Twitter/X alternative Bluesky is gearing up for one of social media's biggest weekends with the launch of a custom feed tailored for Super Bowl fans. One feed will focus on conversations about the big game itself, and the other will feature her expected to be in attendance to cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Also includes news about Taylor Swift.
Swift's high-profile attendance at Kelce's games throughout the season has divided opinion among sports fans, especially after Kelce's comments that the NFL is “going too far,” and the NFL's coverage of the pop star. decided to defend.
But this split is also a great opportunity for Bluesky to demonstrate its support for algorithmic choice, a differentiating feature for a startup aiming to become a decentralized version of Twitter.
Bluesky doesn't require users to be locked into one main algorithm-driven feed like other social networks. Instead, the platform supports the creation of a variety of custom feeds to create unique views of published content. Some of these are built by the Bluesky team, like the “What's Hot” feed that features trending posts, while others feature dedicated news feeds featuring posts from verified news organizations and cute animal photos. Some, like feeds, were built by community members. . The developer has also built tools for custom feed creation, such as Bluesky Feed Creator and Skyfeed, allowing anyone to create their own feed using the visual editor.
For the Super Bowl, Bluesky decided to show off the power of its custom feed feature with two variations. One is the Super Bowl LVIII feed, which helps football fans find each other on a growing social network. The other is a similar feed, but the conversation includes Taylor chatting about his Swift. Wisely, Bluesky named it “SB (Taylor's Version)''.
Blue Sky team member Emily Liu said the idea behind the multiple feeds was that “…some soccer fans have strong feelings about *not* seeing TS-related content in soccer news. This is due to the fact that some people…
This use case may seem lighthearted and silly at first glance, but it perfectly illustrates what it means to personalize social media to your interests through algorithmic choices.
Create a unique version of Bluesky for everyone by pinning your favorite feeds to your homepage for easy access. You can choose from a variety of custom feeds. Some are topical feeds like these new Super Bowl His feeds, others are feeds with posts from “mutuals”, feeds with “popular with friends” posts, or feeds featuring posts from friends, etc. , some provide another perspective of the network. “Quiet Posters” — People who don't participate in conversations often and whose posts may be missed.
Bluesky isn't necessarily known for having a large community of sports fans, but its opening to the public this week after a long invite-only period left some wondering if it was too late. It is attracting even more attention. But so far, things are looking good for the new network on that front. After opening on Tuesday, Bluesky added an additional 1.3 million users. For comparison, this is larger than Mastodon's current monthly active user base. (Mastodon is also an open source Twitter competitor, but it's built on a different protocol). As of Friday afternoon, Bluesky had more than 4.5 million total users.
Image credits: blue sky
It remains to be seen whether custom feeds will gain long-term traction. X has proven surprisingly tenacious despite currently facing multiple competitors, from small startups to tech giants like Meta. As Twitter, the network was the go-to place for real-time sports commentary, analysis, and fan reaction. No matter what new tools become available for managing your network, this habit can be difficult for soccer fans to break.