[No action required at this time] Blacksky Algorithms, Incorporated
Published on January 25, 2025 by Rudy Fraser
Hello Community,
You’re receiving this notification because you are one of Blacksky’s nearly 700 donors. Thanks to your help and financial support, Blacksky has achieved a level of scale that surpasses what many thought was possible. Here are some of our key milestones:
- Reached 1 million unique users across the various Blacksky-hosted feeds.
- Achieved over 50 million total views.
- Grew our moderation team to 8 active community moderators, who have collectively handled over 19,000 moderation reports since October 2024, making the AT Protocol network significantly safer for Black users.
- Expanded to 4 open-source developers/contributors on the rsky codebase, which is over 100K+ lines of code, making it one of the most robust independent implementations of the AT Protocol.
- Began hosting independent community feeds, including:
- @prttyparticular.com’s BlackskyTravel
- @lwpedsmd.bsky.social’s BlackMedSky
- @blackedusky.bsky.social’s BlackEduSky
All of this has been accomplished on an estimated annual budget of $44,000, relying heavily on volunteer contributions and with me working part-time, nights, and weekends.
Blacksky, as both a community and a technical project, has always been deeply important to me. With the looming possibility of major social media platforms (Twitter/X, Meta/Facebook/Instagram, TikTok) evolving into state-sponsored media platforms under the new administration, and Bluesky’s corporate interests increasingly diverging from the needs of individual communities, I hope you, too, see the importance of Blacksky.
I believe Blacksky embodies the original vision of the AT Protocol: putting control of social media back in the hands of the communities that comprise it. With that in mind, I’m excited to announce that Blacksky Algorithms, the team behind Blacksky and rsky, is now officially Blacksky Algorithms Inc. I will also be transitioning to work on Blacksky full-time.
What This Means in the Short Term:
- Fiscal Independence: Blacksky will soon transition from being fiscally hosted by the Open Source Collective to becoming its own independent fiscal host. This change will save us 10% in fiscal host fees, which can instead be reinvested in Blacksky’s growth.
- Transparency: Although Blacksky Algorithms Inc. is now a Delaware C-Corp, we will continue to use the Open Collective platform for its transparency and community-focused tools.
- Important Update:
- Because we are changing bank accounts, your donations will be paused in the coming days.
- You don’t need to take any action for this to happen.
What This Means in the Long Term:
- Technical Roadmap: While our short-term technical goals remain unchanged, we will pursue more ambitious projects in the long term, including building frontend apps and new app views. Stay tuned!
- Business Model: Blacksky will continue to rely on voluntary, member-supported subscriptions while also building and hosting technical infrastructure for developers, communities, and teams.
- Team Protections: As a traditional corporation, we’ll be able to provide team members with benefits like insurance and fair compensation for their labor.
Thank you for being part of this journey so far. After the pause in donations, you’ll have the option to resubscribe if you’d like to continue supporting Blacksky Algorithms as we enter this exciting new phase. I sincerely hope you will.
Warm regards,
on
Thank you for this update!! And congratulations, this is amazing!!!! ✊🏾🖤
Glad to see how far you and the team have come. Keep up the great work. 💙
on
That’s wonderful news, I’m glad you’re finding a sustainable path. Please send out a reminder when the new account is set up so we can restart donations!
Thanks for the work you do.
Thanks for the work you do.
on