Online bulletin board Redditr/BlueskySocialSo, Ask Me Anything (AMA: ○○ but do you have any questions?) was held by Bluesky developers. For approximately 45 minutes, developers answered questions from the public.
The question was answered by Bluesky developerPaul Frazeewith Mr.Emily LiuMr. “We’re so excited to welcome so many new people to Bluesky, and thank you to everyone who’s already part of the community,” the two said before the launch. We know you have a lot of questions, including how the app works, so let’s chat about it,” he said, inviting questions from users. Below are the questions that the two people responded to during the AMA and their answers.
◆Q:
Please let us know if you have any difficulties regarding the following general feature requests.
・Function to notify you that a post has been posted
・Private account
・Trend page
◆A:
Post notifications and trend pages are not particularly difficult. Private accounts present a somewhat unique challenge.
In short, Bluesky is not just an app, but also a new internet technology. The Internet technology was created to fight monopolies on the Internet and give users more choice. We are using the first version of the new technology, but the technology will need to be upgraded to support private accounts. It requires more work, but is an important long-term goal.
To give a more otaku-like explanation, new technology is “AT Protocol”. It is designed to publish and circulate signed data, and many parts of the system function similarly to the web and search. This means your data is hosted on your or our servers and aggregated into our index, just like Google crawls the web. The system does not yet have facilities for publishing information in private.
(Editor’s note) The following interview article also delves into the implementation schedule and mechanism of Bluesky’s private accounts.
I went to the event “Bluesky mini meetup in Kyoto 2024” where you can ask Bluesky development members “Can the server withstand the rapid increase in users?” “What are the plans to add a trend display function?” – GIGAZINE
◆Q:
When can I bookmark?
◆A:
Bookmarking is a common request! Luckily, it’s not “hard” due to the protocols, so it’s just a matter of finding the time. Features like bookmarks are a pretty high priority.
A few people have already mentioned pinning your feed, which is cool. When you reply to a post using the pinning feature, the post you responded to will appear in your custom feed. Of course, having pinned replies can be a drawback, but we recently made a change to move these replies to the bottom so they don’t interfere with discussion. If you’re really concerned about it, you can use the mute feature to completely hide the post.
◆Q:
The feature I most miss about pre-Elon Musk-era Twitter is the ability to quickly search for information about events. Does Bluesky have a way to search the entire app by hashtags, live trending topics, or other similar features? This was very important for real-time information gathering and during emergencies.
◆A:
The short answer is yes. You can already search by hashtag within the app, and we also plan to implement trending topics. We want Bluesky to be the best place to discuss breaking news and get real-time information, and we fully understand that these features are especially important in disaster and crisis situations. I agree. Previously, when Hurricane Milton made landfall in the United States, some Bluesky users created a special custom feed to track conversations about natural disasters. I want to continue creating tools for users that allow them to obtain accurate information quickly and easily.
◆Q:
I think bots are what ruined Twitter. Will the presence of bots become inevitable as Bluesky grows? Or do you think Bluesky’s decentralized model and approach to moderation is effective in preventing bots?
◆A:
We have the idea that “the malicious are infinitely creative.” In other words, if someone wants to make a service infested with bots, they’re bound to find a way to do it, and even if we take precautions, it becomes a cat-and-mouse game where we devise workarounds and repeat. That said, I don’t think it’s inevitable that we’ll be full of bots. One of the great things about Bluesky’s open architecture is that it allows developers and researchers to explore internal data. As an example,Conspirador Nortenouser actively discovers spam and bot networks, and we benefit from his reporting. Bot protection feels like a collaborative effort.
Another thing to keep in mind is Bluesky’s approach to moderation. With this approach, users can subscribe to moderation services provided by others, which can, for example, spot bots before we do.
I would also like to add that not all bots are bad. Bluesky’s developer tools make it easy to create useful bots such as earthquake early warnings and public transportation alerts.
◆Q:
I wish there was a community note to prevent misinformation.
◆A:
I think so too! We considered integrating community notes a while back, but we thought we needed more people to participate in Bluesky to make it really effective (X’s algorithm doesn’t allow for community notes to show up). uses the logic that people who give different ratings must agree). But with 9 million people joining the network in the past two weeks, it’s time to reconsider.
◆Q:
When will the “Draft Post” feature be introduced?
◆A:
We don’t have any information to share yet, but we have plans! In the meantime, please use a third-party app that allows you to draft. Independent developers often release features faster than we do. That’s the joy of open APIs. Especially famous isTOKIMEKIandSkeetsAnd there are many others.
(Editor’s note) TOKIMEKI isdig bearThis is a Bluesky client developed by Mr. You can check how to use TOKIMEKI in the review article below.
I tried using the web application “TOKIMEKI” that can display Bluesky posts in columns like TweetDeck and check for updates – GIGAZINE
◆Q:
Are there any plans to authenticate key persons? You can trust accounts that claim to be from celebrities or media outlets by making sure they’re genuine.
◆A:
In fact, it has already been implemented. Bluesky allows you to set your own domain as your username. An example of a user who has already authenticated is:NPRorwashington postnews organizations such asRon WydenThis includes public officials such as senators, corporate accounts, etc. If you have a personal site, you can also use your site’s domain as your username.
