Bluesky sucks but your experience doesn't have to (redux)
Many artists fled to Bluesky after being screwed over by platform after platform, from Tumblr banning NSFW to X being bought by Elon. However, what seemed like a safe new place to land has shown that it may be just like the others, from unfairly labelling artists' entire profiles to staff members that are pro AI.
If you happen to be a tired artist looking for an exit that isn't an exit, then I have great news for you: you can be on Bluesky without being on Bluesky!
That makes no sense at first. How can you be on a website without being on a website? But Bluesky was built specifically for situations like this. It uses something called the the AT (Authenticated Transfer) protocol, also known as ATProto. This protocol is available for other websites to use, and is intended for others to build on top of. It's sort of like how if you have a gmail account, you can still send emails to people with a protonmail account. Proton and Gmail are entirely separate email services, but they communicate with each other using a shared language: email protocols. The same can be done for almost anything on the internet as long as people adopt the protocol. Bluesky was the proof of concept for ATProto, so for a while, it was the only thing built on it. But now, there are others--from blogging software to code repository storage.
The best part? ATProto is built with migrations in mind. You can move your account without losing your posts, follows, or followers!
So, what are these alternatives?
The place where accounts live is referred to as a PDS (personal data server). There are a few PDSes open for registration!
Blacksky is focused on providing a safe space for black users.
Northsky is focused on providing a safe space for queer users.
Eurosky is focused on users from the EU.
Wafrn is a joint Bluesky and Fediverse (more on that later!) application with a focus on customizability and whimsy.
Bluesky keeps user accounts and their posts separate from the application that allows you to view them. The application that allows you to view posts is called an appview. Websites that you can browse Bluesky on consult an appview to know how accounts have been moderated. If your account lives on Bluesky's PDS and they ban you, it may be deleted, but if it lives on a different PDS, the only thing they can do is hide you using their appview. Your account and your posts will still be intact, and other appviews may let people see them. Having your account on a PDS that isn't Bluesky's keeps you safe!
You can use tools like PDSmoover to migrate your account from one PDS to another.
If you want to try out an alternative appview, Blacksky has made their own, and Witchsky is a website that allows you to browse Bluesky with a different appview.
You said "Fediverse" earlier. What is that?
The Fediverse is a loose collection of websites that run applications that use the ActivityPub protocol. Like Bluesky, these websites talk to each other to create a social experience. They just speak a different language to do it. A popular example of a Fediverse application is Mastodon. The Fediverse existed before Bluesky, so there are many more websites that are part of it!
Bluesky and the Fediverse are both considered decentralized social media! However, they take very different approaches to the idea. The pieces that run Bluesky (PDS, appview, relays, clients, and more) are all separate and copies can be run by anyone, while each Fediverse website is its own fully functional site. If all Fediverse websites but one went down, that final website would still work perfectly fine, and all the users whose accounts live on it can still talk to each other.
On Bluesky, if an important piece fails (for example, an appview), then anything relying on that piece will stop working until they switch to an alternative. But Fediverse applications don't have access to all posts like Bluesky applications do, so information for accounts that don't live on that particular site might be incomplete (ex: if you live on problemeowtic.net and your friend lives on blorbo.social, problemeowtic.net might not have any of their posts because problemeowtic.net doesn't know about them).
There are benefits and costs to both approaches, and it's up to you to decide what you think is best.
There is an application that speaks both protocols that I already talked about earlier: Wafrn! It allows you to create a Fediverse account, and then enable Bluesky integration for that account, which lets you post to the Fediverse and Bluesky at the same time. Both of your Bluesky and Fediverse feeds will be in the same place! But Wafrn hosts the Bluesky account itself, so if you want to attach a Bluesky account you already have to a Wafrn account, you will need to migrate your Bluesky account to Wafrn.
If you want to leave Bluesky completely but still have friends you can't also get to leave, you might be able to create a Fediverse account and bridge it using Bridgy. Bridgy also lets you bridge Bluesky accounts to the Fediverse. If the Fediverse interests you, I would recommend checking out Scumsuck's guide to Fediverse websites for artists.
