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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 👀

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?

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?

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?

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.

spaces could live in a drawer right below your feeds, so you can hop between them easily.

creating a space can help you build a more direct connection with your audience or social group. when people join your space, they could be notified about new conversations by default. they can turn this off by pressing the bell button.

there could be a new "My Spaces" feed where you see all the new posts from spaces you've joined. these posts could also be sprinkled into your Discover feed.

if you want new people to find and join your space, you could choose to make it discoverable. if you do that, new potential members could find it by searching or browsing.

spaces are part of the Atmosphere just like Bluesky, so you could create a totally custom app/site for your group with any features you want. this could be on your own domain. the same content would appear there and in the Bluesky app. so if it's public, new people could discover it on Bluesky.

if you're interested in building a community or social group, does this feel like an exciting way to do it? would you create a space like this? or would you prefer something different? thanks all for the feedback :)

How private are these spaces in reality? I know a big part of why private accounts couldnt be replicated was due to ATProto not having a real means of hiding posts on the API, has that changed or would spaces suffer from that same issue?

Will this be designed with a specific use case in mind or be able to nest multiple "channels"? In the case of communities (as opposed to a publication or content creator), it would be nice to have multiple feeds, or a mix of feeds and chat-style posting.

Could you explain this more clearly?

it's cool! I like that it pushes people towards threads. this seems like a really good place to test integration and more aggressive weaving with other atproto projects. maybe a plugin marketplace for connecting your space as a moderator to other apps?