Bluesky
Because I share content about many passions, I decided to create feeds on #Bluesky to help people who’d like to follow only posts about a specific topic. And while I was at it, I recorded a video to show you how to do it.
People will naturally gravitate towards something that makes them feel good. There is no need to lock me in with an algorithm or by throttling posts with links. Bluesky, thank you for constantly reinforcing my feeling of wanting to return by not controlling what I see. I 💙 Chronology.
If everyone who owns a domain name were to verify it as their Bluesky user, it would be much easier to tell which account is real and which is not. I’m confused as to why, especially corporations, organizations, etc., don’t do it from day zero. It’s so quick to do, and it makes all the difference.
Many years ago, long before the current Twitter drama, the company introduced an algorithmic feed. We were told that it was optional, but in reality, the app kept pushing us out of the chronological timeline. I remember hating that decision and implementation so much, and in hindsight, that was probably when my love for Twitter started fading away.
Threads’s approach is an even worse version of what Twitter started back then. That’s why I never liked it. Mastodon was my choice, as it had a chronological feed, but also because of the many cool things the ActivityPub protocol can enable.
Then came Bluesky. Why they didn’t choose to collaborate on the ActivityPub protocol instead of creating yet another one is beyond my comprehension. The good news is that the AT Proto is also decentralized, at least as far as I can technically understand. But there’s more.
For some reason that I also don’t comprehend, people, institutions, and companies are recently picking it as their new home. I know what triggered the move, but I’m not sure why Bluesky was the choice of so many people at the same time. Anyway, as I previously mentioned, that translates to nearly half the users I was following on Twitter.
All the above means that I’m back to a feed that I absolutely enjoy. As you know, I’m a Timeline person. But I’m not only following posts happening in real time (a.k.a. in the correct order); I’m now interacting with others in a way I was missing without knowing.
By the way, I just created a Started Pack of hardware and software I have in my Toolbox that have already joined Bluesky. If you don’t know what a Starter Pack is, please watch the video below.
Please don’t get me wrong, I love that people are finally moving away from Twitter, and I do like Bluesky. However, I am still perplexed as to why so many users are choosing it at the same time. As I write this, Bluesky is about to reach 20,000,000 users, which in my case translates to nearly half the people I was following on Twitter. When I started using Mastodon, the number was considerably lower.
Speaking of which, I think Mastodon would be a better place for companies, news outlets, and institutions to be because of how servers work there, but perhaps Bluesky’s approach was a better one. Since there is currently only one server to choose from, it may be easier for people to understand it.
As for Threads, I don’t like the fact that they are constantly pushing the “For You” feed and are taking so long to properly join the Fediverse. It’s also important to keep in mind that it’s a Meta product.
I’ll still post on my blog first and from there automatically share on social media, but it’s great to see so much enthusiasm and so many people joining a decentralized platform.
Finally, if you are new to Bluesky, the video below will help you learn how verification works on the platform. Even if you are not planning to verify your account, I believe it’s important to know if you are actually following the real person or institution.
Cross-post to Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, LinkedIn, etc. for as low as $5/month. I use Obsidian to compose the posts, but that’s optional. Learn how to do it in the video below.
I was considering the recent migration to Bluesky as a fad, but at the rate at which the Bluesky User Count number is growing, it will reach and exceed 19M users very soon. To give you some perspective, there are almost 11M ActivityPub users as of now.
Of course, if Threads was already fully integrated into the Fediverse, the situation would be entirely different. Which brings us to the question I’ve been asking myself for quite some time now: is Threads even serious about being part of the Fediverse?
Heads up! Starting with this post, I’m going to add a little mess to my online presence for a while. I’m trying out Microblog’s cross-posting feature to see if it works for me. The original posts added to vladcampos.com will be automatically shared on Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Mastodon.