Bluesky made a surprising announcement yesterday that Techdirt editor Mike Masnick has joined their board of directors. As an early adopter, Mike’s been a long-time part of the Bluesky community, and his Protocols, Not Platforms article served as a key inspiration in that network’s formation. Mike has been an early supporter of Bluesky’s mission to create a global, open social network, as full of possibility as the early web. In the past, we’ve gone to Mike for inspiration and advice already, and formalizing that relationship is the natural next step. His deep understanding of our approach — iterating towards widespread