Implementing Bluesky

18 November 2024 • Persistent link: iarccum.org/?p=5093

As the IARCCUM.org website has developed, I have been adding little features that enhance the resources and assist people in sharing the material with colleagues and friends. A few years ago, I added social media links to each news post and, eventually, to each document as well. The social media links are supported by some back–end coding to ensure that Facebook, Twitter, and other sites can properly identify the titles and feature images for each page.

More recently, I have had misgivings about promoting the use of Twitter/X and even removed it from the site for a long period. I have now replaced it with Bluesky, a similar service that has no advertising and uses robust content controls.

On each page, there should be a Bluesky butterfly among the social icons. Clicking this link will open a Bluesky compose window where users can compose their own posts if they have a Bluesky account. Similarly, the Facebook, Messenger, Pocket, Email, and WhatsApp icons open their respective websites. These seem to be the most helpful icons at this time.

Note: Bluesky is still in development. One feature that does not yet work fully is the “compose link” that appears on this website. When clicking on the link a new window successfully opens, and the text box is populated with the URL of the target news story. However, Bluesky does not immediately convert this into a photo and a description or caption (known as a link card). However, if you type a blank space immediately before the URL, the search for the link card will initiate. Bluesky is apparently working on this.