178 replies

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2. Florens Verschelde 2 min later

   the green bubble of bluesky handles

   1. Zach Leatherman 12 min later

      ahaha yes, exactly

      1. Florens Verschelde 2 hr later

         clarifying if need be that my "green bubbles" is not pejorative:
         bsky.app/profile/fvsc...

         1. Zach Leatherman 2 hr later

            definitely a similar clique-based design problem

            1. Charlie 11 hr later

               Sounds like clique-bait to me

3. Jeremiah Guttentag 2 min later

   I just got here. Somebody explain this stigma to me. Is it just a "lol he's not cool enough to self-host" or something more substantial

   1. Jeremiah Guttentag 3 min later

      Judging from the other replies, I think I've got my answer

      1. Zach Leatherman 13 min later

         not saying it’s fair or right but it definitely exists

         1. Adam Gonnerman 3 hr later

            This is news to me. An I one of the elite with my custom handle?

   2. Geoff Davis 11 min later

      Right? lol I just made it on the open registration.

   3. leah 🛸 3 hr later

      well you don't need to self host a PDS or anything for a custom handle, you need to own a domain

      1. Jeremiah Guttentag 3 hr later

         ah, good to know, thanks. i haven't looked into it yet.

      2. Jeremiah Guttentag 3 hr later

         alright, well, that was incredibly easy. for anybody else looking to do the same:

         bluesky > settings > account > handle > I have my own domain

         can update via either .well-known file or dns

         @heydonworks.bsky.social @richardiii.bsky.social

         1. richard 3 hr later

            oh, i know it was easy. i was just procrastinating.

4. Oleksii 3 min later

   I thought Bluesky was going to sell domains on here? Imagine if they also allowed hosting some static pages on those domains, myspace style

   1. A. H. Zakai 2 hr later

      Buying domains through Bluesky already exists. It does almost all the account setup for you when you do it that way. I bought my domain that way.

      Link: bsky.social/about/blog/7...

      1. Zach Leatherman 2 hr later

         whoa, TIL

   2. Into thin air 6 hr later

      Let me go find my spinning skull gifs from my old MySpace page

5. Michael 4 min later

   How about a Sarah McLachlan ad showing their sorry plight?

   1. Michael 7 min later
      1. Thomas Broyer 2 hr later

         And you don't even need a DNS record nowadays, you can "verify" your handle with a text file (provided you already have a website then)

6. Chris Harrison 23 min later

   I hadn’t really thought of there being any sort of stigma with keeping default handles. Some folks don’t own domains or know how to mess with dns to verify themselves. I do wonder if my default username of @cdharrison.bsky.social is now free to snag.

   1. Zach Leatherman 27 min later

      *good question*

      1. Chris Harrison 38 min later

         I found the answer. It does indeed free up the username. I registered mine to secure it just in case.

         1. Chris Harrison 38 min later

            @cdharrison.bsky.social

            1. Richard MacManus 5 hr later

               Now we know why the user numbers are going up so fast! But seriously, I discovered another ricmac had taken mine after I went to a domain. But I was fine with it, as he was an actual Richard Mac and not a spammer. I guess this is the new way of the web…handle-hogging is old school now?

               1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

                  yeah, I don’t think I’ll register the same .bsky.social name—doesn’t seem worth it (to me!)

                  1. Boris 15 hr later

                     Exactly. I’m trying to break people of this habit.

                     Just calling the bsky .social handle a “starter” username that they loan you for a while.

      2. Private reply 1 hr later
         1. Scott Jehl 1 hr later

            Just did the same but I’m wondering if that account is going to get tagged instead of me by mistake now 😵‍💫

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   3. Gryphon 7 hr later

      This is kind of a problem. I've seen bigger accounts complaining about their bsky handle getting snapped up by impersonators during the switch. They need some kind of redirect feature

7. Ville M. Vainio 39 min later

   They should just hide the suffix

   1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

      yeah—I agree with this

      1. Jim Simon 1 hr later

         Wouldn't that lessen the verification aspects of using DNS though? Especially if they allow custom domains to hide the suffix. Seems like we'd have a spoofing issue equivalent to email.

         1. Ville M. Vainio 1 hr later

            No, just hide the default bsky.social suffix

            1. Kuldar 2 hr later

               This would break the “your handle is a url” convention of Bsky though.

               As in vivainio.bsky.social literally links to your profile.

