Bluesky Social Hack 1.46 + Redeem Codes

As an nsfw artist, not being able to view nsfw on mobile is disappointing. I can view it on desktop. It is a bug so I’m sure it’ll get fixed. However, the moderation options are a great sign. I’m am a huge advocate for them. It allows people to express themselves while also keeping vulnerable parties, like children and traumatized people, safe. Too many companies go straight to “everyone must be squeaky clean and child safe” and it destroys creativity and genuine connection. Being able to post what I want to create and know that it won’t land in the laps of people isn’t meant for is freeing and bodes well for bluesky.

Remember clubhouse? They took forever to let folks in, and then it just died. Look, I get exclusivity and trying to build buzz. I get wanting to gate-keep and build a good community first. But for those of us who have faded from/quit certain social media because of the toxicity, it’s really unfair to make those looking for refuge wait. Y’all have just waited too long to let some of us in, and we are very angry. We will not be quick to (or likely may never) forgive. Bluesky could have created a better way to let folks in who aren’t connected/have lost connection. It now seems EXACTLY like clubhouse. A lot of big names and elites there (I don’t mean elite in the derogatory way it has been used in politically charged discourse. I just simply mean folks with power, pull, celebrity, connections, etc.). But y’all only seem to care about making sure they are happy. But when you finally let the rest of us normal folks in, we’ll not care. And the elites will then have lost interest/found there isn’t a way to monetize/build real engagement. And, just like clubhouse, Bluesky will die. Y’all deserve this when it comes. I’m just gonna be grateful for the geeks and developers I interact with NOW on Mastodon. I’m over waiting. Deleting this app. I will now ignore any emails, from Bluesky, about an invite. Just like I did with clubhouse when they finally got around to us lowly, everyday folks.

It’s not finished yet. They’re still testing. It’s in invite only for that reason. Bluesky is still in beta, and review bombing because you’re mad you can’t get in is childish. If you think it’ll be invite only forever, you’re mistaken.

Anyways, Bluesky is a solid twitter competitor and overall I’m happier on it than I was on twitter. I’m not getting random right wingers and transphobes I don’t interact with at all in my home feed thanks to Elon Musk, and the replies are actual replies instead of unrelated memes, onlyfans girls, blue checks contributing nothing to the conversation, NFT/cryptobros, etc. The community is also much more positive than twitter so far. I’m liking the features such as custom feeds, and I’m excited for when federation is fully finished and for new features to come

So full stop I’m not a tech person. Got invited to beta test bluesky off the waitlist. While there are occasional times the feed loading gets wonky- and I’ve experienced this a handful of times in the past week- it’s also very intuitive, and it evolves while you are using it. It has been hands down the coolest social site I have ever been a part of. Remember watching Star Trek? Or your first MySpace experience? When you were like-technology really can’t be that ‘human’. Scrolling through Bluesky is that kind of experience- where you feel connected to humanity. And yes- the users are pretty legit amazing. Being a beta tester I went in there without any connection or community- and was quickly embraced by so many. If you’re lucky enough to get an invite, don’t sit on it.

I know it’s an invite only beta, but the management has put zero thought or effort into moderation (until it causes a scandal). Even when changes have been made re moderation there is no meaningful communication from management. Looks like they are embracing the self-moderation style (blocking) of other sites who are also infested with bigots except bluesky launched (beta) with no ability to block anyone.

There is no Trust & Safety team, which they almost managed to get by with until they hit 250k+ users at which time trolls started creating accounts using slurs as usernames (including the n word). This is particularly egregious given management had invited big accounts from black twitter to build community on Bluesky when they first started accepting testers.

This site, and it’s federation once that launches, will be deader than mastodon without moderation. Hope the VCs stop throwing money at Bluesky until moderation tools and a trust and safety team are in place.

I'm not going to sugarcoat and say that it doesn't have bugs, because it does. But then again, it is very early access. I love certain implementations - the way link previews (cards) work, and the way notifications can be expanded and collapsed to view all usernames involved in an action, etc - it's the little things. But I guess the beauty of it lies at the back end - with all the decentralization. It does have the potential to dethrone the already well-established Mastodon as the go-to decentralized microblogging platform, but that's way far into the future. Looking forward to future updates!

They’re putting people on waitlist for ever, the enthusiasm is slowly dying out. Now I see some people trying to sell the invite codes. Is that their endgame? 🤷‍♂️
Come on, guys! If you let some people in on the BETA version, why discriminate against others? Is there any serious technical reason why you’re keeping some people in the dark? Apple didn’t have to know me before signing me up for their Beta updates. They don’t have to, it’s a waste of time!
If it takes more than another month for me to get the invite, then forget this.

While it may take a while to get in, it definitely has one thing... A very welcoming community! I also love the general design of the app itself (I'm just not that big of a fan of the current icon, being a general picture of clouds)

It feels like a proper Twitter successor where people can be safer than what Elon Musk has brought, and it's worth it for the wait to get in. One thing to remember is that it won't be closed off forever. I like to think the reason it's currently closed off is because they don't want to bring any bad people (fascists) in.

The app is a little buggy, but it still gets 5 stars for the work the devs have been putting in and the community they’re curating.

It really feels like early social media. People are talking about their actual interests. People are having fun. There aren’t 200 people yelling slurs at you every time you post. It’s the most wholesome and welcoming online experience I’ve had in a long time.

It’s idyllic and the fact that everyone is happily overlooking any faults with the tech should tell you how badly we needed a space where people are normal.

This is the most worthless app on my phone. Even apps I haven’t used in a year are worth more than this one! Why? Because I can at least still open those year old apps and use them. This app just sits on my phone waiting to be accessed. I’ve been on this “waiting list” for a VERY long time, but haven’t even received an email that says, “Hang on, we are getting there.” Just plain useless and really shakes my faith in the ability of this new site to even be worth something because Meta’s new social media site is going to be open before Bluesky and they will have nobody to blame but themselves because people are tired of a useless app sitting on their phones just waiting to be used.