Bluesky Meetup in Osaka 2025 Top Prize Idea: Building Communities Through Domains

I'd like to introduce the idea that won first place at the "Bluesky Meetup in Osaka 2025" ideathon held on June 28, 2025. This concept, proposed by Hirofumi Ukawa ( @ukawa.bsky.social ), offers a fascinating approach to community formation that leverages Bluesky's design philosophy.

The Core Idea: From Personal Identity to Community Identity

As many of you know, Bluesky allows users to use custom domains as their handles. This idea takes that feature beyond mere "personal identification" and applies it to "community formation".

A Concrete Example

Imagine a community called "Bluesky Photo Club" acquires the domain @bskyphoto.blue. Members who support this community could then use handles like:

@john.bskyphoto.blue

@tommy.bskyphoto.blue

@sarah.bskyphoto.blue

The Subdomain Approach: Lowering Barriers to Entry

For communities where acquiring a custom domain is difficult, a subdomain system under Bluesky's official domain is also proposed:

@john.bskyphoto.bsky.social

@mike.bookclub.bsky.social

@lisa.running.bsky.social

This approach significantly reduces both cost and technical barriers.

Why This Idea is Revolutionary

1. Interest-Based "Persona Switching"

Rather than being constrained by the modern Western concept of a "singular identity," this system allows us to naturally express the diverse facets we all possess.

Professional: @yourname.company.domain

Photography hobby: @yourname.bskyphoto.bsky.social

Local community: @yourname.osaka-community.bsky.social

The same person can appropriately switch between contexts, presenting different faces as needed.

2. Creating Beneficial Filter Bubbles

While "filter bubbles" are typically discussed negatively, in this system they function positively because they form within intentionally chosen communities.

When people use the photography club domain, there's an immediate shared interest. The quality of interactions naturally improves.

3. Mitigating Discoexistence

On social media, conflicts often arise from differences in political positions or values. However, with communities dispersed by interest, unnecessary conflicts can be avoided while focusing on constructive dialogue.

The Path to Implementation

Phase 1: Start with Subdomain System

Begin with a prototype in the format @community.bsky.social, which has lower technical barriers.

Benefits:

Low cost

Implementable with existing technology

Can improve while observing user responses

Phase 2: Support Custom Domains

As communities mature, support custom domain acquisition. Evolve toward fully decentralized communities.

Benefits:

Community independence

Freedom in branding

Stronger sense of belonging

The Future This Idea Envisions

Traditional social networks have been built on the premise of "one person, one account," cramming all human relationships into a single timeline. As a result, they've often become suffocating spaces where work colleagues, hobby friends, family, and friends all mix together.

This idea aims to create a more comfortable social experience by affirming human multifacetedness and naturally "distributing" interactions according to interests.

Rather than the Western modern concept of a "unique identity," it affirms the Eastern approach of having "diverse faces depending on context." That may be the essence of this idea.

To summarize in one sentence: "By creating communities through domains and allowing people to have multiple faces based on their interests, we can realize a distributed yet comfortable sphere of interaction."

Taking Bluesky's design philosophy of decentralization beyond just the technical level to the community level. This wonderful idea hints at such possibilities.

This article is based on the idea proposed by Hirofumi Ukawa (@ukawa.bsky.social) that won first place at the Bluesky Meetup in Osaka 2025 ideathon.