Blue Sky is really, really fun.
Yes, the platform is essentially just Twitter, but decentralized. Yes, Bluesky, backed by Jack Dorsey, is one of many services. to emulate how twitter appear right now. But after spending a few hours with Bluesky after receiving the beta invitation this week, it’s the service I’m most excited about so far.
Like Mastodon, Bluesky is a federated social network. At its most basic level, this means that users can participate through a variety of providers rather than a giant central provider. The easiest comparison is email. If you use Gmail, you can email someone in Apple’s iCloud and they can reply to you.
Bluesky offers a variety of hosting providers to choose from. When I joined the app on Tuesday, I chose Default, Bluesky’s own system. (There are options to join other providers, but I don’t know what options are available or how to set them up. This could be user error or ignorance.) From there set a username that can be read like a domain — jaypeters.bsky.social — more on that later.
“It’s become pretty scene-like here.”
When I first visited the “Following” feed, it was empty, but upon further inspection, Bluesky already has a very active user base and is now catering to an influx of newbies like myself. It didn’t take me long to discover. Shortly after my Bluesky journey, I came across a post by Bluesky CEO Jay Graber.
“It’s starting to get pretty sceney here, so I’ve emailed 5,000 people off the waiting list. Say hello to them as they slowly add up!” Graeber wrote. In reply, Graber added, “A dense subgraph of his Twitter power users who just joined, 5,000 gentlemen who emailed us and filled out forms 🤝.”
Cruising the “What’s hot” section of the day was a hodgepodge of simple internet fun.
- One person, quoting Graber, apologized for the “scene topic” and encouraged new users to jump into the conversation.
- One person wrote “The goat, fr” with a picture of two goats.
- A few people shared the “this is where I post” pics. Many looked serious, like cozy rooms and little houses. Others were not, like the alligator photo.
Somehow, someone followed me within a minute of me joining the platform. A few minutes later, a few other users also followed me. Turns out I’m not that special. They already have over 20,000 followers, so they’re just following every new account that joins.
Bluesky has been in good shape all week. For example, my feed wasn’t littered with angry posts about HBO Max’s change to Max. Instead, the people I follow seemed most invested in maintaining Bluesky’s current positive culture. Graber posted why Bluesky hasn’t launched yet “against Jack’s wishes” until the team builds a moderation tool. On Friday, people were posting pictures of their bookshelves.it was fun to scroll.
Bluesky’s challenge is to maintain a positive environment. AT protocol — is designed to The protocol is still in development, but Bluesky’s stated focus is on decentralized social networking, algorithm choice, and portable his accounts. So one day, in theory, you could hang out on a domain that nobody else on the Bluesky app uses, choose an algorithm that gives you a gentler posting, and give you easy access if you want to leave. I guess. Move my account and followers to another app. (It’s worth noting that Twitter owner Elon Musk has expressed interest in allowing him to choose his own Twitter algorithm, but whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. don’t understand.)
Bluesky’s moderation tools could also be key to the platform’s future. The organization wants to allow users to apply custom her filters and labels, and even wants to offload that work to a prioritized third party. “Centralized social sites use labeling to implement moderation. ” he said Graber. wrote in a blog post“It should be possible for anyone to create or subscribe to moderation labels created by third parties.”
A network’s domain name system also serves as a kind of convenient validation service. With my current setup, for example, one day, @jay.peters.theverge.com might be able to indicate that I work as a journalist. The BargeAlternatively, you can associate a domain you own with your Bluesky account to prove you’re who you say you are. If this system takes off, it could solve many of the validation and moderation problems that other platforms have had to deal with.
Blue Sky now feels like simpler times on the internet
For me, Bluesky now feels like a simpler time on the internet. It’s a feed-based social network with a community of at least 20,000 people, which means there’s a lot of activity and conversation, but so far it’s been toxic or trying to slam-dunk people with quote tweets. I have never seen anyone competing. It feels like a platform where people hang out and chat with each other.
Bluesky and AT protocols are used by Mastodon and Activity Pub protocolBut for now? I really enjoy the vibes of the Bluesky feed.
