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.