(Editor’s note) GIGAZINE’s Bluesky official account is also “@gigazine.net” to prove that he is genuine. The steps to use your own domain as a handle name are explained in the article below.
How to authenticate yourself with “Bluesky”, unlike Twitter, it’s free & you can do it all yourself – GIGAZINE
We work behind the scenes to help many organizations set up usernames. Although it may seem technical and complex at first, we are thinking of ways to further improve the user experience.
Additionally, we approach issues of impersonation and authentication from the angle of moderation. When you report an imposter account, it will be reviewed by our moderation team 24/7. In recent weeks, we’ve quadrupled the size of our moderation team to help us review all reports more quickly and take action against imposter accounts.
We’re thinking about how we can make the verification badges visually more visible within the app, but nothing concrete has been decided yet.
◆Q:
When will the best client for iPad be released?
◆A:
(Paul) This is my fault. When I first created the app, I assumed that native builds didn’t need to handle multiple screen types. It was targeting only smartphone screens. It was an oversight on my part since web builds deal with tablet screens. It’s possible, but I haven’t found a good time to prioritize it because it takes time away from other priorities. very sorry.
◆Q:
Bluesky operates as a PBC (Public Interest Corporation). What does this mean? Is it like a non-profit organization?
◆A:
This means that the company Bluesky can pursue mission over profit. The “mission” here is “to develop and drive mass adoption of technology for open, decentralized public conversation.” by CEOPostIn addition to explaining why Bluesky is a public interest corporation, the CEO spoke about Bluesky’s mission.PostPlease also check.
(Editor’s note) The following page provides a detailed summary of what kind of organization Bluesky is operated by. In the article below, the company name is “Bluesky PBLLC,” but it was changed to “Bluesky Public Benefit Corporation (PBC)” in July 2023.
Who owns Twitter’s moving destination “Bluesky”? Would it be okay if a billionaire bought it like Twitter? -GIGAZINE
◆Q:
Do you have any approaches other than the moderation aspect in terms of keeping it safe? Even in the best of times, Twitter was a site where aggressive or harmful behavior was often encouraged. Moderation is useful, but I think it’s a tool that can only deal with incidents that have already happened. Is there a way to mitigate or prevent this tendency?
◆A:
People describe Twitter as “PVP”. They are combative by nature. We believe that this aspect is a major reason why people get tired of social media. It’s not fun to be constantly fighting with people. We have implemented many tools to reduce negative interactions.
The “block” function that exists as one of the defense measures is very aggressive. Hide all past interactions between the blocker and the blocked party. We also have built-in bulk mute and block lists (moderation lists) so the community can work together to protect themselves.
Additionally, you can separate quoted posts. This is the primary defense against the most common form of harassment: quote attacks.
Post authors have a lot of control. Even after you post, you can set who can reply. If you change the settings for those who can reply to “No replies”, you are effectively locking the thread.
(Editor’s note) The following article explains how to limit the users who can reply.
Bluesky adds “a function to create a new user invitation link by grouping recommended users” and “a function to later restrict users who can reply” – GIGAZINE
Another big tool is “Labeler”. This is a moderation run by other users that you can subscribe to. Labeler has the ability to accept reports and place labels on users or individual posts. There’s a lot of work to be done on these features, but it’s an area we take very seriously.
◆Q:
Did the existence of bluesky.app and bluesky.com (sites not related to Bluesky) bother you?
◆A:
Especially! I made a few typos, but after deleting it from my history, it no longer autofills. Some people may confuse Bluesky Social with another publicly traded company with a similar name, so we recommend double checking and caution before making any investments or stock purchases. Bluesky Social is not a publicly traded company.
◆Q:
Why did you choose an on-premises server instead of a cloud provider like AWS?
◆A:
Bandwidth cost! Cloud providers are great, but they charge very high margins for bandwidth. While this won’t be a problem for many businesses, Bluesky is a fast messaging network. For this reason, we were able to significantly reduce costs by going on-premises.
(Editor’s note) We hear more about Bluesky’s server configuration in the interview below.
We asked the people at Bluesky what they wanted to know right now, such as “Bluesky’s ambitions”, “Bluesky’s monetization plan”, “Specifications of Bluesky’s official server”, “Will the API ever become unusable?”, “The relationship between Jack Dorsey and Bluesky”, etc. I’ve heard everything – GIGAZINE
◆Q:
How can I suggest new features to Bluesky? I would like to be able to sort all the accounts I follow alphabetically. I would also like to be able to organize the moderation list that I follow so that it can be sorted from most users to least users.
◆A:
There is a feedback form in the left menu on mobile and on the right side on desktop. You can submit feature requests there. I have confirmed your request!
◆Q:
Since the election (US presidential election), this app has gained a lot of new users. Have there been any changes in your daily life, such as many challenges or pressures?
◆A:
Simply put, everyone has become busy…
We are always ready for rapid growth. Because growth tends to be explosive. I would like to take this opportunity to give a huge shout out to Bluesky’s amazing backend and infrastructure team for keeping the service largely stable while adding over 1 million new users per day.
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