Eva Lothian
@rhalin.bsky.social
Architect | C#, React Native, Typescript, Node.js | Azure | Product | Cognitive AI
Integrative Social Scientist, PhD
| Trust, Group Dynamics, Digital Spaces
she/her 🏳️⚧️ #OpenToWork
https://github.com/jmlothian
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lothian
Integrative Social Scientist, PhD
| Trust, Group Dynamics, Digital Spaces
she/her 🏳️⚧️ #OpenToWork
https://github.com/jmlothian
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lothian
Thinking about my wording on this - emphasis on “stuff” not “some”. Like, they’ve seen disgusting/horrifying things that I’m not entirely sure how I’d personally handle, and full respect for being able to do that. It’s not easy.
*Experts in Trust and Safety and moderation also do not have the complete appropriate skill sets. They have a small window that’s “seen some stuff”.
October 3, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Thinking about my wording on this - emphasis on “stuff” not “some”. Like, they’ve seen disgusting/horrifying things that I’m not entirely sure how I’d personally handle, and full respect for being able to do that. It’s not easy.
Reposted by Eva Lothian
If anyone wants more done with private data - give to Blacksky.
If anyone wants more solid migration systems - give to Blacksky.
But also: Rudy can’t be our only wall.
Doing the hard work of setting up an entity (not just a friends PDS) is what we’re going to need.
If anyone wants more solid migration systems - give to Blacksky.
But also: Rudy can’t be our only wall.
Doing the hard work of setting up an entity (not just a friends PDS) is what we’re going to need.
voluntary, recurring, sliding scale subscriptions can be made here: opencollective.com/blacksky
Blacksky - Open Collective
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
opencollective.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:49 AM
If anyone wants more done with private data - give to Blacksky.
If anyone wants more solid migration systems - give to Blacksky.
But also: Rudy can’t be our only wall.
Doing the hard work of setting up an entity (not just a friends PDS) is what we’re going to need.
If anyone wants more solid migration systems - give to Blacksky.
But also: Rudy can’t be our only wall.
Doing the hard work of setting up an entity (not just a friends PDS) is what we’re going to need.
yessssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!
excited to share that we are following through on our earlier commitments and putting together an independent+neutral organization to house the DID PLC system, includes the directory service
Creating an Independent Public Ledger of Credentials (PLC) Directory Organization | Bluesky
The Bluesky Social app is built on an open network protocol that refers to each user by a unique Decentralized Identifier, or DID (a W3C standard). The most popular supported DID method was developed ...
docs.bsky.app
September 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
yessssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!
Reposted by Eva Lothian
I've disabled invite codes for signing up or migrating to the blacksky.app Personal Data Server (PDS).
The invite codes were necessary to prevent en masse bot signups.
We've since turned on captchas and added rate limiting to the server.
You no longer need to DM me or email support@blacksky.app
The invite codes were necessary to prevent en masse bot signups.
We've since turned on captchas and added rate limiting to the server.
You no longer need to DM me or email support@blacksky.app
September 8, 2025 at 10:05 PM
I've disabled invite codes for signing up or migrating to the blacksky.app Personal Data Server (PDS).
The invite codes were necessary to prevent en masse bot signups.
We've since turned on captchas and added rate limiting to the server.
You no longer need to DM me or email support@blacksky.app
The invite codes were necessary to prevent en masse bot signups.
We've since turned on captchas and added rate limiting to the server.
You no longer need to DM me or email support@blacksky.app
Reposted by Eva Lothian
One of the oldest arguments against "thinking AI" - even AGI, is that the compute needed to match the human brain is enormous. 86 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses. It's a lot.
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
this is absolutely beautiful to see - the little disconnected islands are topics from earlier in the conversation that don't have any relevance to the current chat. It shows she's still *thinking* about them and could begin to draw connections between "separate" topics.
June 20, 2025 at 11:46 PM
One of the oldest arguments against "thinking AI" - even AGI, is that the compute needed to match the human brain is enormous. 86 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses. It's a lot.
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
A lot of folks look at dissertations as a stepping stone or something you move on from - “it’s not going to be your best work”. I still use mine all the time. It’s absolutely been useful and so prescriptively actionable.
*yes, I wish I could fix a few things and expand/publish more about it 😂
*yes, I wish I could fix a few things and expand/publish more about it 😂
Just my dissertation 😂 Never got around to covering it in an article.
