Damn that’s interesting. I just switched to bsky, and having your handle as a DNS TXT file is super cool to me. The API is also terrific.
Brett said:
Damn that’s interesting. I just switched to bsky, and having your handle as a DNS TXT file is super cool to me. The API is also terrific.
The API is insane. Being developer-friendly is the number one thing you can do to ensure success as a social media platform.
@Lior
What? Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp don’t necessarily have good APIs but they are by far the most successful social media platforms. The number one thing to ensure success for a social media platform is to have enough people to socialize with, not being dev-friendly.
@Avery
They used to be much better; Instagram’s was used in coding tutorials for years. Twitter and Reddit also utilized API access to grow. It helps because people can create better clients and experiences.
@Avery
Meta is popular because they have a monopoly that they abuse. They can’t compete; they buy out competition or steal features from others (Snapchat, TikTok).
Ainsley said:
@Avery
Meta is popular because they have a monopoly that they abuse. They can’t compete; they buy out competition or steal features from others (Snapchat, TikTok).
How do you think Facebook became a monopoly in the first place? It boils down to the network effect.
@Kim
They became a monopoly because they abused their advertising tools, buying out competition and integrating it with their ad tools. It’s not complicated; it’s disgusting.
Ainsley said:
@Avery
Meta is popular because they have a monopoly that they abuse. They can’t compete; they buy out competition or steal features from others (Snapchat, TikTok).
You can have the best API but without people, it doesn’t matter. Hence, it’s not the number one factor for social media success.
@Avery
You weren’t around when Facebook had many open APIs that allowed developers to do numerous things. The openness waned after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Ainsley said:
@Avery
You weren’t around when Facebook had many open APIs that allowed developers to do numerous things. The openness waned after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Despite that, Facebook grew due to the desire to connect with friends, well before they had an advertising business.
@Avery
Curious why there are so many analytics tools for Facebook and Instagram. Just Google ‘Instagram metrics.’ There are countless. Even junior devs build these as portfolio projects. Remember FarmVille?
@Lior
Meanwhile, they complicate things for non-tech users by making them select a hosting provider in the first field, showing ‘.bsky.social’ after usernames. This could be hidden under ‘advanced’ options to simplify.
@Gale
People misuse the downvote button as a ‘disagree button,’ but you’re absolutely right. It looks bad. Hopefully, there will be UX solutions to address this while maintaining domain validation.
@Gale
This mirrors my issue with Mastodon. Ordinary users don’t comprehend ‘hosting provider’ or the difference between servers like ‘mstdn.social’ and ‘mastodon.social.’
@Gale
Hiding the domain undermines self-verification. How will you distinguish genuine users when they have similar usernames across different domains?
Ocean said:
@Gale
Hiding the domain undermines self-verification. How will you distinguish genuine users when they have similar usernames across different domains?
Make usernames unique, like every other platform!
Scammers will exploit this to create fake login pages. It probably needs a patch.
Peyton said:
Scammers will exploit this to create fake login pages. It probably needs a patch.
It has a different domain from the regular site.