         2. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

            yeah—I think the main idea is that this is a UX problem

         3. Hawk Ticehurst 2 hr later

            Like @vivainio.bsky.social said the idea is to hide “bsky.social”

            Mastodon does something similar where ppl who are on the same server as you don’t have the full user handle (username + server name) displayed, just username. But those on different servers do have the full user handle displayed

            1. Hawk Ticehurst 2 hr later

               So translated to Bluesky you would just leave custom domain usernames unaltered

      2. patak 2 hr later

         I think it's a feature that they show the full domain for .bsky.social users. Even if it would be better for the network short term to hide it, so posts look better for everybody, my vote goes to keep it visible and use this as a nudge for them to get a domain; making it easier through bsky services

         1. Wes 2 hr later

            I agree with this. The alternative would preference users to *keep* their non-custom domain handles. And I say this as someone who has decided not to move over to one yet.

         2. Ville M. Vainio 2 hr later

            If this was true, it would mean bluesky intentionally makes experience worse for majority of users

            1. patak 2 hr later

               Yes. And I would do the same if I was taking the shots. I imagine this is intentional. They discussed and decided the pain was worth it. To be honest, I think a ton of us wouldn't set our domains if the .bsky.social would look even better. I would be @patak instead of @patak.dev

               1. Brent Morton 2 hr later

                  yea I'd go back to @b1mind vs @b.1mind.dev . I still come up in search either way though. I just like the consistency of it from other platforms. 🤷‍♂️

                  1. patak 2 hr later

                     I think it would be awesome if the "you're your website" id scheme spreads everywhere. Imagine being the exact same @your.web in GitHub, Discord, and every other network

                     1. Brent Morton 2 hr later

                        It would play into the semantic web so much more if we relied on URIs. I'd be for it.

                  2. Martin 2 hr later

                     But this way I know it is you by seeing the domain and not have to rely on a weird blue checkmark

         3. Zach Leatherman 2 hr later

            fair enough! but now we’re here? I do think it’d be better if there were a mastodon-esque plurality of instances folks were joining—though I could see the argument that @mastodon.social is the .bsky.social in this scenario

            1. patak 2 hr later

               Yes. Until we have third-party apps, a nice trick here would be that they get a few domains and rotate them when creating users. So you'll see .bsky.social, .sky.blue, .blue.app, .proto.sky, and so on. If they have ~10 of this, then I think you wouldn't have sent your post (cc @samuel.bsky.team)

               1. Samuel 3 hr later

                  it doesn’t work like mastodon. bsky.social is the default domain provided by the Bluesky PDS, but if you make an account on a different PDS you’ll have a different domain. the key difference though is that you can change it at any time and it is not dependent on your PDS once you’ve made your acc

                  1. Samuel 3 hr later

                     different “instances” wouldn’t appear different because there’s no such thing as other instances in mastodon terms.

                     however I do like the idea of getting to pick from a handful of starter domains, we have discussed this in the past

                     1. patak 3 hr later

                        I see, and yes, you could have several bluesky managed PDS instead of a single huge one and then you get the same proposal.

                        1. patak 3 hr later

                           it could be seen as a way to trick users into thinking that bluesky is more decentralized that what it really is regarding PDS, but I think it should be fine, and you could say that you do it because it lets you better test the network?

                        2. Samuel 3 hr later

                           we do have several dozen bsky managed PDSes, each with ~500k users. They just all use “bsky.social”

                           what I’m trying to say is, the handle doesn’t matter. we could set it to anything. it doesn’t depend on what PDS you’re on

                           1. Samuel 3 hr later

                              it’s a design goal to make decentralisation less obvious, not more obvious

                           2. patak 3 hr later

                              Ah, that's right. Sorry. Then it is just a matter of deciding to do it if you'd like. You said this was discussed before, no? What were the reasons to keep using "bsky.social" for everyone?

                        3. Mary Branscombe 3 hr later

                           we're already on different mushrooms. I honestly recommend folks understand the architecture here before trying to redesign it ;)

                           1. patak 3 hr later

                              not redesigning anything here, but thanks, I would love to learn more, trying ;)

                     2. Sergio 11 hr later

                        We technical people see a lot of custom domain handles, but the regular user will vastly see just *.bsky.social handles and few custom domain handles belonging to famous people or institutions, and that will make sense to them. I think introducing random default domains can only create confusion.

         4. Passle ☭ 2 hr later

            Whats wrong with just keeping the bsky.social handle? I considered hooking it up to my website or even my github, but those are both "thepassle" because "passle" was already taken. On bsky I can just use "passle", I like that much better.

