[HN Gopher] Show HN: I Built a Reddit-style Bluesky client - sti...
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Show HN: I Built a Reddit-style Bluesky client - still rough, but
open to ideas
I've been messing around with Bluesky for a while, and one thing I
really missed was a proper way to browse discussions in a
structured, Reddit-like way specially myself being daily reddit
user. So, I ended up building a Reddit-like client for Bluesky that
scratches that itch: Threadsky.app It pulls in trending topics,
lets you explore conversations with a threaded view (so no more
getting lost in replies), and even allows users to create channels
with customizations, basically, like subreddits but on Bluesky.
That said, this is still pretty barebones, and there's a lot to
improve. I really need feedback from actual users to shape where
this goes next. Some planned features include markdown support,
longer posts, and better mod tools for communities. For privacy-
conscious folks: Only details about channel customizations are
stored on our servers. Everything else remains securely stored on
your own PDS (Personal Data Server), just like the rest of Bluesky.
Also, I'm planning to open-source the project once I've polished
things up a bit more. Would love to hear your thoughts on what's
missing and what would make this actually useful?
Author : lakshikag
Score : 90 points
Date : 2025-02-15 13:19 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (threadsky.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (threadsky.app)
| Linkd wrote:
| Very neat way to browse a feed.. Any plans to implement up/down
| voting?
| lakshikag wrote:
| Thank you and yeah this is something I also have on mind
| NitpickLawyer wrote:
| Interesting idea, but I'm not sure it's gonna work in the long
| run. There is a key difference between reddit / forums and bsky /
| other apps like it. Forums are many to many, and the focus is
| around community. Someone (doesn't really matter who) posts
| something, and lots of people comment. You go there to read the
| voices of many people. Bsky / birdapp on the other hand focus on
| one to many. The person posting matters the most, and the
| commenters are usually "followers" or people interested in what
| one person has to say.
|
| It's a key difference IMO, and the main reason I like forums and
| heavily dislike the twitter-style apps. I want to read the voices
| of many, not the voices of few "influencers". You can make it
| look like a forum, but it's still gonna be focused on the voices
| of few.
|
| That being said, with reddit going crazy over the last few years
| (and especially this last election cycle), I'm open to
| suggestions on new places to try that focus on forum-style
| discussions.
| Gualdrapo wrote:
| There's Lemmy and nostr, for example.
|
| But I absolutely agree that the individual-centered social
| media is as toxic as it can be. Forum-style social media is
| just a bit less toxic but can be more constructive since it's
| centered about community and ideas rather than particular
| individuals/personas.
| nastoy wrote:
| Agreed and there's also the problem that on Bluesky, one user
| blocking another means that the thread of conversation gets
| broken for everyone else who may read it.
|
| See e.g. https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-
| app/issues/7021
|
| > _As it stands, if 20 people are involved in a discussion, and
| ONE single person decides to block someone, then all of a
| sudden, the 19 other people in the discussion (+ any other
| viewers) are now inconvenienced simply because one person had
| an issue with someone else._
|
| > _Bluesky does have a bit of a block culture, and as such,
| this issue is only going to get worse and worse, and threads
| are going to get harder and harder to read and follow as more
| and more people get blocked._
|
| Trying to create a Reddit-like experience around this
| limitation would be very difficult, as the thread breakage is
| done server-side so the clients don't even get enough info to
| reconstruct the conversation.
| lukev wrote:
| I haven't looked at how Threadsky does it, and I don't want
| to weigh in on the merits of different approaches.
|
| But blocking in ATProto happens at the application (AppView)
| layer. A different application can absolutely make different
| choices from the Bluesky app about how blocking works and is
| displayed.
| taurknaut wrote:
| Presumably you still need server code to prevent blocked
| users from interacting with each other, no?
| lukev wrote:
| If I block you, then my client will prevent me from
| seeing your records.
|
| There's nothing at the protocol level that prevents you
| from seeing my records, even when blocked, because all
| records are public. Anyone (even without an account) can
| see everyone else's records.
|
| Well behaved clients are _guided_ not to show posts to a
| blocked user, but this is a developer norm to enhance
| user experience all around -- seeing posts from someone
| who blocked you generally doesn 't do anyone any good.
| But the protocol fully lets you build a client that shows
| you exactly who has blocked you and what they're posting.
| taurknaut wrote:
| Right, but there's more to blocking than content
| filtering (which is more akin to muting in twitter
| nomenclature). It should also restrict the blocked person
| from _interacting_ with my content. At least that 's what
| I'd expect (and I suspect most would).
