Read to the end for good news, such as;

• Brologue is now available on Bluesky…
• …Even though I don’t trust ’em.

Yes, I’ve said as much in the past that Threads and Bluesky are the same shit from the same assholes who brought you Facebook and Twitter:

https://brologue.net/2024/03/19/you-create-something-like-inward-tooting

No, I don’t particularly want to syndicate to platforms owned by those assholes if I can help it. But the Fediverse was designed to build bridges, not walls, so, as a treat, I’m checking out this new community-run bridging service called Bridgy Fed:

https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/fediverse-bluesky-bridge

https://fed.brid.gy

Fediverse users can now cross post to Bluesky simply by following @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy. No account required. Bluesky users can do the same by following @ap.brid.gy; from there, you can interact with anyone who’s opted in to the bridge.

Let me write that again, with Big Tech platforms this time: it’s like using your Facebook account to follow, say, all those ‘No Context’ Twitter handles directly from Facebook.

As of this post, Brologue is now available to read on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/bigolifacks.geekdom.social.ap.brid.gy

If you’re reading this on Bluesky, don’t forget to follow the bridge so I can see you! Through Bridgy Fed, I can expand my blog’s reach, give readers more choice as to how they read it, and still maintain canonical ownership of my work. The more I syndicate, the more Brologue can realise the POSSE model’s ideals:

https://indieweb.org/POSSE

This will be an exciting new chapter for Brologue – for better, or worse. See, despite Bridgy Fed’s community-built bridge, we’ve been burnt on this sort of thing before. It’s called ‘Embrace, Extend, Extinguish,’ and it’s described here by Mike McCue as a tragedy in three acts:

https://flipboard.social/@mike/110002535044533438
While I trust Bridgy Fed to deliver my post to willing receivers, I just can’t trust Bluesky. As far as I’m aware (I may very well be wrong!), it still has yet to offer federation in a way that matters. It’s federateable, not federated. Here I am, once again, h/t’ing Cory Doctorow and his post on Things Bluesky Users Should Know:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/06/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again

I don’t want to syndicate to X, but I feel like I’ll have to eventually. We should improve centralised social media platforms by putting power in the hands of people, yet I participate in them anyway. Curious!

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha

Once again, we have our fellow users to thank for creating the features we love using¹. Bridgy Fed is doing an invaluable job, and long may it (and any future bridging services) continue. It means I don’t have to use Bluesky as my daily driver; likewise, you Bluesky readers don’t have to go to Brologue or my Mastodon handle. Everyone wins.

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1. Fun fact: Twitter’s quote retweets were a user convention before being canonised. Another example I personally remember is how you would @ or quote people on Discord the old-fashioned way, before they reinvented the reply. ↩︎