When imperfect systems are good: Bluesky's lossy timelines

An airline reservation system has to be perfect (no slack in today's skies), a hotel reservation can be 98% perfect so long as there is some slack and you don't mind putting somebody up in a better room than they paid for from time to time.

A social media system doesn't need to be perfect at all. It was clear to me from the beginning that Bluesky's feeds aren't very fast, not like they are crazy slow, but if it saves money or effort it's no problem if notifications are delayed 30s.

Miscommunication leads to bad outcomes. One missed message out of order could easily lead to a fight, a lawsuit, a flash mob, threats of violence - that then need to be taken seriously, swatting, DOXxing, etc...

Msg 1: I hate ___insert_controversal_person_category_here___

Msg 2: Is the kind of statement that really sets me off

Msg 1 has a very different meaning if you don't see Msg 2.

This can already happen without help from the platform.