Bluesky is really nice.
Yes, the platform is essentially just Twitter, but decentralized. And yes, the Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky is one of many services emulate How Twitter looks like straight away. But after spending a few hours in Bluesky since getting my beta invite this week, it’s the service I’m enjoying the most so far.
Like Mastodon, Bluesky is a federated social network, which at its most basic level means users can participate through several providers rather than one huge central one. The simplest comparison is email: if you have Gmail, you can send an email to someone on Apple’s iCloud, and they can reply to you.
Bluesky lets you choose from different hosting providers. When I joined the app on Tuesday, I chose the default, Bluesky’s own system. (There is an option to join other providers, but I don’t know what options are available or how to set them up. It could be user error or ignorance.) From there I set my username, which reads more like a domain – jaypeters.bsky.social – and I’ll talk more about that later.
“It got pretty scene-y in here”
When I first got to the “Following” feed it was empty, but as I explored more it didn’t take me long to discover that Bluesky already has an extremely active user base that is now dealing with an influx of newcomers like me . Soon on my Bluesky journey, I came across a post from Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky, that helped me get an idea of what was in store for me.
“It’s starting to get nice around here, so we just emailed 5K people off our waiting list, say hello if you see them trickling in!” Graber wrote. In a reply, Graber added: “densely connected sub-graph of twitter power users who just joined meek 5k people who gave us their email and filled out a form 🤝”
Cruising through the ‘What’s hot’ section that day was a mishmash of simple internet enjoyment.
- One person quoted Graber as apologizing for the “scene stuff” and encouraging new users to jump into conversations.
- One person wrote “The goat, fr” with a picture of two goats.
- Several people shared “this is where I’m posting from” photos. Many seemed serious, such as a cozy room and a small house; others were not, such as a photo of an alligator.
Somehow someone followed me within a minute of getting on the platform. Minutes later, a handful of other users also followed me. It turns out I’m not that special; they all already follow over 20,000 people, so they’re probably just following any new account it joins.
Bluesky continued to feel good all week. My feed wasn’t littered with angry posts about the change from HBO Max to Max, instead the people I follow seemed most invested in preserving Bluesky’s currently positive culture. Graber posted about why Bluesky hasn’t launched yet “against Jack’s wishes” until the team builds out moderation tools. On Friday, people posted pictures of their bookshelves: “shelfies.” It was nice to scroll.
The challenge for Bluesky will be to maintain its positive environment, which is exactly what its federated system is all about – the AT protocol – is designed to do. The protocol is still in development, but Bluesky’s stated focus for this is decentralized social networking, algorithmic choice, and portable accounts. That means maybe one day I could theoretically hang out on a domain that isn’t also used by everyone on the Bluesky app, choose an algorithm that serves milder messages, and when I want to leave, easily take my account and followers with me to another app. (It’s worth noting that Twitter owner Elon Musk has expressed interest in letting you choose your own Twitter algorithm, but we’ll see if that actually happens.)
Bluesky’s moderation tool could also hold the key to the platform’s future. The organization wants you to apply custom filters and labels and even rely on preferred third parties to do that work for you, helping users better tailor their social feed to what they need. “Centralized social sites use labels to implement moderation – we think this piece can be unbundled, opened up to third-party innovation, and configured with user agency in mind,” Graber wrote in a blog post. “Everyone should be able to create or subscribe to moderation labels that are created by third parties.”
The network’s domain name system also acts as a kind of convenient verification service. The current setup could mean that one day I could have @jay.peters.businesskinda.com.com, for example, to show that I’m a working journalist at The edge. Or I can link a domain I own to my Bluesky account to prove I am who I say I am. If this system takes off, it could solve many of the verification and moderation issues other platforms have faced.
Bluesky feels like a simpler time on the internet right now
To me, Bluesky feels like a simpler time on the internet right now. 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 I haven’t seen much toxicity or people racing to hit people in quote tweets. It feels like a platform where people just hang out and chat with each other.
It’s too early to tell if Bluesky and the AT Protocol will see the same kind of activity as things like Mastodon and ActivityPub protocol. But for now? I just really enjoy the vibes in my Bluesky feed.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.