Bluesky’s newest replace addresses an vital verification drawback

Bluesky has rolled out an update that fixes one vital situation that would lead to impersonation on the decentralized social community. Now, once you confirm your id on the platform with your personal area, Bluesky will not liberate your previous .bsky.social username. Up to now, going via the authentication course of will make your unique .bsky.social identify obtainable once more, which implies you may have to enroll once more to safe your previous deal with if you don’t need impersonators to scoop it up.

The social community has been making an attempt to repair its verification points, which turned a big drawback after the service welcomed an influx of new users in current months. A 3rd-party entity from Cornell Tech who analyzed the app’s userbase beforehand discovered that 44 % of Bluesky’s 100 most-followed accounts have a doppelganger. As a response, Bluesky adopted a extra aggressive impersonation coverage and required parody, satire or fan accounts to label themselves as such in each their handles and their bio in late November. It additionally explicitly prohibited id churning, through which customers would begin off as impersonators to realize followers after which change their id later to keep away from enforcement motion.

Along with reserving your previous deal with, the up to date Bluesky app provides a “Mentions” tab in notifications, making it a lot simpler to seek out replies to your posts. As The Verge notes, it additionally has a brand new button that permits you to select how replies present up, so you may select to see them in a linear order or in threaded discussions.