For decades, elites controlled the distribution of information—they decided what aired and when. Social platforms promised democratization: anyone could publish, and their algorithms would simply surface the best content. Instead, they just became a new gatekeeper with less accountability. Worse, their business models optimized for engagement over quality, and became predicated on high exit costs to maintain their grip. The result: local journalism gutted, conspiracy theories flourishing, and everyone locked into proprietary networks controlled by a select few with no escape.

ATProto as the Standard Gauge for Information

Our theory is that ATProto is the standard gauge moment for social media. For twenty years, platforms justified lock-in as "competitive moats"—proprietary networks that trapped your social graph, content, and time. These weren't technical constraints; they were business decisions that calcified as network effects scaled.

ATProto separates infrastructure from experience. Your identity and content live on open protocols no single company controls. Anyone can build clients, feeds, or tools on top. Don't like an app's experience? Switch without losing your network. The protocol provides the commons; communities build the experiences atop.

ATProto proposes to the world that distribution doesn't have to be locked down, and instead can be owned by anyone. We work at Graze because we believe this will move us beyond the old model—not just different flavors of the same engagement-maximizing feed, but fundamentally different approaches that serve needs other platforms can't.

We tested our theory on Tuesday night by partnering with WNYC, Gothamist, and Bluesky to provide a trending topic covering the NYC mayoral election results. What we proved wasn't just that our technology works—it was that when you remove platform lock-in, institutions with actual expertise can build experiences that serve audiences what they actually want.

One Night to Prove the Playbook

We approached WNYC and Gothamist about creating a custom feed for the mayoral election a while back. In the pre-ATProto world, this would have required weeks of custom integrations, platform negotiations, and technical overhead. But because we're all on the standard gauge, the infrastructure was already there. We could build and deploy in minutes, not weeks. Graze had a vision for how to provide a high quality curated algorithmic stream that outcompeted any other online experience. WNYC and Gothamist were excited to partner on creating an innovative way to distribute fact-based election information

What followed on Tuesday was unprecedented:

  • 16.7+ million posts delivered to devices worldwide

  • 114k+ unique readers engaged with the feed

  • Peak traffic of 1,200 posts per second—twice our previous monthly high

  • 3.3+ million total interactions across views, likes, reposts, and replies

But the numbers only tell half the story. The experience mattered more.

On X, users searching for election information found:

  • Only 11% of the above-fold real estate was content

  • Conspiracy theories about voter fraud

  • Exploitative 9/11 footage

  • Elon Musk posts implying election rigging

  • Rage bait and engagement farming

On Bluesky via WNYC/Gothamist's feed, users found relevant, vetted election content from trusted journalists, with real-time updates and direct access to official results.

The contrast was stark. When people needed actual information, WNYC and Gothamist made sure that they found it on Bluesky.

Building on Open Rails

Here's what made this possible: anyone can create a feed. WNYC and Gothamist didn't sign exclusive contracts. Bluesky didn't mandate a specific quota. The feed used open infrastructure, and it just worked. The initial design was sourced from a beloved member of the Graze community, and the design of the algorithm itself is publicly auditable for anyone to easily understand.

The feed was designed to:

  • Surface posts from trusted sources

  • Prioritize real-time updates

  • Include official announcements from election desks

  • Feature analysis from credible political experts at WNYC and Gothamist

  • Monitor and adjust in real-time as the story developed

They also used "pinned posts" to ensure critical information stayed at the top:

This is editorial judgment operating at internet scale. No singular AI guessing what people want—just professionals making informed decisions about what people need, aided by algorithmic technology.

This Machine Kills Information Voids

This isn't a one-off solution. It's a repeatable playbook for any breaking news moment, or any information void.

In the open social world, anyone can fill the void:

  • Other local newsrooms covering their elections

  • National outlets covering federal races

  • Subject matter experts curating their niche

  • Sports teams leading their fan community

  • News organizations collaborating for major events

Legacy platforms are entirely predicated on the simple, immovable fact that they must completely control the distribution of content. In the open social world, though, anyone can see an opportunity to fill the void, and provide their audiences with exactly what they seek. Graze provides the incentive structure to help breathe life into that model.

Incentive Alignment

Traditional social media created a zero-sum game. Platforms wanted engagement. Audiences wanted information. Creators wanted distribution. Everyone competed, and mostly everyone lost except the platforms.

Open social (with Graze) aligns all stakeholders:

Platforms get quality content without bearing algorithmic costs or editorial liability. They provide the rails, and the open market for content grows atop with no additional effort.

Audiences get vetted information instead of algorithmic chaos. They choose their curators based on trust and expertise, not whatever the platform's black box decides for them.

Curators regain distribution authority as trusted guides through complex information environments. They operate as they should: with editorial judgment, source verification, and institutional accountability.

This serves information voids better, faster, and cheaper. Better because newsrooms bring judgment algorithms can't replicate. Faster because feeds deploy in minutes during critical events. Cheaper because it eliminates centralized coordination costs—platforms provide rails, curators curate.

They hyper-centralized lock-in model of legacy platforms made sense, until it didn't. Now that the open social flywheel has started, its just a matter of the passage of time until they are completely replaced by this more competitive approach.

We Can Just Do Things

Last night wasn't just a successful content experiment. It was proof that a better future exists—one where experts control distribution without owning the infrastructure, where audiences get quality information without lock-in, and where platforms compete on experience rather than controlling access to information.

The 2026 midterms are coming. So are countless local elections, breaking news events, sporting events, natural disasters, Love is Blind tell-alls, and critical stories where people will desperately want the best information.

We're still early. We're still figuring out what's possible. But we're all realizing we can just do things. The reason we can just do things is because we've entered the standard gauge era. Newsrooms can just provide the election feed. Audiences can just find better content. Platforms can just focus on being open.

It's an exciting future. We're looking forward to continuing to do things, together.

If you want to explore building feeds for the things you care about, reach out. We're here to help rebuild social, for people this time, one feed at a time.