FAQ

What is this?

It's a simple application that allows a user to embed a BlueSky timeline in their website, similar to what you can do with other social media sites. I store some timeline html in a CDN, and then I give you a script to embed on your site. That script reaches out, snags the appropriate HTML, and formats it so it looks pretty.

Who Made It?

I'm Christopher Buecheler, a full-stack web developer who works primarily in TypeScript. You should absolutely follow me on BlueSky!

y u do dis?

I love BlueSky, I wanted to get a bit more familiar with the At Protocol, I thought it'd be fun to create something open source, I wanted a portfolio piece, I was bored … whole bunch of reasons!

How do I use it?

Just follow the directions on the home page!

Didn't someone else already do this?

Sure. Someone also made cars before Hyundai did it, but that didn't stop them. My approach is different from existing approaches for a few of reasons. The first is that I wanted something that would display something even if the BlueSky API temporarily went down (AWS is less likely to encounter such issues). The second is I wanted to be able to generate custom CSS on a per-user basis so that only power users need tinker with the code to make visual changes. The third is that I wanted to work exclusively in vanilla JS / CSS (well, okay, I worked in TypeScript and React, but the output is intentionally and explicitly vanilla - no 3rd party libraries needed, not even AtProto). The fourth is that I wanted to teach myself some stuff about generating and serving static content from CloudFront.

Can I contribute?

Sure! The whole thing's open source. Here's the front-end repo, and here's the back-end repo.

Can I advertise on your website and/or in people's timelines?

What? No. Go away!

Can I compensate you in some way?

You could hire me to consult for your startup, SaaS business, or the like. Or you could kick five bucks my way via Kofi (coming soon). Or you could give me props on LinkedIn. I'm not picky, but I'm definitely appreciative! Also, as previously mentioned, you should follow me on BlueSky. Everyone loves to see that follower count increase.

Are you storing my timeline data for nefarious purposes?

The only thing that gets stored, and you can verify this by perusing the source code mentioned above, is your BlueSky ID and a flat HTML file containing your last thirty BlueSky posts (including reposts and quote posts).

Nonetheless, I'd like to delete my data

You have two options. The first is to delete your BlueSky account. The system automatically nukes any data from nonexistent accounts. If you'd prefer not to pursue the nuclear option, you can get in touch with me and I can manually remove you. Once I get AtProto oAuth working, you'll be able to do it yourself, I'm still working on this and wanted to get to beta before worrying about adding in oAuth.

Please keep in mind, however, that anyone can access a feed via the API, if they know someone's BlueSky handle … which is prominently displayed on everyone's BlueSky timeline. It's public info on the web. This is trueeven if you have your profile set to viewable by logged-in users only. It's still all there in the AtProto firehose. BlueSky is not (currently) built to be private in any real capacity.

Why didn't you use [technology that I particularly like]?

Well, there's like a hundred million ways to approach building a web app and no one's going to make the exact same choices. I chose tech and approaches I am familiar with, enjoy working with, etc. You may notice that the embed code is pure vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No web components, no embeds, no third party libraries. Not even jQuery! That's just an example of one of countless tech choices I made while putting this whole thing together.

I have a question not answered in this FAQ

I guess I must not get it that frequently, then! Feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to answer it. BlueSky DMs are good, but I'm not hard to find on the web either.