I added a Bluesky comment section to my blog

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Bluesky as a Blog Comment Backend

  • Many commenters like using Bluesky replies as a lightweight comment system, especially for static blogs.
  • Advantages noted: no need to run a server, existing social identities, free API access, and ability to style/embed via simple JS or web components.
  • Others describe similar setups using Mastodon, GitHub Discussions (via Giscus), or email-based and file-based comment flows integrated into static site generators.
  • Several people emphasize workflows where comments are manually reviewed and then baked into the static site, trading convenience for permanence and total control.

Alternatives and Requirements for Comment Systems

  • One blogger lists strong requirements: full long-form posts, code blocks, screenshots, static hosting, strong spam handling, zero cost, sustainable business model, and moderator editability.
  • Disqus is used reluctantly because it mostly meets these needs despite its flaws.
  • Giscus/utterances are criticized for GitHub’s broad “act on your behalf” permissions and reliance on someone else’s infra.
  • Some suggest clever static-friendly tricks (Cloudflare Workers, KV, Telegram notifications, PR-based moderation).

Decentralization, Protocols, and Platform Politics

  • There’s skepticism toward for-profit platforms, with fears Bluesky will repeat Twitter’s trajectory.
  • Some argue Mastodon “had its shot” but is too confusing or fragmented; others strongly defend it as a successful, stable, million-user fediverse community that doesn’t need mass adoption.
  • Concerns about Mastodon: instance lock-in, convoluted migration, resource-heavy servers, weak discovery.
  • Nostr is mentioned as key-based and closer to user desires but criticized for spam and not being truly P2P.
  • AT Protocol is seen by some as a good decentralization compromise: portable data (PDS), easy backup, cheap independent aggregators; skeptics question how meaningful this is if most people stay on the main Bluesky aggregator.
  • Debate over how decentralized Bluesky really is, with some saying things have improved (self-hosted PDS, Blacksky) and others unconvinced.

Moderation, Law, and Safety

  • Several people raise moderation concerns: how to exclude undesirable replies from the embedded thread.
  • Suggested solutions:
    • Only display comments the author “likes.”
    • Use follower-only replies.
    • Use Bluesky’s hidden-reply API flags.
    • Run custom labelers/filters to hide posts by category (e.g., hate, porn).
  • EU hate-speech liability is mentioned; responses say small sites are unlikely targets, but some would avoid hosting hate speech regardless.
  • A few commenters reject having comments at all due to previous spam and abuse experiences.

Ecosystem and Adoption Discussion

  • Some see Bluesky as “nothing special” or politically monocultural; others note its openness and relatively friendly API compared with X/Twitter’s paywalled API.
  • There’s a meta-discussion about success metrics: whether alternatives like Mastodon need mainstream scale or simply a stable, happy niche user base.