Bluesky

Website
Name:	Bluesky Bluesky Social Bluesky App bsky bsky.app
Owner/Maintainer:	Jay Graber
Dates:	October 4, 2021 – present
Type:	social network, microblog
Fandom:	panfandom
URL:	https://bsky.app
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Bluesky or bsky is a microblogging social network and a public benefit corporation based in the United States. It was founded in 2019, and is considered an alternative to Twitter. Jack Dorsey, who is one of the co-founders of Twitter, is on Bluesky's board of directors.

The site was in beta for first two years, but began its fannish usage sometime during 2023 as Twitter update rollouts were becoming more questionable to fans and other Twitter users alike. However, not all fans at the time were able to join as creating an account required an invite code, which limited many fans' access.

On December 23, 2023, posts became publicly viewable to non-Bluesky users. On February 6, 2024, invite codes were no longer required to make an account, and allowed the platform to be more accessible than before.

Similarities & Differences to Twitter

Due to the fast and popular nature of Twitter as a microblogging platform within fandom, after the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, users started looking for alternatives, such as Cohost, Mastodon, Plurk, and Misskey. Bluesky also quickly became a popular option, especially as it shares visual layout similarities with Twitter, which may play a role into engendering users to its platform much quicker.

Both Twitter and Bluesky have:

• a central timeline in the middle of the page, a smaller navigation panel on the left, and a search bar on the top right
• the ability to thread replies under a post
• customization for one's display from day mode to night mode
• a 300-character limit on posts, which is more than Twitter's 280-character limit but still enough to encourage the practice of micro-blogging
• both an app and a website for desktop

Other elements of Bluesky that fans may favor include:

• a lack of a main timeline algorithm; all posts show up in chronological order. If users would like to browse an algorithmically selected timeline of posts, they can do so through the Feeds option without it being a part of their main dashboard.
• replies to other users who one does not follow will shows up on one's timeline, which can make it easier for users to jump into a conversation and make friends with their friends without feeling like they are being creepy
• blocking someone does not allow them to see your profile, posts, or replies on other people's timeline, and you are unable to see their profile, posts, or replies on your timeline
• more specific accessibility options, such as being able to warn for and filter out NSFW, "other nudity", "sexually suggestive", "gore", etc. allowing users to customize their experience even further

Some downsides of Bluesky are:

• lack of automatic and indexed translation on the site, causing non-English speaking users to have to use external tools for translation
• the inability to private/friends-lock one's account, as all accounts are public
• usernames and profiles are appended with ".bsky.social" unless one has purchased a domain to change this, which would then allow the username to be the purchased domain

Use among Fans

Bluesky has custom feeds, which can be used to subscribe to certain topics, including topics about specific series, characters, ships, or music bands. Custom feeds can be made by anyone and multiple hashtags and keywords can be added to it. It can also be curated by blacklisting words or specific users.

Bluesky can also make moderation lists, which are shareable lists to block people in bulk. This could be used to help fellow fans curate their experience and exclude undesired accounts.