Okay, cool. What about that other stuff you mentioned?
For more about Bluesky and the applications built surrounding it, I'd recommend checking out MacKuba's complete guide to Bluesky.
If you want to learn more about the Fediverse, I would recommend checking out Fedi Tips.
This piece has was originally posted to my website. The website version is the "definitive" version and will receive updates before this post, if this post is updated at all.
Standard.site provides shared lexicons for long-form publishing on AT Protocol. Making content easier to discover, index, and move across the ATmosphere.
Folks, time for a so-called Request For Comments: I wrote a proposal to split badge declaration and badge appearance lexicons to better meet the needs and workflows of badge lovers everywhere!
Find the full post on the ATproto community forum or read below 👇
(I swear you don't need to know a lot about tech to comment)
As promised to @ngerakines.me, here’s a more formal proposal for “badge appearance”. This is not the complete proposal yet: I need to write
Why do this [the skippable technical part]
tl;dr: badges currently use their name for both identification (the name of the badge) and title (what's written on top). Because of how PDSes works, changing badge details creates a new version of its record, which means badge awards now refer to a old one whose content cannot be easily verified.
To change this, I propose we split and invert the relationship: instead of "embedding" appearance inside, badges definitions point to a separate appearance record, which can be more easily evolved and tweaked without invalidating the original definition.
With this, we can focus our true goal: letting people display cool-looking badges on their personal pages, and enable endless customization. 👀
👉 Defining "Badge Appearance" [The part where I want help]
In particular, I'd like to start with 2 types of badges: icon + title + color (like atmosphereconf.org's) and more classic image badges (like @fujowebdev's).
The idea is to let people keep it simple or go as wild as they want with their badge display: leave it at title, or add a color and an emoji, or harness the full expressive power of pixel badges and beyond—same experience as the old web, now with decentralized cryptographic signatures 😈 2026, baby!
The display rules are "simple":
If there's an image, use the image
If not, use title + color + icon (can be letters or emojis or an image to be shown alongside the rest)
if there's no appearance, just use name + description, like today.
Also, last but not least, a "url" field points to where to learn more about the badge itself/its context.
(SIDE NOTE: @fujowebdev's badge description says, "Some people would do anything for catboys, even learn version control". The screenshot doesn't let it be read in its full glory, but I won't let my beautiful work of art be hidden like that.)
...and that's it (for now)! I want to go way wilder, but this feels ok to start.
I have a few open questions 👇👀 open to all for input! Please do tear this apart, express both wishes and confusion, and let us know if you'd use and support this!
Comments here are welcome for the super-low-friction experience, but remember: the Discourse forum is open to all, and you can log in with your Atmosphere account, the same you use for Bluesky!
The last social account you'll ever need. One account for all your apps.
Thank you for your attention and input 💖
Extra points: boost the thread so others can see it and comment 🙏👇
"Traditional federation lacks modularity. Hosting, distribution, moderation, algorithms, and business logic are located in the hosting instance. This creates a weak separation of powers. Ideally, users reduce the power of a popular instance by devolving specific functions to other providers. We want to preserve rights in the default course of operation; separating powers helps achieve that."
https://www.pfrazee.com/blog/practical-decentralization - definitely worth reading. In virtually every paragraph of it.
"[...]No, I'm so excited about it. It really, I'm really passionate about this. Because, I think some people because we chose to build on the AT protocol. Some people have asked me where it's like, oh, did you not like ActivityPub? And I'm like, no, no, no. Like, this is a yes and not an either or, right? I think of that. I don't know if you know that the Spider Man meme where there's like three spider mans and they're all pointing at each other. I'm like, we do not want to become that. We are all Spider Man, you know, and we have some bigger fish to fry. We are working together, and we are going to fry those fish well.[...]"
Not completely done listening to this one, and there are some assumptions I feel uneasy with (like, the in some of these networks reoccurring assumptions that users are basically just "content creators" aiming at in whichever way collecting and keeping followers to consume whatever they produce), but some other aspects definitely resonate, and this one about the need for collaboration rather than competition in the "open social web" space definitely standing out. Worth checking out.
