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Bluesky Tests Dislikes and Social‑Proximity Ranking as User Base Reaches 40 Million

The company says iterative trials will personalize conversations to curb low‑quality replies.

Overview

  • A private dislikes beta will begin rolling out to signal posts users want to see less, shaping personalization and lightly influencing reply rankings without global effects.
  • A new social neighborhoods system will prioritize replies from accounts closer to a user’s network to make conversations feel more relevant and less prone to misunderstandings.
  • An updated model will detect toxic, spammy, off‑topic, or bad‑faith replies and downrank them in threads, search results, and notifications to reduce visibility.
  • Tapping Reply on top‑level posts will open the full thread before composing, and a refreshed reply‑settings interface will surface controls over who can respond.
  • Bluesky frames these as measurable experiments that enhance user‑level control on a decentralized network, while some commentators warn the approach could reinforce filter bubbles and sidestep broader moderation demands.