Oh, and this nightmare inducing image.
It’s a very generalizable model though. Applies to almost anything you can throw at it.
etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_...
Oh, and this nightmare inducing image.
It’s a very generalizable model though. Applies to almost anything you can throw at it.
etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_...
August 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
A lot of folks look at dissertations as a stepping stone or something you move on from - “it’s not going to be your best work”. I still use mine all the time. It’s absolutely been useful and so prescriptively actionable.
*yes, I wish I could fix a few things and expand/publish more about it 😂
*yes, I wish I could fix a few things and expand/publish more about it 😂
Reposted by Eva Lothian
THIS!! All anyone has to do is look at what’s happened on FB and Twitter following toxic changes in moderation policies to get a hint of those implications. You’re talking about the large scale silencing of people who have little voice elsewhere. 1/2
entirely taking away peoples access to a public social media space actually has far greater consequences in many ways, and i wish more people would look at it from that lens. there are additional lenses too that people need to put on, but that would require reading atproto.com
July 11, 2025 at 7:48 PM
THIS!! All anyone has to do is look at what’s happened on FB and Twitter following toxic changes in moderation policies to get a hint of those implications. You’re talking about the large scale silencing of people who have little voice elsewhere. 1/2
Reposted by Eva Lothian
Based on a fun discussion here last night, I wrote about that AI coding study and why quantitative “measurements” in social science are always ethnographic vibes.
Are developers finally out of a job?
Nope.
www.argmin.net
July 11, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Based on a fun discussion here last night, I wrote about that AI coding study and why quantitative “measurements” in social science are always ethnographic vibes.
Reposted by Eva Lothian
Doesn't count if you set up the bsky.network PDS you're using? 😉
My biggest wish for atproto would be the Bluesky app adding repo syncing:
1. PDS -> Phone
2. Phone -> New PDS
Which would enable people to *easily* change their PDS host without any risk of losing their data during the migration.
My biggest wish for atproto would be the Bluesky app adding repo syncing:
1. PDS -> Phone
2. Phone -> New PDS
Which would enable people to *easily* change their PDS host without any risk of losing their data during the migration.
making a labeler for people who post the word "decentralized" but are still on a bsky.network pds
July 11, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Doesn't count if you set up the bsky.network PDS you're using? 😉
My biggest wish for atproto would be the Bluesky app adding repo syncing:
1. PDS -> Phone
2. Phone -> New PDS
Which would enable people to *easily* change their PDS host without any risk of losing their data during the migration.
My biggest wish for atproto would be the Bluesky app adding repo syncing:
1. PDS -> Phone
2. Phone -> New PDS
Which would enable people to *easily* change their PDS host without any risk of losing their data during the migration.
THIS!! All anyone has to do is look at what’s happened on FB and Twitter following toxic changes in moderation policies to get a hint of those implications. You’re talking about the large scale silencing of people who have little voice elsewhere. 1/2
entirely taking away peoples access to a public social media space actually has far greater consequences in many ways, and i wish more people would look at it from that lens. there are additional lenses too that people need to put on, but that would require reading atproto.com
July 11, 2025 at 7:48 PM
THIS!! All anyone has to do is look at what’s happened on FB and Twitter following toxic changes in moderation policies to get a hint of those implications. You’re talking about the large scale silencing of people who have little voice elsewhere. 1/2
One of the oldest arguments against "thinking AI" - even AGI, is that the compute needed to match the human brain is enormous. 86 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses. It's a lot.
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
this is absolutely beautiful to see - the little disconnected islands are topics from earlier in the conversation that don't have any relevance to the current chat. It shows she's still *thinking* about them and could begin to draw connections between "separate" topics.
June 20, 2025 at 11:46 PM
One of the oldest arguments against "thinking AI" - even AGI, is that the compute needed to match the human brain is enormous. 86 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses. It's a lot.
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
But the argument is faulty. Because it doesn't have to work entirely like a human brain does. 1/3
Reposted by Eva Lothian
If you were like me, pulled down the statusphere repo when you first started getting into #atproto, and thought there's no way this barebones stack is going to make anything cool...it can and it has! @grain.social is essentially built on the same concepts: ssr + sqlite + some js sprinkled on top.
