022 — Just Getting Starter’d

Wow, it’s been over a month since my last episode. That’s not due to me being too lazy, if anything just the opposite. I have been thrashing around on projects, but I would like to introduce you to my latest project that is piggy backing on the mass migration to Bluesky.

Just after the election, it seemed like the draw for a new platform that was a little less Elon and a little more move on was needed, and a lot of people felt the same way. I know I was pulled over there after I heard more people talking about it, and also discovering that more of the people I follow on the other platform were moving over. I was also added to a Starter Pack or two, which made things a bit more interesting as people starter to follow more.

For those who are not on Bluesky yet, or just new, Starter Packs are essentially a user created list of accounts or other Starter Packs, but you have the option to Follow All, or individually. I think the fact that Bluesky feels like the Twitter of yore, coupled with the fact that you can quickly build up the people you follow, and gain followers, via Starter Packs has helped ease some of the awkwardness of migrating platforms.

When I first got added to a Starter Pack, and started to see my follower account grow, I’m not going to lie, I was hooked! It also got me more interested in Bluesky and the AT Protocol in general. I started to dig into the API to see what you could do, what was available to work with, and what was potentially missing.

The one thing I wanted to see was if there was an easy way to see which Starter Packs I was added to, and unfortunately–or fortunately depending on how you look at it–there was not. I also wanted to see if there was a way to know where someone followed me from, whether is was from a Starter Pack, or directly from my Profile, or a Post. At first, I thought that was available, which got me super excited and actually made me spin up a quick project to start exploring more. Unfortunately as I started to dig in I found out that wasn’t the case, but discovered other interesting things that retained my interest/excitement to explore more.

After some quick hacking, and a few domains registered(!), I was well on my way to abandoning the projects I was previously working on to explore this new...thing. After a few nights of hacking stuff together, and exploring the OAuth integration, I had the bones for a new project. That project is, Starter Packs.

Check it out and let me know what you think. I hope you find some interesting Starter Packs and people, and will follow along for the journey. You can follow the project on Blueskey, @starterpacks.net. I have a bunch more plans for it, but next up is getting OAuth/account management integrated into the site to unlock some basic follow and Starter Pack management actions.

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Bluesky @ryanhefner.com and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplay.fm.

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Episode Transcript

Ryan (00:01):
Hey. How's it going? I'm Ryan Hefner, and this is the All
Play podcast. So it's been acouple weeks since my last
update, and it's not that Ihaven't been up doing stuff. I
guess I just really it's beenhard to find the time to record
during the day.
I work down here in the basementand, we moved our laundry room

(00:25):
down here. And so a lot oftimes, there's a washing machine
or dryer machine or washer ordryer running through the day,
and and that can't get picked upon the mic. Probably not really
my real excuse. I think, betweenclient work and also kind of, I
guess, kind of getting, likealso trying to just, like, make

(00:47):
work on personal project stuff.I guess I've just been getting a
little bit distracted andhaven't made time, for this
podcast, but gonna try to changethat.
I might actually do a couplehere right now. It's, 4:19 in
the AM, and I woke up at around2:40 or 3 o'clock, and I just

(01:08):
couldn't go back to bed. Triedto lay there for about an hour,
couldn't get do it. So we'rehere. And, I guess maybe a part
of that is just because I'm kindof excited about this new
project that I've been workingon for, I guess I mean, I guess
it's probably been 2 or 3 weeks.

(01:29):
I ended up getting more intoBluesky . There seems to be you
know, there was a big wave ofpeople moving from Twitter to
Bluesky , or maybe not movingfrom Twitter to Bluesky , but
just getting more involved inBluesky post elections. And, I
don't know. There's justsomething about the energy over
there. It feels fresh.

(01:50):
It kinda feels like the originalTwitter back in the day when the
algorithm wasn't so involved in,trying to serve stuff up.
Obviously, they don't reallyhave ads and other things like
that that are kind of getting inthe way and and, and distracting
you or, you know, getting in theway of the the people that

(02:14):
you're following and whatthey're posting. I mean, I'm
mostly just a I don't reallylive in the discover stuff or
any of these other feeds, but itis kinda cool that you can
actually configure and add yourown feeds. So, like, they I
think they have a a quietposters one where it's, like,
people who just kind of, like,don't post that often, but when

(02:36):
they do, that way you can justkinda see that feed. So I don't
I mean, actually, that's justthe real exciting thing about it
to me is this whole, thepossibilities of the platform
and the fact that the API issolid and open and free, they

(02:56):
have a fire hose, and, there'sjust a lot of capabilities.
And, actually, one of the thingsthat I think is most exciting
about it, at least from abeginner because this is, I
think, how I was able to kindaget up and running quickly on,
Blue Sky was the, the conceptthat they have of these starter

(03:19):
packs, which is really justlists. But, you know, they kinda
they they bundle them in a wayto where you can either follow
all or or just see, you know,people who are on these lists. I
haven't used the follow all toooften, but I actually have been
starting to do that a little bitmore because I figure, why not?

