Bluesky

[jimbob]

I do have a bluesky invite code if anyone wants

How quickly do new sign-ups get their own invite code? MrsG has signed up using Gfamdottir's invite, so I'll hang on until I can use MrsG's.

A couple of weeks for me.

[Gfamily]

I do have a bluesky invite code if anyone wants

How quickly do new sign-ups get their own invite code? MrsG has signed up using Gfamdottir's invite, so I'll hang on until I can use MrsG's.

A couple of weeks for me.

Cheers.

[jimbob]

How quickly do new sign-ups get their own invite code? MrsG has signed up using Gfamdottir's invite, so I'll hang on until I can use MrsG's.

A couple of weeks for me.

Cheers.

Just use mine, it'll be replaced soon enough anyway

[Gfamily]

Just use mine, it'll be replaced soon enough anyway

I'll have a route in soon enough - so if someone else is looking for one...

[Brightonian]

I've read that invite codes are no longer required to join Bluesky.

[shpalman]

I've read that invite codes are no longer required to join Bluesky.

I just joined.

[bjn]

Jack Dorsey recently quit Bluesky because it was freespeachy enough for him, which is a good thing for Bluesky. I’m quite happy on Mastodon and it links into Threads and Bluesky feeds.

[lpm]

What is the best alternative, now?

Threads is hilarious, nothing but personal anecdotes mostly involving minor conflicts on planes.

Mastodon flopped?

So just Bluesky?

[jimbob]

Bluesky does look to be gaining momentum. It has the advantage that Mastodon is too decentralised to actually engage well as various servers block each other.

So it's fractured.

[Tristan]

Bluesky does look to be gaining momentum. It has the advantage that Mastodon is too decentralised to actually engage well as various servers block each other.

So it's fractured.

I've started popping my head into Bluesky a little more. It seems to be gaining critical mass and more of my twitter pals are showing up there. There are a bunch of funny people on Twitter and we all get on well. I'll be sad to lose them if I left entirely, but if enough move over to Bluesky it could be fine.

People have started putting together "starter packs" of suggested people to follow on there which is pretty helpful.

[Boustrophedon]

Some of those I follow on Xitter have gone already, you'll find me on Bluesky and Facebook, found Xitter to stressful.

[jimbob]

Some of those I follow on Xitter have gone already, you'll find me on Bluesky and Facebook, found Xitter to stressful.

You and loads of others.

My username is parkinjim

[nekomatic]

Bluesky is feeling more and more Twitter-like as a lot of people have moved over recently. Ironically that may mean I need to try harder to stay off it as it becomes more and more of a potential time sink, but hey ho. I may need to make some lists.

[shpalman]

What is the best alternative, now?

Threads is hilarious, nothing but personal anecdotes mostly involving minor conflicts on planes.

Mastodon flopped?

So just Bluesky?

I signed up for Bluesky but never really went on it. Maybe I'll start having a look now.

I'm actually quite engaged with Threads, although in my case I tend to see dating coaches complaining about how their dates go badly, and personal trainers saying either that it definitely does or definitely doesn't reduce to calories-in-calories-out.

[Woodchopper]

Bluesky does look to be gaining momentum. It has the advantage that Mastodon is too decentralised to actually engage well as various servers block each other.

So it's fractured.

I also found Masto to have an odd mix of rules. People seemed enthusiastic about following certain norms, such as putting content warnings on pretty much every image, but in other ways it seemed like a free for all. For example, dealing with problems like impersonation seemed to come down to whether the people who ran a server could be bothered. A Masto server seems like a great tool for a bunch of people who already know and trust each other, but not so good as a large scale global platform.

[Grumble]

Bluesky currently adding about a million accounts a day. The fact that they aren’t pissing about with algorithms seems to be the main thing drawing people there. That and how easy it is to block people and topics you can’t be arsed with.

[lpm]

Blue sky is mostly people claiming they're glad they split up with their x and talking nonstop about their x.

[Opti]

I'm one of the evacuees from Twix. Don't post much but it's really easy to follow the people I choose to - and not see those I don't. It's polite, maybe a bit too polite, but that's ok.

@sinnikal.bsky.social.

[Brightonian]

I'm one of the evacuees from Twix. Don't post much but it's really easy to follow the people I choose to - and not see those I don't. It's polite, maybe a bit too polite, but that's ok.

@sinnikal.bsky.social.

These Bluesky "starter packs" seem like a good idea.