            1. patak 3 hr later

               Apart from your handle looking better: @passle.dev vs @passle.bsky.social. The .bsky.social handle doesn't convey any social verification. There was already several variations on bun that were impersonating it. But it wasn't an issue because @bun.sh is around, so you know which one is the real one.

               1. Passle ☭ 3 hr later

                  whats stopping someone from getting a domain similar to my name though? the-passle.dev and then pretending to be me?

                  1. Passle ☭ 3 hr later

                     I get that its different for large companies or celebrities, but for little old me, I'm not sure hooking up a domain actually verifies my identity

                     1. patak 3 hr later

                        If using domains as handles would spread to other services, the story would be even better, because people will know you by that same domain everywhere, all linking to the same website. So trust you build in any of the services spreads to the others.

                        1. Private reply 3 hr later
                        2. Passle ☭ 3 hr later

                           Yeah thats a fair point

                        3. Mark Malstrom 3 hr later

                           Mastodon has an analogue of this self-domain verification too. I’m verified here and there (and there via GitHub as well!)

                           1. Mark Malstrom 3 hr later

                              Bluesky should let you verify your Mastodon profile via link like GitHub does 👀

                           2. patak 3 hr later

                              Same for our accounts there. Here is the vite profile as seen from elk.zone. We didn't do a good job at the verified domain part, it is just that border around the domain (I should update it to vite.dev now too now that I see it)

                        4. Private reply 4 hr later
                           1. patak 4 hr later

                              Yes, but you could swap all the services to a new one. Losing your domain if you are a trusted entity online is quite disruptive in general. So hopefully this isn't common.

                  2. patak 3 hr later

                     The fact that you had your domain for a long time and people trust it. For example, we know github.com, and then it doesn't matter if someone takes the-github.com. And if you move to another domain, you can redirect from your previous one and keep that trust that you built over time.

            2. Remco Haszing 3 hr later

               It verifies your identity. Of course so does linking it from your website, but it takes an extra step to check.

               I have configured my domain as a handle, but I don’t like that it means someone could grab my name as a bsky.social handle

         5. Mike Kidder 3 hr later

            If I switch to a domain now, do I lose the Lists that already spent time in curating my Feeds?

            1. patak 3 hr later

               you can change domains whenever you want, you don't lose anything

               1. Mike Kidder 4 hr later

                  well now, that was easy.. :)

                  1. patak 4 hr later

                     Looking sharp!

         6. Ivan Čurić 5 hr later

            I don't want to get a domain.

            Why do I have to be a second grade citizen?

            1. patak 6 hr later

               trust bsky.app/profile/pata...

               1. Ivan Čurić 6 hr later

                  I am not a company. Nor do I have a personal website.

                  Anyone can get a domain that impersonates me.

                  Defaulting to .bsky.social and hiding it makes the most sense to me, and let companies and people who make a brand of themselves have a dot in their username

                  1. Zach Leatherman 6 hr later

                     you do understand the tension between that stance and decentralization though right—are you on board with having a decentralized service?

                     1. Ivan Čurić 6 hr later

                        Don't think I do. As far as I understand Bluesky owns the default username resolution until you move to a custom domain of your own

                        1. Ivan Čurić 20 hr later

                           Could you elaborate a bit please? Because as far as I'm aware all the DMs and the core infra is owned by Bluesky.

                           The same company that got a Russian crypto investment.

                           1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

                              Hiding .bsky.social gives preferential design to one (Bluesky) domain and the pendulum swings away from custom domains being a cool differentiator for your account.

                  2. patak 6 hr later

                     I don't agree, this also works for individuals. That being said, do whatever you want, nobody is forcing you to change your handle. We were even discussing about potentially let users chose between ~10 bluesky top-level domains, so not everyone will look the same. bsky.app/profile/pata...

                     1. patak 6 hr later

                        About hiding the handle, I stand on the hill that the bluesky team is making the right choice by showing the full domain, always.

            2. Wes 6 hr later

               You are not and @zachleat.com should apologize 😂

               1. Wes 6 hr later

                  In a more serious note, custom domains server two needs: verification for folks who have need of it and vanity. Neither should be required or stigmatized.

                  1. Wes 6 hr later

                     Like do you trust I am me? Even though my personal website exists and ai have neither updated it in 5 years nor use it as my handle?

                     1. Wes 6 hr later

                        The gosh darn ai keyboard keeps autocorrecting “I” to “ai”. I swear I think it is poorly executed not sentient and making this choice intentionally.

