Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Bluesky Opens to the Public

Bluesky is building an open social network where anyone can contribute, while still providing an easy-to-use experience for users. For the past year, we used invite codes to help us manage growth while we built features like moderation tooling, custom feeds, and more. Now, we’re ready for anyone to join.
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To learn more about Bluesky and how to get started, read our user FAQ here.
And if deep dives are more your style, we worked with Martin Kleppman, author of Designing Data-Intensive Applications and technical advisor to Bluesky, to write a paper that goes into more detail [Hacker News] about the technical underpinnings of Bluesky.

Tim Hardwick:

The difference with Bluesky is that its servers use a decentralized Authenticated Transport (AT) Protocol that will allow users to opt-in to a microblogging experience that isn't run by the company, allowing them to create an account under a given domain name and then use their profile in rival apps that use the same network.

Another advantage of the AT protocol is that it can operate based more on a user's preferences than algorithmically driven content, with user-curated feeds that people can use to find other users or topics, with customizable moderation tools also available to them.

Nick Heer:

Bluesky’s interpretation of a text-based social network is compelling. It is familiar, fast, and feature-rich, without being overwhelming. I just wish there was a good Mac app.

Previously:

Bluesky Web