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[return to "Building Bluesky comments for my blog"]
1. ThinkB+Xe[view] [source] 2025-08-07 17:06:07
>>g0xA52+(OP)
You are not hosting it so presumably BlueSky do. You say there is no platform lock in.

If BlueSky banned you tomorrow what is the plan? If BlueSky went bankrupt tomorrow?

I figure there are other AT compliant products that you can switch to but a lot of data would go missing?

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2. tracke+ni[view] [source] 2025-08-07 17:17:26
>>ThinkB+Xe
Beyond this, BlueSky definitely kicks a lot of Libertarian and Right-leaning users off the platform. It seems to be okay if you're left of center or politically agnostic.
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3. OneDeu+Ex[view] [source] 2025-08-07 18:12:52
>>tracke+ni
This is a claim that's going to require support. Bluesky's moderation service (just adds metadata/labels to posts/accounts) is all client side opt-in. It's force-enabled by the default client but any third party client allows you to opt-out (or doesn't even use it by default).

And PDS level/"account" bans are just at the PDS. If you've been "banned", that's just bluesky the PDS host telling you they don't want to host you and that you need to go host your data yourself or find someone else to host it for you. i.e. find another PDS.

Basically every form of ban or moderation in atproto/bluesky is "soft" moderation and you can fairly trivially bypass it and continue doing your own thing.

The overwhelming majority of right wing accounts that get banned do so soon after joining (and generally after going to pick fights). And they never even bother to try to keep their accounts, instead choosing to create new accounts to get banned again or abandon the platform. It's disingenuous behavior and for right wing personalities it feels almost more like a sticker of pride that they were "banned from bluesky".

Plenty of right leaning and libertarian accounts exist on bluesky. Project Liberal [1] and Liberal Party USA [2] (run by Josh Eakle[3] and Kevin Gaughen[4] respectively) exist just fine on bluesky and they are large splinter groups from the Libertarian Party following the whole Mises Caucus coup attempt thing. Likewise a number of libertarian groups such as the Libertarian Party of Lousiana [5] do just fine on bluesky. And of course AI and Cryptocurrency people also do just fine on bluesky as well despite the stereotypes against them and the common belief that "they aren't welcome on bluesky". The worst thing that happens is people block or mute you and you don't have to deal with them anymore rather than toxicly fighting each other each time you see each other.

TLDR: Everyone is welcome on bluesky but there's no requirement for people to tolerate you. Even if you violate every transgression, as long as you aren't posting literal child porn to the network you'll still be able to exist just fine however people might just ignore you.

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1. Project Liberal: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:d5nigw7kzpsglf3gtl2dvbev

2. Liberal Party USA: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:v3jmda7lwwdoofcvgmjwsbcg

3. Josh Eakle: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2adtngm3y6e6ol6jastnkxzm

4. Kevin Gaughen: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4oyecf2hz4ajhm4zqp52hxqo

5. LP of Lousiana: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mongiv55fh5l5e7vi7cbjajw

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4. Karrot+0m1[view] [source] 2025-08-07 22:49:57
>>OneDeu+Ex
> And of course AI and Cryptocurrency people also do just fine on bluesky as well despite the stereotypes against them and the common belief that "they aren't welcome on bluesky".

"do just fine" is really pushing it I think. I don't think the core mod team or the default-client's moderation service is biased toward the right or the left (at least in how they apply moderation, not necessarily their personal beliefs.) I think the core team is doing the best job they can given their resourcing. The community on the site is a different story.

There was an attempt by AI researchers to join the site and they all got bullied until they left, largely by the community. Pretty much every reply to an NYT article that doesn't denigrate Trump is either "wow how does the NYT have the time to write about fashion/lifestyle/<anything but how Trump is awful>, it's because they've an evil right wing publication" or "how dare the NYT platform this opinion it's an evil right wing opinion". If you look at feature rollouts or social posts by the team you get lots of well-liked comments about how the mod team enables right wing behavior.

I use the platform a lot and am really rooting for them to succeed, but I feel that there's just a lot of lefty toxicity on the platform and that the community on there loves politics and often brings politics into unrelated threads. They seem interested in a sort of pop politics too, not the kind of harder political analysis that a good think tank or non-fiction book can provide either. I feel that if you're into lots of pop left politics and the culture that emerges from a community with this love then you'll like Bluesky. For now I think the community is too political to really foster wider conversations the way pre-Elon Twitter did.

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