Bsky in RC feeds more & more

[rcjordan]

You've noticed more of my posts referencing bsky? After 13 months of building feed/filtering scripts, re-building those scripts, and adding support & development scripts I've hammered their Firehose feed into shape while largely abandoning the social concept of "Following" or friending. It's now mostly a 'ticker tape' news feed with a wisp of entertainment.

>mostly
There is some stuff I can't filter with javascript --mostly image-based. (Lots of grindr and onlyfan pics slip by)

[ergophobe]

> noticed

Yes

> abandoning the social concept of "Following"

How are you "crawling" the feed? The thing that makes X still useful to me is that I 1) never post except the occasional reply to someone and 2) only follow 14 people or so and 3) don't generally read the comments to their posts

[rcjordan]

>"crawling" the feed

I don't. The Firehose is a push feed, a ticker tape.  It spews continuously, I just sample it at random intervals.  The problem; Without massive, massive filtering it is so large at any moment that it overwhelms everything.  I knew the problem from scraping away the top-news-du-jour from media news.  Rushing white-water rivers aren't good for panning for gold.

> 1) never post except the occasional reply to someone and 2) only follow 14 people or so and 3) don't generally read the comments to their posts

That's basically true for me in bsky.

My set-up is far from perfect. I know there has to be collateral damage --posts & accounts I'd wish I had seen. That said, I'm finding far more accounts I want to follow read in passing in spite of collateral damage than with the old Following system and/or hashtags.

CON: You're going to see a lot of dick-pics (Ladies, I had no idea! But these are mostly GAY dick pics.) and furries and art.

There is a script developed not-by-me that lets you block or mute fast. I use/used that for wholesale slaughter of accounts.  The problem was an account I was watching or following might post a pix of their cat and -poof- they were nuked.  So, I had to develop a way to flag these accounts to protect them from their own crappy weak moments.  I can now color-code them AND categorize them without following them.  THAT was the game changer.

[rcjordan]

Here's a paste of the firehose showing a regular post then a protected or watched account.  In this case, Tomer Burg is both Followed (blue border) and Watched (brown border). I only Follow those that I want to be able to go and review every post vs just happening upon one of their posts when I login to the firehose.

[rcjordan]

<+>
Note the Mute & Block icons in the upper right corner of the post in the Handle row?  That's this script I use to commit fast account nuking.
Quickblock And Such (prev. BEPC)
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/518858-quickblock-and-such-prev-bepc

[Brad]

A lot of the people I follow on Bsky are people I used to follow on XTwitter that moved to Bsky after the Musk took over XTwitter.  I wanted to stay in touch.

But I also subscribe to some hashtags on Bsky like Ukraine War, Archaeology (frankly not as good as old Twitter) Urban planning, high speed rail and stuff like that.

XTwitter's algo seems agressive it will occasionly throw out some heavy R-rated posts just to see if I will click on it and feed me more if I do.  Bsky does not seem to do that, I've never seen any adult pics like you see on the firehose, although I have heard they are there.

That said, my Bsky timeline is a center-left bubble but I'm aware I'm inside that bubble so take things with due caution.

[rcjordan]

>Bsky does not seem to do that

Bsky keeps saying there is NO algo.  That seems to be mostly true.  Their Discovery feed is pure crap -which they've acknowledged- and seriously needs an algo. They've recently said they are going to work on the Discovery feed ...so maybe a lightweight algo?

Bsky staff can't see my massive client-side account hiding, but -look- I use the mass-nuking script that does use their api every day. How hard would it be to scan my thousand+ of mutes & blocks to figure out I don't want to see a bear's hairy ass?  Or the diaper fetishists?