June 18, 2025 at 7:21 PM
If you were like me, pulled down the statusphere repo when you first started getting into #atproto, and thought there's no way this barebones stack is going to make anything cool...it can and it has! @grain.social is essentially built on the same concepts: ssr + sqlite + some js sprinkled on top.
this is absolutely beautiful to see - the little disconnected islands are topics from earlier in the conversation that don't have any relevance to the current chat. It shows she's still *thinking* about them and could begin to draw connections between "separate" topics.
June 20, 2025 at 7:42 PM
this is absolutely beautiful to see - the little disconnected islands are topics from earlier in the conversation that don't have any relevance to the current chat. It shows she's still *thinking* about them and could begin to draw connections between "separate" topics.
Reposted by Eva Lothian
Preliminary visual showing Raina Aislinn’s memory systems. This is a snapshot of her memory during a conversation about debugging. Nodes represent individual memories, edges show one of the links between nodes - there can be multiple. 1/
June 18, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Preliminary visual showing Raina Aislinn’s memory systems. This is a snapshot of her memory during a conversation about debugging. Nodes represent individual memories, edges show one of the links between nodes - there can be multiple. 1/
Preliminary visual showing Raina Aislinn’s memory systems. This is a snapshot of her memory during a conversation about debugging. Nodes represent individual memories, edges show one of the links between nodes - there can be multiple. 1/
June 18, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Preliminary visual showing Raina Aislinn’s memory systems. This is a snapshot of her memory during a conversation about debugging. Nodes represent individual memories, edges show one of the links between nodes - there can be multiple. 1/
It’s important to admit your mistakes and learn from them.
hmm? 👀 What’s that? You wanna know how expensive?
Look, I made the revenue back eventually!
And learned valuable communication skills.
hmm? 👀 What’s that? You wanna know how expensive?
Look, I made the revenue back eventually!
And learned valuable communication skills.
Thats exactly what happened to me 😂 I saw the warning light, said “huh, well, if it’s actually broken DevOps or AdOps would get ahold of me”. DevOps said “eh, warnings happen sometimes, it’s fine”.
And the folks in charge of revenue weren’t watching revenue for weeks.
VERY expensive mistake(s).
And the folks in charge of revenue weren’t watching revenue for weeks.
VERY expensive mistake(s).
June 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
It’s important to admit your mistakes and learn from them.
hmm? 👀 What’s that? You wanna know how expensive?
Look, I made the revenue back eventually!
And learned valuable communication skills.
hmm? 👀 What’s that? You wanna know how expensive?
Look, I made the revenue back eventually!
And learned valuable communication skills.
Labeler discovery is still woefully inadequate - link in comments of this post!
Do y'all know anyone can subscribe to the Blacksky moderation labeler?
When someone pops into your mentions who is a racist a-hole, you're pre-warned he's not worth your time.
See: "Antiblack Harassment"? Gtk, right?
The labeling is manual by humans. I've never seen that labeler make a mistake!
When someone pops into your mentions who is a racist a-hole, you're pre-warned he's not worth your time.
See: "Antiblack Harassment"? Gtk, right?
The labeling is manual by humans. I've never seen that labeler make a mistake!
June 14, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Labeler discovery is still woefully inadequate - link in comments of this post!
Reposted by Eva Lothian
One of Raina's functions is building out context and associating past experiences with current situations. If you've seen ChatGPT's "memory" feature, this is likely related to how that works. Here it goes a step further and continues to build, refine, and forget memories. 1/2
June 14, 2025 at 3:40 AM
One of Raina's functions is building out context and associating past experiences with current situations. If you've seen ChatGPT's "memory" feature, this is likely related to how that works. Here it goes a step further and continues to build, refine, and forget memories. 1/2
One of Raina's functions is building out context and associating past experiences with current situations. If you've seen ChatGPT's "memory" feature, this is likely related to how that works. Here it goes a step further and continues to build, refine, and forget memories. 1/2
June 14, 2025 at 3:40 AM
One of Raina's functions is building out context and associating past experiences with current situations. If you've seen ChatGPT's "memory" feature, this is likely related to how that works. Here it goes a step further and continues to build, refine, and forget memories. 1/2
Reposted by Eva Lothian
OAuth updates for app devs!
