Over the weekend, we decided to open an account for socPub on the social network, Bluesky. This action is all in an effort I started by evaluating alternatives to Facebook and X that we've leaned on so much in the past. We like that fact that it will be easy for you to find us on Bluesky as our handle on the social network is the same as our web domain, @socpub.com.

Why did we choose Bluesky?

Never heard of Bluesky? You wouldn't be the first as the ability to join Bluesky continues to remain "invite only" but new users continuously are being invited to join the platform. New social networks like Bluesky, Mastodon, and even Threads, promise to do things differently by allowing their networks to be decentralized much in the same way as your email accounts allow you to send and receive emails from different email servers.   

Traditional social media platforms that are centralized (like Facebook and X) have often been criticized for their lack of transparency, lack of user control, algorithmic bias, and making decisions that aren't always in the best interest of their users. Decentralization is hoping to address all this by giving you more ownership of your own data and letting you take that data with you in the same manner you would with your email, personal websites, and contacts. If you don't like how one company or entity is running their server, you can move on to another server that has the community and governance policies more to your liking.

One of the most significant advantages of Bluesky is its implementation of the AT Protocol, which is expected to enable seamless account portability between different social networks. This means that users can easily migrate their accounts and followers to another Bluesky compatible platform without losing their data or connections. This contrasts with traditional social media platforms, where users are often locked into a single ecosystem, making it difficult to switch without sacrificing their established online presence.

Furthermore, Bluesky emphasizes user ownership of data. Users have the right to access, control, and export their data, ensuring transparency and accountability in how their information is handled. This contrasts with traditional social media platforms where user data is often monetized without explicit consent or clear guidelines.

What about Threads and Mastodon?

There is a lot that we like about Thread and Mastodon and are continuously evaluating when and if a publication like socPub should join these platforms. Threads is still under so much development that we would like to have a better idea what the finished product will look like before joining. Once Threads has shown how it is implementing decentralization through ActivityPub with Mastodon we will likely make the decision on whether socPub joins Threads or not. My understanding is this could be a full year before Threads is compatible with Mastodon. 

Mastodon is a little tricker in that each instance (server) has its own rules for which accounts they're willing to host. Some have rules that the accounts may not be used for commercial purposes for instance. Ideally, I wouldn't mind having socPub's Mastodon account to be hosted on its own Mastodon instance but we're not there at the moment financially. Eventually though, I wouldn't be surprised to see socPub on Mastodon in one form or another by the end of this year.

Despite not putting socPub on Threads and Mastodon just yet, the good news is as editor I personally like both platforms. If you follow my personal account on either Threads or Mastodon, you'll find that I share quite a bit on those networks the articles that we post here on socPub.