What is all the hullabaloo about Bluesky- the new microblogging social network. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Social networking isn’t a new phenomenon, harking back to the birth of the internet. In the days of yore, BBSs’ roamed the phone lines, charging per minute to connect distant users with one another to share content and ideas. As such, many communities come and go, along with the technology its built with. And as the concept of the internet has changed, so too has the tools and scope of social networking and social networks.

One such tool we call instant messaging, which does exactly what it implies, sending communication (our texts) instantly, with a click of a button. There has been many different types of instant messaging programs; one such from the past is AOL’s AIM. But the limitation of characters sent per message became a headache when trying to post mini essays.

Hence the dawn of the microblogging platform. A way for creating lengthier, more rich, and longer lasting messages; but yet not so nuanced as to become articles (like said post here). Packed with emotion and depth, micro blogging took off in the mid 2000’s with the birth of Twitter. There has been some open sourced alternatives such as indenti.ca and more recent Mastodon, a plethora of services launched and flourished during the mid to late early 2000’s.

But this was not to last as all good things must come to an end, or so Cory Doctorow’s famous enshittification terminology- all things online eventually turn to shit. The valley investors were calling and they wanted their return on their investment. Easy money was getting more sparse, bills had to be paid, and unicorn ideas met a cold hard reality. And so one by one, many of these services were either acquired from larger companies, assets sold, or shuttered.

Twitter, now called X, has become one such tragedy. Whether or not the current owner’s intentions were truthful, the reality is the social network has exploded in bots and constant outrage slop. This has caused many to second guess and pause their habits with using the network and perhaps to look for an alternative.

Welcome Bluesky. Unlike its competitor, Bluesky claims to use an open communication protocol known as the AT protocol. There has been some in depth reporting on this protocol and whether or not Bluesky is actually federated (it’s not), but either case, it’s one step in the right direction.

A few differences between Twitter and Bluesky is the ability to block users and using your own domain as a way for verification by means of altering your user handle. Example, Mozilla, the creators of the Firefox web browser, is using the handle @mozilla.org instead of mozilla.bsky.social provided by Bluesky’s hosted node, bsky.social.

This allows an easier way for authority confirmation as long as the user- owns a domain and that the general public is aware that said domain belongs to said authority. Mastodon for instance, has a more complicated issue with verification.

So far, Bluesky has surpassed 30 million users. How many of those are real humans and active, only time will tell but at least for now the future looks bright. It should still be noted that Bluesky has still been invested by venture capital. Whether or not the enshittification will continue is a wait and see, but for now the sky is atleast blue and clear.