BlueSky Chronicles

What is BlueSky? 

Well, according to them, they are a decentralised social media company that puts the power and control back into the hands of its users.

I have always been a fan of new tech or software, from getting a Windows phone before all the bugs had been cleared out to AI before there were experts on LinkedIn offering courses on it. I take a "let's give it a bash and learn while doing" approach, and that’s how I came across BlueSky. 

I was one of the Twitter refugees, as every time I went on the app, I would scroll down about five posts to see a very graphic video that has no place in society, let alone on an app that is the world's town square. Or I would go on the app and within five minutes, I would be fed propaganda from a certain app owner who was telling people of a certain political persuasion to go to jail, etc. 

It had, in the words of Aristotle (probably), Twitter has become a cesspit of hate.

So, on to a brighter and bluer sky (see what I did there). I had heard about BlueSky on ironically Twitter, from some people that I follow, the buzz and exodus had started. So, what is decentralised social media it’s  very much like the failure that was Mastodon. The difference is Mastodon had separate servers that had their own topic and no cross between servers. So, if you wanted to talk about social care, you would join the social care server, or sports, you would join that server. BlueSky is on one server, and you then choose different feeds to follow, but everyone is together and can cross between topics easily.

So, I joined my 145th social media account and had a look around. First off, it was hard because on Twitter, I had been there a while, made connections, or built up following people and vice versa over years. Now I was trying to do this in days. So, this is where a handy feature comes in: Starter packs. These are user-generated and are on topics like Charity UK or Journalists and feature people those users that have made the pack feel are worth a follow or are a leading voice in that subject. Many people like me also asked the question, "Can we just export our following list from Twitter?" and at first, the answer was unsurprisingly no. Twitter rightfully doesn’t want you to copy and paste the people you are following into a rival app and then leave. Who would Elon give his heart to?

Then the tech-minded of the BlueSkyers, as people who use the app I like to think are known as, developed a Chrome extension and built a sky bridge where you could find those that you followed on Twitter, and as long as they had the same username, then you could follow on BlueSky.

So, what is the app actually like? Well, think of Twitter in the beginning: people updating us on their day, cat videos, and a very 2025 addition—BOTS. My profile says I have 103 followers, of which at least 10 are women whose only information is a link to their ‘pictures’ I have not clicked the link because A) I am a married man who is not tempted to stray, and B) I would rather not click a link to only have my information stolen and used to buy 15 Amazon gift cards in a foreign country.

So, what are BlueSky doing about this? According to them, they are going against the norm and—check notes—not getting rid of their moderation team (looking at you, Zuck). They are actually expanding it and taking reports seriously. Wow, what a time to be alive.

So far, I’ve liked the experience. There have not been any shocking videos or rants that I have seen. I have only seen what I am following and have been able to discover interesting and nice things. I just need to remember it's there and not to go on Twitter when I want to say/share something or, very modern of me, check the news or world events. The only issue I have is it is a bit of an echo chamber. Everyone hates the Tories and Trump, so there won’t be any opposite views apart from the odd infighting among left-wingers and extreme left-wingers.