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we have an idea for communities in the app that we're calling "spaces" — places where people can gather around shared interests or social groups. here's a peek at some early prototypes. these are explorations, not polished or final. looking for feedback, esp from community builders 👀

alex benzer@alexbenzer.com

the bsky team is working on various ideas for creating smaller social spaces in the app. which use case is most interesting to you? 1. posting into "topics" that organize public posts 2. posting into "communities" or "groups" that can be public or private 3. posting directly to your followers only

you can create a space with a few taps. give it a name, choose who can join, and you're in. after creating it, you can customize further — choose a cover image, an accent color, and more.

you choose the handle for your space, like "yourspace.bsky.space" this doubles as a link you can send to invite people to your space. it comes with a unique landing page. would you want to customize this page? what else would you want to see here?

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Would definitely want to customize this. At least like a user profile bio. Some things I’d want to see: - Who is in it, especially mutuals - who invited me - how long has it existed - what’s the attrition rate (ie do a lot of people leave?) - what is it about - does the group have other websites

inside a space, you post like you do on Bluesky: short posts with photos, links, and replies, visible only to members or people who can join the space. are Bluesky-style posts what you want inside spaces? or something different like long-form posts, forum-style (non-branching) threads, or chat?

Something like skeets or Reddit threads. Chat could be great and I’d like it, but the bar is doing something better than discord so imo not worth it until there’s a clear picture of what that is.

I mean if you do decide to have unlimited character posts in spaces then I don't really see a reason why you shouldn't also remove the character limit for public posts as well (preferably with some kinda text formatting), ya know for some consistency

for post reactions, we're considering two options: classic likes (like on regular Bluesky posts) and emoji reactions (like in group chats). with emoji reactions, you choose which ones are suggested by default. which reaction type would you prefer? or is there something else you'd want instead?

Keep it to likes only or a limited set, set by the owner. Eg if it's an art Space the emoji reactions could be 🎨🖌️🖼️👍👎 If you allow all emojis it could get messy. Basically I'd like the Facebook reactions but the owner can change the set.

you decide who can join instantly: anyone, people you follow, people who follow you, or nobody. anyone else can request access. you decide who gets in. people who can join can read posts inside the space. after joining, they can post into the space.

on moderation: how does moderation work? can you assign people to be admins of the space? can a contributor make a report? if so, how do they see the results of that moderation?

It would like to be able to feed starter packs into spaces as the AI knowers packs would make the perfect space and the provided options feel too limited. To counter act potential spam adds maybe it just sends them an invite to the space?

How about letting the creator of the space choose if they want emoji reactions or classic likes in their space

yeh. as much as i like the emoji reactions, it would drive down the need for further commenting. perhaps just a like counter would be good enough?

I think rather than creating different post options like long-form or forum style, allowing spaces to import non-native Bluesky records from other apps would be great. Like if someone posts from @pckt.blog it doesn't require you to post about it on Bluesky for it to appear on the timeline.

I feel forum-style threads are more "spacey" and should be chosen. I would like to think on spaces as something like sub-reddits or fb groups. bsky-style posts on spaces would feel too much like the main thing, and chat would feel too much like group DMs.

that said, it would be nice to be able to choose between forum style or short form style when creating a space. a space with short posts could feel like the circles from when google plus was a thing

I would love to see this provide both public and private spaces - basically let me make a public/private forum/subreddit here. Sometimes what's useful is having a moderation space in a public sphere, right?

I would say the more customizable the better! Certainly visually so it feels like our own, but also being able to customize how information is laid out would be great. For instance you could have quick updates on a group’s news or introductory info at the top.

Maybe being able to define users’ roles within the group? I know there are two groups that I’m hoping to start and they serve fairly different purposes. One would be a small hyper local meet up type group and the other a broader mostly online space for artists to network and share work.

User roles with varying levels of control could help manage larger groups. Same with information management. Each space would probably require different types of information to be prominent, on different timelines. Varying ways to display and present relevant info I think would helpful there.