                     2. Zach Leatherman 6 hr later

                        I am more skeptical after this reply 😅

                        1. Wes 6 hr later

                           You should be. bsky.app/profile/notw...

                        2. patak 6 hr later

                           reported the account already

                           1. Wes 6 hr later

                              I am a direct progeny of Paul in the family (invite) tree. Is that enough like saying “do you know who I am” to get me out of trouble like it dis for kids on tv in the 90s?

               2. Zach Leatherman 6 hr later

                  oh no am I the main character of bluesky today

                  1. Wes 6 hr later

                     Haha. I hope we don’t need those here.

                     1. Zach Leatherman 6 hr later

                        *same*

   2. Martin 2 hr later

      This is by design and makes 100% sense. What happens if at some point we have @username.fb.social and many more . Let’s keep it

   3. Robin Berjon 4 hr later

      Hard disagree. That would make their own domain special instead of one of many, all equal. It's exactly the kind of dick move you'd expect from Google or Facebook.

8. Maciek Palmowski 46 min later

   Something like this?

   1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

      *exactly*

   2. pedro 5 hr later

      idk how to edit my handle :(

9. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

   addendum: I’m reminded of someone linking to Bluesky on a news chyron—the .bsky.social made it clear it was a Bluesky username without an icon 👍

   1. Rich Lafferty 9 hr later

      AND, user.bluesky.social in the browser redirects to user's profile page! they're clever

      1. Andy Nortrup 11 hr later

         I wonder if @ bsky.domain.tld would be a good convention even for people with domains?

         1. Rich Lafferty 11 hr later

            "find me on bluesky at xn--bt9h.example.com"

            1. Andy Nortrup 11 hr later

               Now I want to go mess with c names. It's never a good idea to want to mess with DNS.

               1. Private reply 12 hr later
      2. Rich Lafferty 11 hr later

         (oops I mean user.bsky.social here just in case someone gets confused)

      3. _duncanhall 21 hr later

         Ok I finally got sniped into doing this.

         - Added a bsky. subdomain in route53
         - Updated and re-verified my handle
         - Faffed with ALB redirects for way too long

         But bsky.duncanhall.net will now take you my profile.

         (No https yet - that overkill can wait until tomorrow)

         1. Rich Lafferty 22 hr later

            oddly, I find it easier to do "redirect-only" sites with Cloudfront→S3 routing rules than in an ALB. Not intuitive, but all per-request costs instead of hourly.

            (But if you already have the ALB, that works too)

            1. _duncanhall 22 hr later

               Ooh that sounds way better. Tomorrows procrastination

      4. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

         I like that a lot, yeah!

   2. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

      whew, this post shows that bad actors are taking advantage of the perceived credibility of custom domain usernames to impersonate very popular accounts using .bsky.social usernames 😭 bsky.app/profile/trik...

      1. Michael Bishop 2 days later

         The linked newsletter cites 1 fake account with a custom domain.

         1. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

            we’re seeing the tension between centralized and decentralized identity though, right

            1. Michael Bishop 2 days later

               Yes. *cough* indieauth.net *cough*

               1. Zach Leatherman 2 days later

                  oh, for the record I don’t think any decentralized solution will solve this specific problem

10. Large Heydon Collider 2 hr later

    I haven't got round to it yet, okay??

    1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

       what could it cost, Michael—$10??

11. Alexander Jones (alexweej) 2 hr later

    petesdraincare@hotmail.com

12. Rich Holman 3 hr later

    I know not of what you speak.

13. richard 3 hr later

    I guess I should stop being lazy about it

14. khaxan.bsky.social 3 hr later

    huh?

15. Rachel Leggett 3 hr later

    Does anyone outside of tech actually care about this?

    I want to use the same username I've used on Twitter for years and I don't want to buy a new domain 🤷🏼‍♀️

    1. antony 5 hr later

       You've just let *everybody* know that you've not got a portfolio of unused domains, purchased on a whim, every time you had an idea.

       1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

          so healthy!

          1. antony 5 hr later

             I dunno I think it takes a mental toll on a person not to squat loads of random domains.

             1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

                yeah, but we are clearly broken

                1. antony 5 hr later

                   One day, one day.

       2. Rachel Leggett 5 hr later

          No, what I've said is I don't own a domain that begins with rleggos

          1. antony 5 hr later

             You can make an rleggos subdomain on any domain!

