Bluesky is more like Twitter than X is

It's been intersting to watch Bluesky evolve from a scrappy experiment to something that has actual traction. There's been a flood of new folks migrating over from the web development community and its starting to feel very cozy.

Bluesky introduced a "starter packs" feature that lets us curate a list of individuals and lists that can be followed with a click. It's a great way to introduce new folks to the graph and start them with a set of interesting people to follow so they aren't stuck in the default timeline.

Here's my starterpack. Check it out. Be sure to update the Bluesky app if you've got that installed.

Creating the starter pack chose a handful of accounts that I follow, but some of them aren't very active or not the accounts I'd recommend to a friend just getting onto the graph so I plan on curating it over time.

I'm enthusiastic about Bluesky as a general replacement for Twitter. The platform is built around a protocol that allows for federation of the network long term and is actively encouraging community efforts to build the graph.

Check out this interview with Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky

This transcript from a conference talk by Jay is more technical and very interesting.

Why Bluesky Remains The Most Interesting Experiment In Social Media, By Far by Mike Masnick is a great read.

Dan Abramov joined the Bluesky team and talks about it in this interview. His impact is already very present in the clients and the community.

Bluesky is improving over time and the "fun factor" has been steadily growing, where Twitter feels more like an engagement casino. ATProto is extremely interesting and has shed loads of undiscovered potential which is exciting. It makes me think about distribution and the flow of information through the social graph independent of a single commercial platform.

The Bluesky Discover feed has been stedily improving and adds a lot of fun to the experience. One of the core aspects of the platform is algorithmic choice, and the ability to create and extend the Bluesky feed algorithms.

For now, Bluesky is my microblogging post hole of choice. Hopefully the tech community grows and more friends migrate from Twitter. With the improvements to the experience and hanging out becoming more realistic, feels like the Fun gains will continue.

Of you want to bring over your entire Twitter post timeline, this Github repo has some scripts and is pretty cool.

This white paper Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media is fascinating and extremely in depth look at atproto.