| taurknaut wrote:
| I'm struggling to come up with what intent this behavior was
| supposed to perform. I block probably one person every other
| thread.
|
| I don't block you because I had some kind of conflict, I
| blocked you because I don't like what you tweet and I don't
| want to see it and it's not clear what "not interested"
| actually does. Why this would impact anyone other than whom
| I'm blocking is perplexing. I certainly can't vouch for what
| they want to see and whom they want to interact with.
| mullingitover wrote:
| Any way to collapse a thread? This is the one thing that's
| driving me nuts with the regular Bluesky interface, I want to
| skip past a thread and it's not easy to do. BS is doing threaded
| replies, but without a good interface for it.
| bloopernova wrote:
| I think there's an opportunity for an "architecture inspired by
| bluesky" reddit alternative. The reddit CEO recently said they
| intend to start charging for premium features, which may drive a
| large number of people away from the platform.
| JimDabell wrote:
| > I think there's an opportunity for an "architecture inspired
| by bluesky" reddit alternative.
|
| Decentralised Reddit already exists. It's USENET.
| catapart wrote:
| Seems like a good idea. I've signed up.
|
| I did run into a 404 when trying to use the "Customize Channel"
| feature. And I also could have used a "preview" step before
| publishing so I could better understand what the channel-creation
| fields corresponded to before locking in a placeholder name.
|
| Otherwise, it seems like a pretty straightforward proposition and
| a net positive, so thanks for building it!
| captn3m0 wrote:
| You should disable PHP Warnings: Reposted from
| /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 1027
| Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in
| /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 1027
| Deprecated: urlencode(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string)
| of type string is deprecated in
| /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 1027
|
| "> Warning: Undefined array key "author" in
| /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 1028
| Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in
| /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 1028
| Deprecated: htmlspecialchars(): Passing null to parameter #1
| ($string) of type string is deprecated in
| /home/cyhaxztpeu/threadsky.app/post.php on line 1028
|
| https://threadsky.app/post?uri=at%3A%2F%2Fdid%3Aplc%3Agtmiwo...
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| Well, don't disable the warnings themselves but rather disable
| displaying them. They should of course still be logged.
| srameshc wrote:
| This is so cool idea. This is a very good example and probably
| give rise to many more ideas to build on the platform. I will
| have more feedback in the time to come if you can start a thread
| for that. Onward !!
| mdaniel wrote:
| I think I'm missing something; I tried to find a deeply nested
| thread[1] in order to see how that would work, but when clicking
| on the "view on bluesky"[2] it did take me to the ... comment?
| post? ... but there was no further context. Is this just a view
| on top of some specially curated comments on Bluesky?
|
| 1:
| https://threadsky.app/post?uri=at%3A%2F%2Fdid%3Aplc%3Ahu2obe...
|
| 2:
| https://bsky.app/profile/tmarsland.bsky.social/post/3kl47lio...
| jmclnx wrote:
| I tried logging in with my bluesky ID, no luck :(
|
| >success false >error "Please enter your Bluesky handle and
| password"
| danielsunsu wrote:
| Did you try logging in with an app password?
|
| You may need to create one here: https://bsky.app/settings/app-
| passwords
| jmclnx wrote:
| I already have a login to BlueSky: https://bsky.app/
|
| Do I need a special login for the Reddit Style one ?
| jaggs wrote:
| Odd. I tried with an app password and bsky login and got told
| that I needed authentication. Not sure why it's broken.
| swyx wrote:
| nice looking page. how are Channels implemented? how do you
| decide which skeet goes into which channel? right now it looks a
| little noisy.
| fracus wrote:
| This is a really neat idea. Make sure you are around when reddit
| implements PPV and dies.
| aga98mtl wrote:
| Wall to wall astroturfing on Reddit is killing it's usefulness
| since the election. We need an alternative that prevents
| botmasters from having 5000 accounts. One solution is doing like
| X/twitter and charging $8/month. Another solution would be using
| Meta's social graph. Is there some other way to prove you are a
| human?
| mattvr wrote:
| Excellent idea! I'd focus on the open-sourcing and community
| elements (e.g. creating feeds) so it can get traction, rather
| than features like Markdown and longer posts at this stage.
| AstroJetson wrote:
| I still mourn the loss of Apollo on my iPad. If you are looking
| for a guide to what worked and was wildly popular, mimic the
| things from that app.
|
| Your app may be the thing that tips many people into Bluesky.
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(page generated 2025-02-15 23:01 UTC)