringent threshold for removing violent rhetoric than they do today, and it changed to the current more-stringent policy early on, when a large number of users objected to hyperbolic violent rhetoric used against a prominent poster that was not moderated.
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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 12/11/2025
I believe the mods when they say they haven't finished the technical work necessary to automatically inform users of what posts they're being suspended for. I also believe that's not an acceptable flaw for this website in late 2025.
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Ms . Penny Oaken @skywitchy.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
The upshot is that moderation employees can’t deviate from their playbook.
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Ms . Penny Oaken @skywitchy.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
The implication of which is that every obvious copyright violation those discretion-exercising employees fail to deal with, with equal agency, opens the door to effectively unlimited liability to copyright holders whose works are infringed upon.
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Ms . Penny Oaken @skywitchy.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
One of those reasons is an (‘ancient’ haha) bit of case law attached to Mavrix Photography LLC v LiveJournal, Inc. which delineates that employed moderators who have the ability and opportunity to exercise judgement on moderating content, also have A&O on obv. copyright violations
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Ms . Penny Oaken @skywitchy.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Trust & Safety moderation employees / contractors, for a significant number of reasons, are not afforded the ability nor the opportunity to exercise their own judgement. They are not volunteer moderators, (who can and should exercise discretion); employees must stick to a rulebook.
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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 12/11/2025
I think this kind of information is extremely useful to have when a platform suspends a high-profile public figure, and I'd much rather see people arguing about whether this is a good rule than, say, whether a journalist was banned for sharply criticizing an elected official.
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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 12/11/2025
The thread includes three statements we didn't know until now: 1. Rationale 2. Kind of mod action (72 hour suspension) 3. Notification was sent (No one but Sarah knows what notification she actually saw or exactly what it included—the team's said they're working on better emails.)
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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 12/11/2025
I want to restate something I said in a lot of replies yesterday, which is that this move is not going to reduce replies yelling at the Bsky team—and that should not be the goal. What it does is clarify how moderation works here so that people can assess that and act accordingly.
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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Bluesky suspended Sarah Kendzior today for no reason whatsoever. She just shared excerpts of her articles, which were as always incisive and not offensive at all. Hey @pfrazee.com this is super not OK. I know her- we've interacted a fair bit via chats and her work is essential.
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Jim Calabro ♟️ @calabro.io · 03/11/2025
This is a fun chart! The green is the main bsky load balancer traffic throughput from Saturday night, and the purple is how much traffic there was 7 days before (the previous Saturday) The spike is due to the world series - pretty incredible! ⚾
A chart of the main bsky backend load balancer request throughput compared to 7 days earlier (the previous Saturday). There's a massive spike during the world series game.
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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 22/10/2025
There was already a *lot* going on with Bluesky, and now it's under even more pressure. I wrote about how I think about moderation, affordances, expectations, human needs, and powerful trolls for @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/trump-admini...
techpolicy.press
Trump Administration's Arrival on Bluesky Highlights Growing Pains for Open Networks | TechPolicy.Press
The administration’s antagonistic entry to the platform is best understood as a game of chicken, writes Erin Kissane.
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 01/10/2025
🌐 From the first web page created in 1991… to 1 trillion web pages archived today. Every meme, blog, tweet & vanished site is part of our shared story. This is our collective memory. And it’s being saved. Join in our celebration this October: blog.archive.org/trillion/ #Wayback1T #WaybackMachine
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Ted Han★ 韓聖安 @knowtheory.net · 31/08/2025
Neat! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement
Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Posts about scientific research on Bluesky receive substantially more attention than similar posts on Twitter. More importantly, you're far less likely to get sexist or racist replies.
go.nature.com
Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement
Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.
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Cameron Patrick @cameronpat.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
not at all surprising: arstechnica.com/science/2025...
arstechnica.com
Bluesky now platform of choice for science community
It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…
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