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Wow! That was handled nicely. Props to the @moderation.bsky.app team.

Bluesky Moderation Team

Hi there,

Recently, we removed a Bluesky account you control (@babu.dev) for violations of our guidelines. After a thorough review, we have determined that the takedown action applied to your account was incorrect. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Consequently, we are revising our initial decision and reinstating your account.

Thank you for doing your part to keep Bluesky a welcoming and empowering place for all users.
--
Bluesky Moderation Team

Tim Burks <timburks@gmail.com>

Thank you very much! No harm was done to me by your decision.

best regards,

Tim

000

I haven't heard anything yet, so this morning I sent in a request with "Appeal" in the title so the LLMs would be more likely to recognize it.

I'd like to request a lifting of the suspension of the
did:web:babu.dev identity.

Here's what I believe triggered the suspension:

On Friday (9/18), I was testing a self-hosted did:web:babu.dev (using
a private custom PDS implementation) as an alternative to my main
Bluesky account (@timburks.me, did:plc:ahr5yhciwadehhwm7fotyfju). As I
was doing this, I uploaded my sifa.id and semble.so records, around
2000 in total. These did not seem to be recognized by these two apps.
I suspected that the problem was that I created these records before
first using the apps, so the apps might have ignored them when they
appeared on the firehose. So to reset the apps, I deleted these
records and recreated them, initially with individual transactions for
each record. Later I rewrote my uploader to post records in large
batches (100 at a time), but my repeated deletion and recreation
attempts all failed to clear whatever caches that the sifa and semble
apps were using. In hindsight, it seems likely that this exceeded
moderation thresholds. These were app-specific records and not visible
to Bluesky users, so I think it would be inaccurate to say that this
activity was "spammy". But I would agree that it overloaded the
firehose and should not be repeated in the future.

Here's what I'm doing to prevent this from happening again:

I've added a "mute" mode to my PDS implementation. It turns off
firehose output during large imports with the expectation that a
"sync" event could tell interested clients about the large-scale
changes. Large batched requests are also supported via
com.atproto.repo.applyWrites.

Based on this I have a request and a suggestion:

Request: Please remove the "!takedown" label from did:web:babu.dev.

Suggestion: Please consider providing a more direct way to observe
account status than abrupt takedowns. For now, I'll explore watching
for "needs-review" labels on my accounts.

Thank you!

100

I was just discussing this yesterday with my wife, who starts teaching fall term college math classes today, and we agreed that anytime anyone uses the term "AI" it just worsens the problem. "Tech product" at least indicates the origin (and hints at the untrustworthiness)

010

An excellent expansion of "There are two ways to pass the Turing Test"

020

Red Hat Linux is losing its grip on the professional world—here's what's replacing it

I've become a big fan of Podman (a Red Hat project), but use it on Ubuntu and can't remember when I last ran a Red Hat distribution. www.howtogeek.com/red-hat-linu...

howtogeek.com

A major research lab quietly pivots OS strategy after vendor shifts leave critical hardware unsupported.

010

next time we should go for sushi, less slippery

010

What it Means to Be a Mathematician When AI Does the Math

Benjamin Skuse wrote this nice article about technology in mathematics for @spectrum.ieee.org and while he did a great job talking to mathematicians, I was deeply disappointed that he referred to all the tech as "AI" without discussing who made it or how it was made spectrum.ieee.org/ai-in-mathem...

spectrum.ieee.org

Researchers debate motivation, purpose, and the field’s future

140

Maybe there are no humans handling this? My reply didn't include the phrase "I would like to appeal this decision" so maybe it was too indirect for the AI? :) I'll wait to see what happens when the work week starts.

100

I got a reply right away, but I wonder if it was automated. It didn't say exactly what the problem was and I haven't gotten a response yet to a follow up email that I sent on Friday evening.

Hi there,

A Bluesky account you control (@babu.dev) has been detected by our systems as being spammy, inauthentic, or disruptive to users. As a result, your account has been taken down.

As a reminder, Bluesky requires that users do not harm others, including spamming, scamming, phishing or otherwise disrupting the Bluesky experience for other users.

If you have any additional questions or wish to appeal this decision please email moderation@blueskyweb.xyz. We understand the inconvenience that the suspension may have caused to your Bluesky experience. Be prepared to show ID to verify that you are the same persona that operates the account as part of your appeal.

100

Here's why I am getting into did:web for self-hosting: four instances of my PDS, each serving on a different domain and hosting a family of did:web accounts with no off-server dependencies.

031

At least Ryan Day has held on to the lead

001

Gus and Joel were wasted today on this Ohio State Kent State game

110

but just sent a query to moderation@blueskyweb.xyz

100

I don't see an email or anything explaining it

100

Tim Burks @babu.dev · 18/09/2026

Whoops! My new did web account got suspended

220

Reposted by Tim Burks (inactive)

I wrote a PDS for self-hosting. Since my host needs a name, it seems natural to use a did:web for my identity, and did:web:babu.dev is a lot more legible than a did:plc. So I'm going to try using this for a while.

051

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 18/09/2026

Couldn't work anywhere that calls it "golang"

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 17/09/2026

A Bay Area Gathering Space?!?

030

Reposted by Tim Burks (inactive)

Tony Zhou @tyzhou.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Despite Bluesky's open architecture, we find significant power asymmetries. The platform retains privileged access to granular user interaction data, and only a handful of creators hold the technical expertise to build powerful algorithms without relying on third-party tools.

1162

Reposted by Tim Burks (inactive)

Michael Orr @michael-orr.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I hate that to be happy Ohio State lost we have to endure fucking Texas winning

181

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 13/09/2026

I would never root for Texas unless they were playing the one team I hated moTHE STARS AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGHT

040

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 12/09/2026

Michigan fans are dying of laughter now

020

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 11/09/2026

It's 9/11, the date of the second most commemorated public event in my lifetime

131

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 10/09/2026

I think if we fixed our billionaire problem there would be no problem with AI

020

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 09/09/2026

Debate me at #kexp www.kexp.org/read/2026/9/...

my top ten songs from the 90s:
1. sabotage (beastie boys)
2. flagpole sitta (harvey danger)
3. human behavior (bjork)
4. dreams (the cranberries)
5. smells like teen spirit (nirvana)
6. cannonball (the breeders)
7. know your chicken (cibo matto)
8. fight the power (public enemy)
9. killing in the name (ratm)
10. basket case (green day)

131

Reposted by Tim Burks (inactive)

Fibonacci Sequins @brentwaggoner.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I thought the most annoying AI evangelism was "use AI or die" but it's actually "it's fine if you don't want to use AI on your little coding hobby buddy, just know you won't be coding with us enterprise big dogs".

2191

unfollowing and blocking like it's LinkedIn

130

The latest debate is a real snoozer

120

I'm increasingly convinced that this is a debate between two kinds of people: people who have made beanie babies a part of their daily lives and understand how impactful this is and people who haven't tried beanie babies since the 90s and these groups will forever be talking past each other

120