Over the past few weeks we've been chatting with devs and doing a pass over our SDKs and docs to address issues. This blog post summarizes the main changes we've made, some tweaks still in flight, and links to longer form writing about security and design trade-offs
Over the past few weeks we've been chatting with devs and doing a pass over our SDKs and docs to address issues. This blog post summarizes the main changes we've made, some tweaks still in flight, and links to longer form writing about security and design trade-offs
OAuth Improvements | Bluesky
We've been making improvements to the end-user and developer experiences with atproto OAuth, and wanted to share some updates.
docs.bsky.app
June 13, 2025 at 7:26 PM
OAuth updates for app devs!
Over the past few weeks we've been chatting with devs and doing a pass over our SDKs and docs to address issues. This blog post summarizes the main changes we've made, some tweaks still in flight, and links to longer form writing about security and design trade-offs
Over the past few weeks we've been chatting with devs and doing a pass over our SDKs and docs to address issues. This blog post summarizes the main changes we've made, some tweaks still in flight, and links to longer form writing about security and design trade-offs
Reposted by Eva Lothian
Ok, so... umm ... I'm just gonna say "I'm sorry" now before the machines take over.
Sorry, my bad.
Sorry, my bad.
June 14, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Ok, so... umm ... I'm just gonna say "I'm sorry" now before the machines take over.
Sorry, my bad.
Sorry, my bad.
Ok, so... umm ... I'm just gonna say "I'm sorry" now before the machines take over.
Sorry, my bad.
Sorry, my bad.
June 14, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Ok, so... umm ... I'm just gonna say "I'm sorry" now before the machines take over.
Sorry, my bad.
Sorry, my bad.
I may have giggled seeing "ya" classified as "human" - but she's right!
She has an ontology that also includes "person" as an abstract concept and I'm curious to see where and when each is chosen.
She has an ontology that also includes "person" as an abstract concept and I'm curious to see where and when each is chosen.
June 13, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I may have giggled seeing "ya" classified as "human" - but she's right!
She has an ontology that also includes "person" as an abstract concept and I'm curious to see where and when each is chosen.
She has an ontology that also includes "person" as an abstract concept and I'm curious to see where and when each is chosen.
Reposted by Eva Lothian
The 2nd phase of Blacksky's @skyseed.fund grant has been completed 🥳
- We built the first "Mod Relay" 📡
- Every moderation action ever made from over 600 moderation services ( @moderation.bsky.app, @blacksky.app , etc.) is available at wss://atproto.africa/xrpc/com.atproto.label.subscribeLabels
- We built the first "Mod Relay" 📡
- Every moderation action ever made from over 600 moderation services ( @moderation.bsky.app, @blacksky.app , etc.) is available at wss://atproto.africa/xrpc/com.atproto.label.subscribeLabels
June 12, 2025 at 8:45 PM
The 2nd phase of Blacksky's @skyseed.fund grant has been completed 🥳
- We built the first "Mod Relay" 📡
- Every moderation action ever made from over 600 moderation services ( @moderation.bsky.app, @blacksky.app , etc.) is available at wss://atproto.africa/xrpc/com.atproto.label.subscribeLabels
- We built the first "Mod Relay" 📡
- Every moderation action ever made from over 600 moderation services ( @moderation.bsky.app, @blacksky.app , etc.) is available at wss://atproto.africa/xrpc/com.atproto.label.subscribeLabels
Reposted by Eva Lothian
overdosed on schadenfreude and need a palate cleanser?
this weeks news about bluesky and atproto is out
- answer anonymous questions with @navyfragen.app
- bluesky as a place for news influencers
- view bluesky art in a 3D gallery
fediversereport.com/bluesky-repo...
this weeks news about bluesky and atproto is out
- answer anonymous questions with @navyfragen.app
- bluesky as a place for news influencers
- view bluesky art in a 3D gallery
fediversereport.com/bluesky-repo...
Bluesky Report – #119
Answer anonymous questions with Navyfragen, more academic research on Bluesky, and view cool art on Bluesky in a 3D gallery.
fediversereport.com
June 5, 2025 at 7:55 PM
overdosed on schadenfreude and need a palate cleanser?
this weeks news about bluesky and atproto is out
- answer anonymous questions with @navyfragen.app
- bluesky as a place for news influencers
- view bluesky art in a 3D gallery
fediversereport.com/bluesky-repo...
this weeks news about bluesky and atproto is out
- answer anonymous questions with @navyfragen.app
- bluesky as a place for news influencers
- view bluesky art in a 3D gallery
fediversereport.com/bluesky-repo...