[rcjordan]

Here's my Watch List

## PROFILE 1
##_reviewing_1
@azintel.bsky.social
@beeep.computer
@cleantechnica.bsky.social
@drspacejunk.bsky.social
@pippy.bsky.social
@thenightgallery.bsky.social
@sfgate.com
@shipwreck75.bsky.social
@shirleybar.bsky.social

## PROFILE 2
##_news-commentary_2
@404media.co
@60minutes.bsky.social
@aclu.org
@anildash.com
@apnews.com
@australia.theguardian.com
@axios.com
@charliehebdo.fr
@chicagotribune.com
@cnbc.com
@cnn.com
@denverpost.com
@euronews.com
@georgetakei.bsky.social
@huffpost.com
@inquirer.com
@japantimes.co.jp
@latimes.com
@lemonde.fr
@maddowblog.bsky.social
@motherjones.com
@ms.now
@ncnewsline.com
@news.sky.com
@npr.org
@nytimes.com
@pbsnews.org
@pewresearch.org
@politico.com
@politico.eu
@propublica.org
@rawstory.com
@rbreich.bsky.social
@reuters.com
@rollingstone.com
@sfchronicle.com
@slate.com
@sltrib.com
@statesnewsroom.com
@the-independent.com
@theassemblync.bsky.social
@theatlantic.com
@thebulwark.com
@theconversation.com
@theguardian.com
@uk.theconversation.com
@us.theconversation.com
@usatoday.com
@usnews.com
@wired.com
@wsj.com
@zeteo.com

## PROFILE 3
##_economy-business_3
@alphaville.ft.com
@businessinsider.com
@econberger.bsky.social
@economist.com
@forbes.com
@mikezaccardi.bsky.social
@millstreetresearch.com

## PROFILE 4
##_government-politics_4
@aoc.bsky.social
@barackobama.bsky.social
@cardinalandpine.bsky.social
@durhamhealthnc.bsky.social
@foreignpolicy.com
@govandybeshear.bsky.social
@govpressoffice.gov.ca.gov
@jeffjacksonnc.bsky.social
@ncdhc.bsky.social
@ncgovernor.bsky.social
@roycoopernc.bsky.social
@schumer.senate.gov
@wonkettemedia.bsky.social

## PROFILE 5
##_tech_5
@arstechnica.com
@engadget.com
@gizmodo.com
@hackadayofficial.bsky.social
@insideevs.com
@justsecurity.org
@niemanlab.org
@renewableenergy.bsky.social
@spectrum.ieee.org
@sungkim.bsky.social
@techcrunch.com
@techdirt.com
@techmeme.com
@technologyreview.com
@theregister.com
@theverge.com

## PROFILE 6
##_weather-climate_6
@burgwx.bsky.social
@grist.org
@ilmthunderstorm.bsky.social
@nws.noaa.gov
@rschumacher.cloud
@weatherprof.bsky.social
@zacklabe.com

## PROFILE 7
##_science-health_7
@kevinh-phd.bsky.social
@popsci.com
@sciam.bsky.social
@science.org
@scientificdiscovery.dev

## PROFILE 8
##_3d-diy-bldg-tools_8
@carlthepumpkinman.bsky.social
@stephenjacobsmith.com

## PROFILE 9
##_interests_9
@anonopin.bsky.social
@antiquity.ac.uk
@architecture.bsky.social
@calvin-and-hobbes.bsky.social
@chicagovtfloor.bsky.social
@damninteresting.bsky.social
@explore.org
@goodtrailcams.bsky.social
@grandiloquentwords.bsky.social
@highcountrynews.org
@hyperallergic.com
@lookforplace.bsky.social
@machinepix.bsky.social
@mcsweeneys.net
@nature.com
@natureportfolio.nature.com
@outerbanksinsider.bsky.social
@roadside.xor.blue
@theoatmeal.bsky.social
@theoldinternet.bsky.social
@theonion.com
@wikipedia.org
@xkcd.com

## PROFILE 10
##_art_impressionism_10
@907life.bsky.social
@agstewart.bsky.social
@babarlonearts.bsky.social
@brianbelfield.bsky.social
@calmbeyond.bsky.social
@deelilley.bsky.social
@drluiso.bsky.social
@edvardmunch.bsky.social
@firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
@henrimatisse.bsky.social
@joesimpson66.bsky.social
@ladycottontail.bsky.social
@lynnscarfe.bsky.social
@monet.bsky.social
@thick-nogging.bsky.social
@toulouselautrec.bsky.social
@vangogh.bsky.social
@valent6228.bsky.social

## PROFILE 11
##_misc_11
@pfrazee.com

[rcjordan]

I once bemoaned /r screwing up /r/all for my news & entertainment.  I'm getting close with a year's work on bsky....

Still wondering how they make sure the colors in the toothpaste don't mix...

polyamory? No thanks, we have sex at home