             But I get you, it's not important to some. I like it, though. Reminds me of my IRC days.

             1. Rachel Leggett 5 hr later

                Yeah I don't want to! 🤷🏼‍♀️

                1. antony 5 hr later

                   That's fair! You'll change your tune when I release cabbage.lol into the public pool though! Mark my words! 🤩

    2. JamesGecko 5 hr later

       Not really. Just makes it easier to verify that a person is really associated with a website. I’ve seen people use subdomains to preserve their username while linking a domain (eg, @rleggos.rmlphoto.com) but it can be a bit awkward.

16. Justin Yarbrough 3 hr later

    The average person doesn't care, I'd bet.

17. Luke 3 hr later

    I own verified.pub and I plan to set up that nextjs site that lets people register for a blue sky handle

    Just need myself 5 mins

    1. Nick Gerakines 4 hr later

       You should throw it onto @aviary.domains

    2. antony 5 hr later

       I used to own incestry.com AmA 😂

18. Nick Gerakines 4 hr later

    So many free options available though. dads.lol atproto.rocks etc

19. Jacques Thurling 4 hr later

    What stigma

20. Zach Leatherman 4 hr later

    it was too soon

21. Ben Cicchetti 4 hr later

    😂😂

22. Ben Schwarz 4 hr later

    Counterpoint: people who care about this should log off

23. Chris from 🇨🇦 4 hr later

    i still want a hotmail one

    1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

       this is the best reply I’ve received thank you

       1. Chris from 🇨🇦 5 hr later

          seriously can you imagine in 2024 on bluesky somehow having "chris.hotmail.com" as your handle? What a flex. lolol

          1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

             gimme a dogpile subdomain plz

             1. Chris from 🇨🇦 5 hr later

                chris.geocities.com actually

24. Jason Brooks 5 hr later

    They're hella long

25. trekinbami 5 hr later

    this post has a lot of twitter energy

    1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

       the replies especially

    2. Andy Randall 16 hr later

       you mean it has the “X factor”?

26. sarcastic parrot 5 hr later

    I am sure it's been commented on already (tho not near the top of the thread) but tech people looking down on folks that don't spend all their time buying domain names seems not super great?

    1. Zach Leatherman 5 hr later

       100% agree? lots of folks in my replies thinking I’m endorsing that divide though—I had almost forgotten what twitter felt like!

27. Private reply 5 hr later
28. Julius Volz 6 hr later

    I don't know if there's stigma around them, but they're for sure not very aesthetic (quite long and two dots instead of one).

29. Web Witch 🔮 Stephanie Stimac 6 hr later

    This shamed me into finally switching

    1. Zach Leatherman 6 hr later

       hahah 😅

30. Graeme Benzie 6 hr later

    Domain verification feels like a fundamental design flaw yet to be worked through.. yeah !

31. Rowen Willabus 7 hr later

    It feels as though people are commenting just to show off their domain.

    * Presses reply with flair *

32. Lara Newsom or Nerdsom or whatever 7 hr later

    Y’all can stigma me all you want, I’ve got a TODO list that’s soooo long and sooo full of stupid shit and all of it thinks it’s real important. 😂

33. julio 8 hr later

    I dont see a stigma around it all.

    Yall might not be in enough non dev spaces because it is much more the norm than the exception.

    I wouldnt expect people that arent nerdy about web/tech to hook up their own domain, or that they even own a domain. Maybe thats the only stigma.

34. Ross Nelson 8 hr later

    My employer told us today they're on here and I immediately replied with the link to set up a handle.

    For individuals? I don't care or notice. Orgs? Nice to know it's the real deal. Like blue checkmarks of ye olden days.

35. Rich Lafferty 9 hr later

    in 20 years we'll all reflect wistfully on .bsky.social as the geocities of our time

36. Liam Bigelow 10 hr later

    Fine I’ll connect my domain 😮‍💨

37. Andy Randall 16 hr later

    too soon. I tried custom domain early on but then realized I was leaving my-handle.bsky.social open to namesquatting/impersonation. So when/if they allow you to link both, then I’ll do it.

    1. Seref Arikan 22 hr later

       Same here. I'm just Seref for the first time and I'm not letting that go.

    2. Kevmarmol 22 hr later

       There’s also the concern to some that a custom handle linked to a personal domain will make doxing easier, and can open up bad actor attacks to personal work too

38. Don MacKinnon 2 days later

    They really should have a trust and safety person added to the staff just to help non-technical public figures with setting up their domain handles.