(03:39):
Just follow follow everyonewho's in this kind of curated
list that's amongst people whoyou're interested in. If, you
know, over time, if either Imean, the reality is fewer
people post than, than you thanyou really think.
There's there's, you know, the1% are the 1, you know, and I'm

(04:02):
not talking about, like,financial 1%, but the the the
the majority activity is from,like, you know, 1% of the people
on the platform. So I mean, overfollowing isn't too bad as long
as it doesn't get too noisy ordistract you. But looking into
starter packs, I was like, man,there's there's a lot of value

(04:24):
here, and I wanted to know more.Like, I wanted to, I mean, 1, I
I was actually getting added toa few starter packs. And at the
same time, I it would have beennice to know that I was added to
a starter pack.
Right now, Bluesky doesn'treally offer that. I guess,

(04:46):
also, maybe I would like to knowif I ever get removed from a
starter pack. Like, maybe theperson who's curating this thing
doesn't feel like I I fallwithin this category of, of what
they're trying to do. So, Ithink that is an interesting
discovery or, like, aninteresting opportunity,
regarding, like, around starterpacks and making it a little bit

(05:09):
more, available to people to toknow what what starter packs
they're in and and whetherthey've been removed from them
or not. I also think there's aninteresting possibility of
understanding in what context issomeone following me.
Are they following me directdirectly from my profile? Are
they following me from withinthe context of another starter

(05:31):
pack? Again, at first, I thoughtthis was available via the
Bluesky API, but, and actuallywas probably one of the reason,
which I'll I'll get to in asecond, was one of the reasons
that sparked me even, exploring,building a a little tool or app

(05:52):
or utility on top of of Bluesky. But, to know, like, basically,
like, where how are peoplefinding me? And, like, where is
it?
Where are the majority of thesefollows coming from? It it's
probably not organic. It'sdefinitely gotta be a starter
pack. But which starter pack? Ithink that also then begs the
question like, well, if there'speople who are following me from

(06:14):
this starter pack, are theremaybe, like, other starter packs
that are similar to this onethat I should, reach out?
And then that's a whole otherand, again, so, you know, it's
advantageous to be on starterpacks because especially people
are following you. And if youget on a really popular one,
you're gonna have morefollowers. But granted, follow

(06:37):
just because you have followersdoesn't really matter. I mean,
it's a good thing. It's a greatthing.
But at the same time, there Iguess the the potential
alternate is that if someonefollows you from a, from a
starter pack, they they mightbe, like, less engaged as versus

(07:01):
someone who follows you directlyfrom your profile because
chances are the person whofollows you from your profile
saw something that you wrote oris interested in something that
you're doing and wants to kindof follow that journey. The
starter packs is a little bitmore of a shotgun approach of
just, like, following a bunch ofpeople. But I still think it's

(07:22):
cool because I think I stillthink the, the serendipity
levels are just high there. Sothat whole me miss, misreading
the API docs a little bit sentme down this path of, man, I
wanna build some more toolsaround starter packs. I I think

(07:45):
the concept is cool.
The the current flow within theapp of, like, creating a starter
pack is okay ish. Editing astarter pack is a little bit
more clunky because theybasically take you through,
like, the every step that you,did when you were creating the
starter pack. And so I thinkthere's some opportunities there

(08:09):
to streamline that. And, yeah.So I I dropped all my other
projects that I that I've beenworking on.
You know, I've been thrashingaround around trying to do
stuff. But, I rolled up mysleeves and, of course,
registered a few domain names. Igot starter packs starter packs
dot net, and I started to diginto the API. And, just started

(08:35):
kinda roughing out what, like, aa starter pack page would look
like, what, like, a profile pagewould look like, started to
create the Explore stuff, knewthat I wanted to have, you know,
the ability for someone tofollow directly from from
starter packs dot net as well aspotentially perform other

(08:58):
activities that would requireauth. So I started to dig into
the OAuth flow, which was alittle hairier than some of the
other OAuth flows that I've usedin the past and also partially
due to the dev experience, youknow, working within, like,
local host versus actuallyhaving this spun up and out on a

(09:20):
public server somewhere with,SSL and everything else.
But I was able to get, bothlocal and I think public OAuth
working. That's actually the thenext thing I'm moving to next.
But, the other really excitingthing was I was able to spin up
a quick fire hose consumer. Andso what that's allowed me to do

(09:43):
is there's actually no I I guessI should backtrack a little bit.
Right now, also on Blue Sky, theonly way to discover starter
packs is when either peopleshare them on the timeline or
you go to someone's profile andyou go over to their tab starter
packs and you see if they happento have any.
The, the unlock that starterpacks dot net is having is I'm

(10:04):
actually aggregating or at leasttrying to aggregate all of the
starter packs and making thoseto where you can kind of, like,
freely browse and search thosewithout having to dig through
profiles or rely on, links andfeeds. So yeah. I mean, that's
kind of the the the long andshort of it. I do have the fire

(10:25):
hose working. It's alreadyprocessed over let me see what
the the current running totalis.
72,328 starter packs that youcan search on. It's the the fire
hose is definitely I mean, Iguess I never really worked, you

