Bit of a side note for my fellow protocol enjoyers: this site is WhiteWind which is another app on the atproto network. Bluesky is a microblogging app on atproto while WhiteWind is a long form blogging app on the same network. It's pretty neat.
I'm sorry, but there's just a qualitative difference between a company setting up some API endpoints and what Bluesky PBC is doing with building atproto, releasing PDS software, encouraging self-hosters and treating them as first class, etc.
You may be interested in this thread from a core dev which examines this exact play by Reddit (and how nobody could do anything about it), how it would have been different on atproto, and how a robust ecosystem keeps incumbent players honest: https://bsky.app/profile/dholms.xyz/post/3la636r666c2p
For the "I want to use different emails for different repos" issue, I've seen the `includeIf` technique but it felt fiddly. What I've done is set `user.useConfigOnly = true` and commented out `user.email` in ~/.gitconfig.
Now the first time I commit in a new repo, it errors out with "Author identity unknown" and I punch in "git config user.email ADDR" for the email I want to use and re-run the commit.
Love it. A "choose your own adventure" depending on how much you distrust Bluesky PBC :)
My only feedback would be: I'd love to read a real deep dive on just bringing in your own did:web and using a custom PDS. The DIY AppView and/or Relay is super interesting, but that more straightforward concept of "you own your identity and you own your data" is such a powerful hook that I'd love to be able to share something straight from the docs.bsky.app domain on how to do it.
But I wouldn't say it's a fully inconsequential choice, either. Your instance and how it's situated in the wider fediverse does matter to some degree. Not having a full view of the network, missing meaningful replies, at the mercy of some admin #fediblock drama, etc.
Or maybe you finally find a good instance but your admin dislikes Meta so you're defederated from threads.net now. That's a bummer.
I don't know... the whole Threads + ActivityPub thing just seems like Meta trying to keep the regulators at bay rather than them actually embracing the ethos of becoming a major federated social media player.
So launch in July 2023, handful of accounts have AP support in November-ish 2023, full AP support end of 2024? I guess it's not nothing, they did have to bolt something entirely new on top of IG's infrastructure. But for a team that big, feels like we'd be seeing more if it was a true priority for them. Plus Threads leaning towards opt-in AP support which will only inhibit uptake (that was the last I heard, anyway).
I'd be shocked if Instagram ever went with ActivityPub, though.
It wasn't hard for me because I grokked what I was doing, but for a lot of people they've never had to make a decision like that before. Especially so early in an onboarding process. And they get caught up trying to decide if they should join the instance for web developers or the one for cat lovers, because both interests are important to them. It turns people off to the idea of federated social media.
I'm going to push back on the migrating being a challenge even for Bluesky if an instance vanishes. If nothing else, you do not need your old host ("PDS" in atproto parlance) to cooperate — or even be online — if you wish to migrate in Bluesky. With a local copy of your data, you can send your social graph to a new host with ease and be right back in business.
Hugo is getting a lot of love in here (with good reason). If you do end up trying Hugo and feel it's like 90% what you want but never quite perfect, do check out Zola (https://www.getzola.org/). It feels the most like Hugo of anything I've tried but I found the docs and the template system better.
whyrusleeping answered this ably. They are part of the Bluesky team but aren't hiding the ball.
You can't do this today on the main network, no. Apparently they'll be "rolling out an experimental early version of federation" sometime later this month.
As for credibility on that timeline, the only major missed deadline they've had that I can recall was on making posts visible to those without an account. It was slated for (IIRC) late November/early December 2023 and launched December 21, 2023. I believe they overhauled the frontend as part of that work and it delayed things.
Also, they have already blessed one alternative DID method (`did:web`) and are open to slowly expanding that set (https://atproto.com/specs/did).
I realize this may already be on the roadmap for after open federation, but I would love some sort of "bluesky for the truly paranoid (affectionate)" guide that explained soup to nuts how to participate in the network by running your own PDS and using did:web for identity. An answer to the question: I don't trust plc.directory for my identity and I don't trust the bsky.social PDS to host my data but I want to participate — how do I do that?
I have probably the least understanding of how this part of the protocol operates. Part of that has to do with the new (to me) concepts and the rest is open federation not being in place. I think something like this would be really useful and would prove your bonafides to others that Bluesky PBC is serious about being billionaire-proof.
> is there anything particularly compelling about it compared to a centralized platform?
As a user? I'd say custom feeds. You can create alternative feeds using whatever algorithm you want that users can subscribe to in a way that is very smooth and user friendly. Third party alternatives have the feel of first party features.
As a developer? The protocol is "locked open," as it were. I feel confident building on it. It feels more like building for the web than within a walled garden. Bluesky could have made things easier for themselves by making certain aspects centralized, but they didn't compromise.
> honestly still just waiting for the android app to not have terrible startup time and for there to be anybody on it
There is a alternative client (https://graysky.app/) that you may have better luck with. Same deal as with custom feeds. They are not territorial about the existence of alternatives. The Graysky dev (@mozzius.dev) and the Bluesky social-app devs are very friendly with each other and share development techniques all the time.
Also, the official app has a Github repo (https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app) that accepts issues and PRs. I opened an issue recently as some icons were wrong in a particular location. Some non-team affiliated developer created a fix, opened a PR, and the core team merged it in and deployed it a few days later. That was pretty cool.
I have been poking around bluesky and atproto as nothing more than an interested developer since around May 2023. I certainly don't know everything, but I've exercised most aspects of the protocol by now (firehose, custom feeds, sandbox federation, etc).
If you've always wondered something about this platform/protocol and want the opinion of a non-team member, ask away.
A lot of people felt burned by the changes at Twitter over the past 14 months or so. They made meaningful connections on there and with new ownership came changes that altered the character of the platform, in their eyes. But because Twitter is centralized, it's difficult to move your social graph to a new platform in a robust way.
The promise of the AT protocol is being "billionaire-proof." If Bluesky gets bought out and you don't like the new owner, you can move your entire social graph and all your posts to a new atproto service without needing permission from the old service.
That would be the nuclear option. A smaller step you could take before that is use a different set of moderation services to curate the experience you want (more info: https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-13-2023-moderation)
I think the "default feed" you're seeing is the "Discover" custom feed that shows up if you haven't followed anybody. Once you do that, your "default feed" is what your follows have posted in reverse chronological order.
IMO, the "Discover" feed can be a bit much sometimes. It's very much the collective id of a certain type of social media poster. And not always my cup of tea.
But the beauty of Bluesky is there are millions of accounts and thousands of custom feeds you can pick from to tailor your experience.
Instead, you're looking for hosting a PDS which you absolutely can do for $10/mo (or less)
I run a PDS on a OVH Cloud VPS for $5/mo for myself, some alts, and some bots