Last modified March 18, 2025 by Jarjar

I won't talk about gaming in this article, but don't worry, I'll make a link with the gaming world, just to keep your interest ;). In fact, working in the field of information technology, another of my many passions, I wanted to share with you my little analysis on this new social network called Bluesky, increasingly used in the gaming world, which appeared last year, following Elon Musk's rout with Twitter (now called X), while millions of users were looking for an alternative

WHAT HAPPENED WITH ELON AND TWITTER?

Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 for approximately $44 billion, renaming it X in July 2023. Under his leadership, the company has undergone major changes, including mass layoffs (approximately 80% of staff), a reorganization of account verification with Twitter Blue (now X Premium), changes to the algorithm, a more permissive approach to content moderation, and the introduction of new features such as audio/video calls and payments. These transformations have sparked controversies regarding freedom of expression, misinformation, and the economic viability of the platform. In addition, his recent political stances and controversial statements have been very disturbing.

THE ORIGINS OF BLUESKY

It was Jack Dorsey who, in 2019, while he was still CEO of Twitter, put together a team with the mission of designing what a social network could look like. decentralized ", structured into several instances, each managed or moderated by autonomous teams.

Bluesky was born as a research project at Twitter. It became an independent company in 2021, called Bluesky Social, and became a non-profit company in February 2022, with the mission of "developing and driving the large-scale adoption of technologies for conversation open and decentralized public ", so it is not controlled or reacted by a single company, as is the case with Twitter/X. What makes it special is the latest communication protocol called AT.

The social media platform Bluesky was launched to the general public in February 2024. The platform has grown rapidly, reaching over 30 million users as of January. A live user counter is available here.

Bluesky is #17 on Fast Company's "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025": https://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/list.

OPEN PROTOCOL AT

The AT protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol) is an open-source protocol, developed and used by Bluesky for decentralized data storage on multiple servers.

It is supposed to allow, in the long term, users to change host at any time and the platforms that use it to be interoperable. The objective is to facilitate the portability of accounts.

Bluesky uses this protocol as the basis of its social network, but other applications can implement it as well.

In January 2025, the AT protocol being developed only by the company Bluesky Social, annoys the community, because it remains too centralized to protect it from a takeover, as was Twitter by Elon Musk. A GoFundMe is published to obtain the creation of a foundation that would manage the development of the protocol. : https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-free-social-media-from-billionaires

JACK'S DEPARTURE

The platform’s growth has gradually changed the company’s trajectory. With that growth, administrators have pressured Bluesky Social CEO Jay Graber and his team to implement moderation mechanisms and ban certain users — an approach that contrasts with the project’s original vision.

That's when I thought, "Um, no. This is literally repeating every mistake we've made as a company. This is not a truly decentralized protocol. This is another app. This is another app that's kind of following in the footsteps of Twitter, but for a different segment of the population."

Everything we wanted in terms of decentralization, everything we wanted in terms of an open source protocol, suddenly became a company with venture capital firms and a board of directors. That's not what I wanted, that's not what I intended to help create.
— Jack Dorsey

Jack left BlueSky and funded another messaging protocol project called Nostr.

NOSTR – DECENTRALIZED PROTOCOL TAKE 2

NOSTR is a decentralized protocol for exchanging cryptographically signed messages between users via relays, without a central authority. The name is an acronym for "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays". It was designed with censorship resistance in mind. Its main feature is that the focus is on the network rather than the company that uses the protocol. NOSTR is very present in the cryptocurrency world, it can be seen as a complement to Bitcoin, offering a decentralized social communication layer that integrates well with the Bitcoin payment infrastructure.

Instead of using insecure passwords, all messages are signed using cryptography. You can verify messages and user authenticity without relying on a centralized component. You are the owner of your NOSTR.

This is a project that offers an alternative to Bluesky's AT protocol but which, for the moment, is not easy to access, there is very little content on board games and not being regulated, there is a lot of trash content.

Despite the controversies surrounding content moderation within the company, Bluesky stands out as a promising alternative to Twitter/X. The platform offers a pleasant and innovative user experience, with features that bring a breath of fresh air to the social media landscape.

BLUESKY AND THE WORLD OF BOARD GAMES

To get started with Bluesky, it's very simple, just go to this site: https://bsky.app/ and to create your account, you will need a valid email and choose a username.

Some of the interesting features of Bluesky include:
Starter packs: Bluesky offers starter packs so you can quickly fill your account with people based on your interests. You can create your own starter packs and offer them to the community.
Custom Domain: When creating an account on Bluesky, your account name ends with bsky.social by default, but you can use your own domain name. Like what I did with my account (@jarjar.blog)
Custom Feed: allows you to select by subject of interest the messages displayed on your Bluesky page.

labeling: Bluesky allows users to self-tag their account and posts, such as your favorite football team with the NFL Flair.

Several well-known people have publicly announced that they are leaving Twitter/X to go to Bluesky, such as Stephen King (@stephenking.bsky.social) and Guillermo del Toro (@realgdt.bsky.social). You can follow this account to find out who is leaving X for Bluesky: @blueskywins.bsky.social

In our community, board games, several have also announced their migration to Bluesky, such as Antoine Bauza (@toinito.bsky.social) and Bruno Cathala (@brunocathala.bsky.social).
I offer you a list of people and companies working in board games to follow on Bluesky, I created a starter pack here moreover to facilitate the integration of these accounts into your Bluesky feed.

@jarjar.blog
@bombyx.bsky.social
@devirgames.bsky.social
@lookoutgames.bsky.social
@leder.games
@brunocathala.bsky.social
@cocktailgames.bsky.social
@faidutti.com
@toinito.bsky.social
@suzieofsanne.bsky.social (co-creator of the Board game stats app)
@eerko.bsky.social (creator of the Board game stats app)
@bgstatsapp.bsky.social
@ebeltrando.bsky.social (Sorry we are French!)
@boardgamegeek.com
@geeklette.bsky.social
@pierolalune.bsky.social
@ludolegars.bsky.social
@jasondcmatthews.bsky.social
@elizhargrave.bsky.social
@fairplaymagazin.bsky.social

APPLICATIONS FOR BLUESKY

Since the API is open for Bluesky, it is very easy to create applications to interact with the network content. Here are some examples:

cred.blue, which is a service that calculates a credibility score on Bluesky. This tool helps you better understand the footprint of your data as well as that of the users you track on the AT protocol.

https://www.sky-follower-bridge.dev/ Easily migrate your social connections from 𝕏, Threads, Facebook and more to Bluesky.

blueskyhunter helps you optimize, grow and analyze your audience.
https://bskyhub.com/ Track and analyze your Bluesky account.

So if you want to get away from Elon Musk and look for an alternative to Twitter/X, Bluesky is a great place to start!

Looking forward to following and reading you on Bluesky now 🙂