Conversation

I have opinions on the starter packs on bsky [rant incoming, read at your own peril]:
I consider Mastodon my main Social, but I do have an account on bsky, and I have it since nearly the beginning.
After the US elections there was a big influx of new people on bsky, and a new useful-looking tool appeared: stater packs. A starter pack is a list of people you can put together which can be followed all at once. It is objectively useful when you have a ton of new people all arriving on a new social at once, as they will likely have troubles finding their way in the midst of a lot of other equally lost people. The interface to create one is atrocious, but they do their job. I created one for Physics in the hope to help newcomers to find a bunch of people posting about Physics to follow, and I think I succeeded.
Problem: in just about zero seconds people started behaving like being in a starter pack was some sort of golden medal, some "being part of the cool kids club". Even worse, a lot of people started behaving like being part of a starter pack was a shortcut to get a lot of followers without ever having to post anything interesting.
And now I have seen people starting to talk about the "duty" to curate those lists, like they were anything of actual importance instead of a tool useful in a very specific situation.

I think I will delete the starter pack I created, as it has outlived its usefulness.