It's not a large team, and it's very barebones in terms of features, like DMs. They also weren't ready for the small boom in users trying to sign up the other day, so networking is still a concern for them. Also they haven't been working directly on the app itself this entire time, they also created a new protocol due to Jack's desire to re-evaluate everything rather than "create a twitter clone".

It's not. Bluesky is still quite primitive. I wouldn't even call it a "beta", more like an alpha.

They gave invite codes to some "influencers", and it got a lot of hype and media attention, but after the hype died down somewhat, it's become basically a nothing burger. I've stopped giving out the invite codes that I'm accumulating, because my feed is pretty boring and dead. Bluesky is far more "promise" than reality.

Meta has 1000x the engineering resources of Bluesky.

You should post any codes you have here, I imagine the HN userbase is more likely than most to be interested in trying a project like that out (or maybe it's just me :))

I already have plenty of people interested in the codes. But when new people arrive and look around, they tend to lose interest just like I did.

So instead of sending out your invite codes to diversify the user base to generate more content, you will instead not distribute the codes?

> diversify the user base to generate more content

That's an incorrect assumption. I've given out codes before. It didn't generate more content, because people quickly lose interest.

The grass is not greener on the other side.

I guess that's fair. I don't necessarily think I agree with you yet, but I don't think I disagree as much either. Interesting discussion.

I feel like the fact you can’t even use it yet because you don’t have an invite is exactly why it isn’t ready yet.

Well sure, but to be fair they let a lot of "influencers" on some sort of working platform and it got a lot of hype, but since then... You don't hear much anymore. I was just wondering what was going on, they've been working on it for a while now.

I've heard most of the discussion on the platform is 'meta' discussion about bluesky itself, rather than anything interesting.

My experience with mastodon was the same for a while until Elon took over twitter. Now I do see discussions on stuff I care about although I am starting to see discussions regarding the threat of Meta federating with some big instances of mastodon.

Yeah, seemed like a lot of chatter from people onboarding Mastodon was 'how does this work' or 'how do I use it to build and find community or news' or 'why this is better than other options'.

That seemed to fade fast on an individual basis once there was critical mass to support conversation on other shared interests between users but flares up again from time to time when a new 'wave' of people join. Maybe bluesky just lacks critical mass for user interest overlap other than 'being on bluesky'.

I think this right here is what makes me curious about Bluesky in the first place, the meta discussion on HN about it is weird and I want to see it for myself.

Bluesky feels like a beta. It's missing: DMs, private accounts, gif/video embeds, and any sort of advanced notification controls. They don't have a trust and safety team, and they're using the invite system to slow down their growth because they can't keep up with demand. It's fun at its current small scale, but they aren't ready to be a Twitter replacement yet.

The invite system just really gives off Google+ vibes and I'm wondering if we end up in the same place after Threads launches. Facebook/Meta seems really poised to eat Bluesky's lunch in a few days.

Gmail also had invites to start, back in the day, and that's the de facto email service now.

But that had a compelling day-1 offering that was clearly better - massive free storage allocation. Bluesky doesn't have a compelling reason to sign up like that, so the invite system feels flawed.

Gmail also had so much hype around it, invites were sold online (I paid ~1.10€ or something on eBay). ~~Blusky, not so much.~~

I see a lot of Bluesky invites that have sold on Ebay today. For ~$20 too.

* * *

> Do people actually talk about bluesky outside of HN?

I see a bunch of people talking about it on Twitter in the context of "I'm on Bluesky, follow me there in case this implodes". But yeah, >90% of the Bluesky mentions I see are on HN.

- Gmail had killer features that made even moving desirable.

- Email is federated so there is much less cost to switch providers where you can still receive and send from others. No stickiness factor

This is why Gmail succeeded and g+ failed

GMail's invite system worked because you could use GMail to talk to your non-GMail friends. G+ failed for many reasons, but one of them is that if you got in before all your friends there was just nothing you could actually do there.

Gmail was so much better than competing services at the time (in terms of storage) and also this was almost 20 years ago.

Different world, different internet, different userbase.

Facebook exists because they started off as .edu only.

I'd expect that Bluesky would launch invites in next few days or so, to those who left their emails. I mean, their competitor is up so why not sent these invites or even open registration for anyone

Unless of course they first want to see how much interest it gains

Loginwall is what I really dislike about Bluesky. Is it temporaly or design?

If it was ready I assume they'd take the invite wall down.

I haven't got one either yet so don't know its state.

I just checked, I have some invite codes!

I’ll DM you!

EDIT: realised you can’t DM on HN

How can I send a code to you? If you want one that is, you might not be bothered :-)

EDIT EDIT: I’m using the Hack App on my Phone, I think maybe I can DM followers from the desktop site?

Not to turn the thread into a code request party, but if you have a spare one I would be interested, too. Just professional curiosity.

There is no way to DM, but Firefox Relay can be used for temporary email addresses:

xow6d86sq at mozmail dot com

If you have an additional code you’d be willing to part with, I’d love to give it a try! jonathan dot organizing at gmail.

Sure, thanks! Seems like an interesting platform. skiman10 at duck.com

Not sure on the DM stuff, if you figure it out let me know!

Would love an invite, thank you!

6ndpn1zk AT duck.com

I can't resist - I've been trying to get an invite for awhile now. Thanks!

zhym4g7v AT duck.com

Incoming

I'm out, if I get more, I'll come dish them out :-)

Well this turned into a begging fest for invites. Sorry about that.

On your email!

Apologies for the delay!

I'm all out of codes now - If I get anymore, I'll share them here.

I didnt realise at first there were so many requests! :-)

Thank you!

I would love an invite if you could DM me fellow HACK user :)

Would love an invite if you still have

7jsqi5gf at duck.com

Incoming!

Apologies for the delay.

Sadly I don’t think Hack adds DMs either. I’ll pile on here and ask if there’s any chance you have an extra code! Thanks either way! [email protected]

can I ride this wave?

0df41fec3f63 AT fomogo.club

Incoming!

Apologies for the delay.

You arnt missing anything :-)

Bluesky is where ppl bash twitter and no other comments

> Bluesky is where ppl bash twitter and

and Mastodon.

There's definitely some of that, but it's a minority. Most people are just enjoying being weird and horny on a new platform.

Apparently, (at least some) content creators like it better than Mastodon already. See https://drewdevault.com/2023/06/30/Social-and-parasocial-med...

I think it's too barebones and they are still working out the moderation and safety problem. Besides, it looks like it scales like shit. It's not ready for wide adoption, I have to agree about this one.

The UI sucks.

This is a new one I haven't seen before, could you go into more detail?