(10:46):
know, Twitter had the fire hoseback in the day. I think now you
have to pay, like, 1,000 ofdollars a month in order to have
access to it. It definitely islike a at least from, like, a
developer standpoint, I feellike it's it's quite the
dopamine drug of, like, justunderstanding you have access to
all this raw data that's comingin, and and the possibilities

(11:07):
and the capabilities of it. It'ssuper cool.
The, and also just the fact thatthe platform is growing so fast
with so many users, being like,basically, it's growing a
1000000 users a day. I thinkthey're at 20,000,000 now. I
don't know. It's just reallyexciting. So that's an
basically, I'm I'm introducingthis new project that I'm

(11:30):
working on called, starterpacks, a very non original name.
Hopefully, maybe that. I'm notsure if that's gonna help me or
hurt me when it comes to the SEOfront. Hoping that it'll help
me. Right now, again, like,basically, everything that I
have up is just the browsingexperience. I'm gonna be adding

(11:50):
off and the ability to basicallydo more actions within starter
packs dot net to, both, like,follow individuals as well as
well as follow packs andpotentially also create and
manage the people that are, inthose packs by quickly being
able to add people to 1 ormultiple packs that you might

(12:14):
have and kinda spin those upand, as you're kinda browsing
around and and exploring.
I think the other cool thing toois it's really just a this is
kind of like, it's not go gearedon anything about the feed. It's
more of just like a communityexplorer. So from a pack,

(12:34):
obviously, you can see people,you can then dive into their
profile, you can see who theyfollow, who's following them,
you can start to dig into there.You can also see all the starter
packs. The, again, like the netnew feature that I plan on
adding on top of this is thiswhole what packs am I in.
So this is not a feature that'scurrently offered via, starter

(12:58):
packs or via Bluesky . Sorry.And that is where I think I
might be able to do, like, aslight. This is always I'm I'm
really kind of, like, strugglingon this one. I'm just I have a
feeling it's valuable.
I have a feeling people wouldpotentially pay for it. I'm not
sure how much. And at the sametime, I don't know. I I am a

(13:26):
little torn by it. The, I thinkthe one good thing though is I
feel like if if I'm able to makea little money on this one, I
can also give back to the opensource projects that I'm using
to to pull us all all the stufftogether, and also cover my
server cost and my time.

(13:47):
But, yeah. I think there ispotentially, like, a little bit
of a money play by both, gettingbasically, by subscribing, you
would get alerts when you'veeither been added or removed to
a starter pack. It would alsobasically just show you the
starter packs that you've beenincluded in. So it's kind of

(14:08):
almost like a little mysterything. I think I might be play
around with, like, a a weird wayto show, like, the fact that
you're in, you know, x number ofof packs.
Would you like to open up thosepacks kind of, you know, I guess
maybe like baseball card orPokemon or some sort of mystery

(14:30):
box style and see what see whatyou're in and then continue to
get updates, on those. I thinkthe stats around who's following
you there is interesting. I Ihave a few ideas on how I might
be able to kind of make a arough guess or estimate, but I'm
gonna have to definitely it'sgonna be some triangulation of

(14:53):
who what are the follows thatare coming in via the fire hose
and and who else, is beingfollowed within that context to
then give a rough estimate of,like, potentially which pack
you're being followed from.Because, again, Bluesky isn't
really surfacing exactly thefact that you are followed from
a from a starter pack versusnot. Who knows?

(15:16):
I mean, also, their I'm suretheir API is gonna be changing,
so maybe that information willstart coming or be available at
some point. But, again, I thinkit's just another value add that
I can provide. And, yeah, Idon't know. I'm just really
excited about it. I guess I'mgonna leave it there.
So, yeah, starter packs dot net.Check it out. You can follow it.

(15:40):
I'm gonna be start posting somejust, like, general updates,
about what's going on, onBluesky @starterpacks.net, which
is the handle, because I don'twanna be a broken record on my
own personal one where I couldjust keep kinda talking about,
but I probably will do that andcross post between the 2. And I

(16:03):
don't know.
It's just what I'm working on. Ialso have a bunch of other stuff
that I'm gonna get into, but I'mgonna save that for another one.
I'm already at 16 minutes. So,yeah, I'm just getting starter
packed over here. But,hopefully, you'll check it out.
I hope you find it interesting.I think it's cool. If you're a

(16:23):
developer, I think there'sthere's just a lot of
possibilities and capabilitieson Bluesky , and I'm sure, if
you're in if you're if you havethe the, you know, the I don't
know. I could I I imagine peopleare probably getting stoked on
it, which is like another thingjust creating excite excitement

(16:45):
over there at Bluesky . So,yeah, so I'm gonna wrap it
there.
I'm Ryan Hefner. This is the AllPlay podcast. Follow me on
Bluesky @ryanhefner.com. And, Ihave also set up the podcast. I
guess I'll have to start postingthe episodes over there as well.

(17:06):
It's, @allplay.fm . And, yeah,I'm gonna leave it there.
Alright. This is a long one.I'll try to make the next one a
little shorter.
Alright. Have a great one.Later.