"Starter packs" are lists of users curated by other users. (Is there a collective noun for Bluesky users, akin to "tweeps"? E.g. "blueys"?) Anyway, the great thing about a starter pack is you can bulk-follow everyone in the list, without the bother of following people one by one.

Some curators allow you to add yourself to their starter pack lists, and I merrily signed up to some. The side effect is that loads of people have merrily bulk-followed everyone in these lists, so now, every morning, I wake up to bulk lists of notifications ("Xxx and 23 others have followed you").

I now feel obliged to manually go through these new followers to pick out which ones to follow back (it feels rude to ignore them). I follow most of them back, but there are some marketing types creeping in. It's becoming a full time job.

[jimbob]

I'm one of the evacuees from Twix. Don't post much but it's really easy to follow the people I choose to - and not see those I don't. It's polite, maybe a bit too polite, but that's ok.

@sinnikal.bsky.social.

These Bluesky "starter packs" seem like a good idea.

"Starter packs" are lists of users curated by other users. (Is there a collective noun for Bluesky users, akin to "tweeps"? E.g. "blueys"?) Anyway, the great thing about a starter pack is you can bulk-follow everyone in the list, without the bother of following people one by one.

Some curators allow you to add yourself to their starter pack lists, and I merrily signed up to some. The side effect is that loads of people have merrily bulk-followed everyone in these lists, so now, every morning, I wake up to bulk lists of notifications ("Xxx and 23 others have followed you").

I now feel obliged to manually go through these new followers to pick out which ones to follow back (it feels rude to ignore them). I follow most of them back, but there are some marketing types creeping in. It's becoming a full time job.

Yup. A few spammers, the odd bot and some which I am not sure about

[nekomatic]

I now feel obliged to manually go through these new followers to pick out which ones to follow back (it feels rude to ignore them). I follow most of them back, but there are some marketing types creeping in. It's becoming a full time job.

I think one of the ideas some Bluesky users are trying to promote is that you really don’t have some kind of obligation to other people in the name of ‘balance’ or ‘open debate’ or whatever. Block whomever you like, follow whomever you like, and if anyone gets shirty about you not following them, block them too. As someone said, if I go down the pub with a couple of mates for a natter there’s no rule that says I also have to invite some a..eholes so they can call me a c.nt all evening.

[bob sterman]

Just heard someone senior from BlueSky on Radio 5 this morning.

It was hilarious. She didn't even know the supposed age requirement for her own platform. And it's a tiny company right?

And the naivety!! Putting moderation in the hands of the users spammers.

These "starter packs" and user-created feeds seem like a wonderful way to reach a desired audience

[El Pollo Diablo]

wut

[sTeamTraen]

One thing I am warming to on Bluesky is the ability to self-authenticate your account via a domain name. So for example I am @steamtraen.eu, which costs about €10 per year to register. You have to set up a DNS entry but you can get a computer nerd friend to do that (probably the one you asked to order the domain name). You can put a link in your profile that goes to the website of the same name and says "Yes, it's really me".

About 4% of my followers have done the same. I hope that a decent mass of people will do that, especially official and semi-official accounts, so that people get used to the idea. So for example Keir Starmer could be @pm.gov.uk and a BBC journalist could be @someone.bbc.co.uk.

When I moved to this domain handle, I also re-registered steamtraen.bsky.social to stop anyone else taking it. It has big colourful "Do not follow this account" messages on it, but already two accounts have followed it: One apparently real person who I can only assume was in a hurry, and one pornbot. The arrival of the pornbots is, I suppose, proof that the site is gaining traction...

Otherwise, it's getting quite cosy. Science Bluesky is as much fun as Science Twitter was in early 2016.

[nekomatic]

One thing I am warming to on Bluesky is the ability to self-authenticate your account via a domain name. So for example I am @steamtraen.eu, which costs about €10 per year to register. You have to set up a DNS entry but you can get a computer nerd friend to do that (probably the one you asked to order the domain name). You can put a link in your profile that goes to the website of the same name and says "Yes, it's really me".

Sounds great in principle, is hopeless in practice. Your chance of getting a large organisation to dick about with something as sensitive as DNS records every time someone joins or leaves the company is nil, and in any case few users are nerdy enough to understand what it means when they see it in your profile (where it’s often truncated for space anyway). This and scaling up moderation effectively are likely to be ongoing challenges, unfortunately. There have already been several high profile accounts that turned out not to be the actual person, e.g. the recent one for Kemi Badenoch.